RUGBY UNION

Six Nations: England v France

Saturday, ITV, 4.15pm (kick off 4.45pm)

Polyglot expletives, venomous hits and a centuries old grudge – it’s Le Crunch time. This classic fixture between reigning champions England and in-form France was tipped as a potential title decider. Instead, with Eddie Jones’s men capitulating to Scotland and Wales, their best hope is to spoil the party for Les Bleus. France have not won at Twickenham since 2005, although they went close in December’s Autumn Nations Cup, pushing England into extra time with a much depleted side. Title favourites Wales face Italy in Rome (ITV, 2.15pm) ahead of their decisive meeting with France next week. On Sunday, Scotland host Ireland at Murrayfield (BBC One, 3pm), with Ireland’s Jacob Stockdale returning from injury.

BBC Two, 9.45pm

You won’t have heard of Linda Lipnack Kuehl, but her short life and Billie Holiday’s legacy became entwined in a way so strange it gives this documentary on Lady Day another layer of intrigue. Kuehl was a New York journalist who devoted eight years to researching Holiday’s life for a biography that was never published, conducting more than 150 interviews with Holiday’s friends and colleagues throughout the 1970s. Kuehl’s audio tapes have been scrutinised and pertinent clips assembled by film-maker James Erskine to weave this intimate portrait of the doomed singer that also celebrates her remarkable talent. He lets us savour

clips of Holiday singing her most affecting songs, God Bless the Child and Strange Fruit, alongside audio of her press interviews.

Kuehl’s tapes contain gripping testimony about Holiday from the likes of Tony Bennett and Count Basie, plus her cousin, schoolmates, former lovers and the FBI agents who hounded her over her drug abuse. The picture Erskine paints is of a woman who “did what she wanted to do with a vengeance,” according to one friend. This may have been what drew Kuehl to her subject, possibly sacrificing her life in the process. Their dual stories make for an engaging narrative. Vicki Power

The life of the troubled Blues singer is explored in this film