Powerful story that delves deep

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BBC 2, 9pm

WHERE would young British male acting be without The History Boys? All of the original cast of Alan Bennett’s National Theatre hit – including James Corden, Dominic Cooper and Russell Tovey were among the original line-up of Oxbridge wannabes, while Matt Smith appeared in a revival a year after its successful run.

Sacha Dhawan was also part of the 2004 cast alongside Corden, Cooper and Tovey. But, while they soon enjoyed success in the States, he stayed in the UK a little longer, eventually journeying to Hollywood to star in Netflix’s Iron Fist, another in a long line of Marvel Comics adaptations.

Between The History Boys on stage and Iron Fist, Dhawan has kept himself busy with a wide range of British TV projects. In the first run of Last Tango in Halifax he played the much-younger lover of Alan’s daughter Gillian (Nicola Walker) and he portrayed Doctor Who’s first director, Waris Hussein, in An Adventure in Space and Time, which focused on the sci-fi serial’s origins.

He also took the lead role in Mark Gatiss’s MR James adaptation The Tractate Middoth, appeared in 24: Live Another Day, the second series of Line of Duty, the final run of Mr Selfridge and was one of the stars of Channel 4’s short-lived and vastly underrated comedy drama Not Safe For Work.

Now he’s back in the UK to star in The Boy With The Topknot, an adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s critically acclaimed memoir of his childhood in 1980s Wolverhampton, and his efforts to lead his own life as an adult.

“After reading Sathnam’s memoir, I was so excited to

Himmut Singh Dhatt and Sacha Dhawan in Sathnam Sanghera’s critically acclaimed memoir of his childhood.

hear about the adaptation,” said the Stockport-born actor as filming commenced a few months ago. “Not only is it a beautiful story, but it’s also funny and immensely moving.

“I feel incredibly proud to be playing Sathnam, and look forward to telling a story that has already touched so many people.”

Born in 1976 to Punjabi parents who had emigrated to the UK in 1968, Sanghera is a second-generation Indian who, after finishing school, studied English language and literature at Cambridge University.

Much of the book takes place when the adult Sanghera moves to London and makes his mind up to tell his Silk family that he has no intention of taking part in an arranged

marriage. At the same time, he’s forced to confront painful family secrets involving his father and sister.

“This powerful drama tells a personal story about growing up in the West Midlands and explores first-hand Sanghera’s experience of mental illness within a family,” says Piers Wenger, controller of BBC drama.

“I’m so grateful to Sathnam for allowing us to tell his story. With Mick Ford’s beautifully touching script and the cast and production team that have come together to make this drama, it promises to be an unmissable film.”

Joanna Vanderham, Deepti Naval and Anupam Kher also star, while Himmut Singh Dhatt plays the young Sathnam. BBC 4, 9pm

In June 1951, the UK Government was forced to admit that two Foreign Office diplomats had disappeared. One, Donald Maclean, was about to be questioned over passing secrets to the Russians, but the other, Guy Burgess, had seemingly escaped suspicion, collecting powerful friends – and lovers. Director George Carey explores how

Burgess became the most flamboyant member of ring of a privileged Cambridge students who joined the Communists in 1930s, and what his story says about the class system, sexual hypocrisy and sheer incompetence of the British establishment at the time. STV, 9pm

After the recent Gordon Ramsay on Cocaine, ITV is bringing us an even more unlikely celebrity drug expose. It finds Birds of a Feather’s Linda Robson, ex-EastEnder Pam St Clement, actor Christopher Biggins, retired footballer John Fashanu and darts supremo Bobby George taking a closer look at the debate surrounding the legalisation of marijuana. Supporters say the drug can help ease the symptoms of conditions including arthritis, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, but there’s also evidence to suggest that frequent and prolonged use can be detrimental to our mental and physical health. So to learn more, the celebs are taking a magical mystery tour across the US.