Satellite choice
POWER PLAY House Of Cards, Season 5, Netflix
KEVIN SPACEY’S President Underwood returns for a new series, demanding war and branding his rivals cowards. A persuasive portrait of the way politicians use fear to advance their agenda, this — occasionally — riveting drama now looks surprisingly dull next to real life!
NEW MOVIE Last Cab To Darwin, 5pm, Sky Premiere
MOVING Australian drama about a terminally ill taxi driver (Michael Caton) who makes a days-long road trip to a euthanasia clinic. Despite the subject, it’s life-affirming stuff.
GEEKY FUN The Joy Of Techs, 8pm, Dave
MARCUS BRIGSTOCKE (grumpy, low-tech) and friend Alexis Conran (cheery, high-tech) go to the Alps and test gadgets in the first of a very entertaining new series. Some of Conran’s gadgets are inflatable (including a swish sled), and Brigstocke takes considerable satisfaction in puncturing them.
BIZARRE FUN Taskmaster, 9pm, Dave
UNSETTLING scenes unfold during the first of this week’s challenges, in which the comics have to fit a stuffed camel through the smallest possible gap. Mel Giedroyc proves to be especially cunning here, while at the opposite end of the scale, Noel Fielding wears gold cowboy boots for a football challenge.
SUPERHEROES Supergirl/The Flash, 8pm/9pm, Sky 1
THESE DC superhero shows both finish in fine style tonight, and both will be returning. Superman is in town for the Supergirl finale, in which his cousin takes on Rhea. In The Flash, Barry has a showdown with Savitar. The Arrow finale follows on Thursday, at 9pm.
DRAMA Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, 9pm, 5 USA
‘IS THE monster from the set a monster in real life?’ In a new-toFreeview episode, The West Wing’s Bradley Whitford delivers a riveting performance as a tyrannical TV producer accused of molesting his child. ‘I don’t talk to extras,’ he tells Benson when she arrives on set with questions.
FREEVIEW ACTIONER The Taking Of Pelham, 9pm, Sony Movie Channel
TONY SCOTT’S remake of the tense 1974 thriller casts Denzel Washington in the Walter Matthau role. He’s a New York City transport worker who has to avert disaster when John Travolta’s madman takes control of a subway train and holds its passengers hostage.
FANTASY FLICK X-Men: Days Of Future Past, 9pm, Film4
TIME-HOPPING episode in the Marvel franchise in which Hugh Jackman’s indestructible Wolverine travels back to 1973, where the stakes are high — and his sideburns fit in nicely . . .
SERIES ENDS Cooper’s Treasure, 10pm, Discovery
THE conclusion to a bewitching, real-life hunt for gold that began with a treasure map made in space, in 1963, by astronaut Gordon Cooper. There’s been a real magic to this series, and an emotional underpinning that makes it a gem in a genre of oversold shows.