DR JACK AND MR NICHOLSON

Sky Arts, 10pm

Unpredictable, elusive, enigmatic – some of the more predictable words used to describe Jack Nicholson’s appeal in this deft French profile which picks apart his career playing charismatic losers, drifters and outsiders for proof that he was essentially, playing a version of himself. GO

There’s a Valentine’s Day theme to the return of Greg James’s archive radio feast, Rewinder (Saturday, Radio 4, 10.30am). James digs out a range of lost eye-opening moments from the BBC Radio archive, including some illuminating romance content from 1961 featuring Britain’s leading greetings card manufacturer, described as a man who “sells love and makes it pay”. How romantic. He shares some Valentine’s Day poetry from his top verse-writer, too.

Comedian Rachel Parris (incidentally one of the most delightful panellists to appear on I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue in recent times) is a big Jane Austen fan. In Rachel Parris: Austensibly Feminist (Sunday, Radio 4, 7.15pm), Parris considers Austen’s oeuvre from an irreverent feminist perspective. What can the Bennet sisters tell us about sisterhood? And what have Austen’s women got in common with women in the 21st century? And, on Valentine’s Day, what can Austen teach us about love? See feature, p6.

More soberingly, in Life Chances (Monday to Friday,

Radio 4, 1.45pm), journalist Athar Ahmad revisits his childhood at a school in west London that everyone locally described as “rough”, and explores the context for the tragic fact that three of his former classmates haven’t made it to the age that he is now, because they were murdered. In this series, Ahmad considers issues surrounding multiculturalism, identity and everyday life for communities in the UK like the one where he grew up, and pieces together what happened to lead his classmates to their deaths.

Has the pandemic scuppered Boris Johnson’s plans to “level up”

Britain following Brexit? He won the 2019 General Election on promises to tackle regional inequality, but lockdowns and a health crisis have shocked the economy and reshaped political priorities. Can the country be rebuilt after devastating lockdowns, while actually delivering improvements to the lives of citizens? In England’s Level Best (Tuesday, Radio 4, 11am), Sebastian Payne speaks to politicians, business owners and residents in areas that proved decisive to the Conservatives’ election victory, to ask what now needs to be done and how.

One of the richest men in the world has some ideas for tackling climate change, as outlined in a new book serialised this week. In Book of the Week: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates (Monday to Friday, Radio 4FM, 9.45am), Gates proposes a plan to bring Earth to net-zero emissions before we start to feel the very worst effects of climate change.

Making a welcome return to Radio 4’s comedy slot for Between Ourselves with Marian Keyes (Thursday, Radio 4, 6.30pm), Marian Keyes reads selections from her non-fiction writing in conversation with her friend, the actress Tara Flynn. Recorded from Keyes’s home in County Dublin, the theme of the first episode is adventure, including the author’s experiences living in Patagonia and a memorable encounter with rock star Robert Plant.

And in Britain’s Fascist Thread (Friday, Radio 4, 11am), historian Camilla Schofield charts the history of fascism in Britain across 100 years, arguing that fascism in Britain across disparate organisations and leaders is in fact an unbroken thread. In this first episode of three, she looks at the rally staged by the British Union of Fascists in June 1934 as a starting point for understanding fascism before the Second World War.

i Jane Austen’s feminist credentials are weighed-up by fan and comedian Rachel Parris

j Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change