DRAMA

DEDICATED Sheer hard work has made Usain the greatest athlete ever

“THE greatest athlete who ever lived” isn’t a title anyone acquires without an insane amount of hard work and dedication.

BBC2, 9pm This compelling and visually stunning two-part drama is from best-selling British novelist Patrick Gale, and part of the Beeb’s Gay Britannia season.

Set over 60 years, it tells two very different love stories – generations and worlds apart, but linked by a family, a painting and a long-kept secret.

It starts in the present day, when we see an elderly woman (Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave) talking to her grandson before the story goes back to 1944 and the chaos of the Second World War, as Captain Michael BBC1, 8.30pm Berryman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) saves the life of Thomas March (James McArdle) and the pair find themselves uncontrollably drawn to one another.

As the war ends, Michael goes to find Thomas and the pair spend a perfect week in a remote cottage – living happily as a couple in love – before he must return to London to be with Flora, the girl he had promised to marry.

However strong their love, this was a time when being homosexual was not just disapproved of, but a criminal offence for which men were imprisoned.