TV & Radio
Highlights and listings
DOCUMENTARY Easyjet: Inside the Cockpit
This three-part documentary series narrated by Stephen Fry follows new recruits as they train to become fully qualified pilots. British passengers took more flights last year than ever before, and the number of people travelling worldwide has increased. However, there is currently a shortage of pilots so, in an effort to find more trainees, the UK’S biggest airline easyjet launches the largest recruitment drive in its history. Their efforts are focused particularly on increasing the number of applications from women, as currently only three per cent of pilots are female. With unprecedented filming access, this series looks inside the cockpit and follows the future pilots from the classroom, onto the simulator and eventually to their first flight ensuring hundreds of paying passengers reach their destination safely. Will the reality of their chosen career live up to the dream of flying high?
Monday, STV, 9pm
COMEDY
Quacks
In this raucous medical comedy set in Victorian London about four pioneering friends and rivals fighting to make a mark on the world Robert (Rory Kinnear) is a domineering, showman surgeon – a rockstar of his age – who’s almost as brilliant as he thinks he is. He can pack out an operating theatre and take off a leg in 92 seconds. But after a botched amputation, Robert is put under pressure by the Royal Physican, Dr Hendrick (Rupert Everett). So John (Tom Basden) – a drug-addled dentist who’s trying to create the world’s first anaesthetic, convinces Robert to use potentially lethal ether in a prestigious and pioneering operation.
Tuesday, BBC2, 10pm
REALITY
Saving Lives At Sea
Every day around the UK and Ireland, the lifesavers of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) put their lives on the line to try and save complete strangers. Saving Lives At
Sea tells the story of the volunteer lifeboat crews and lifeguards of the RNLI who rescue thousands of people and save hundreds of lives around our coastline and on the River Thames every year.
Using footage filmed with lifeboat crews and lifeguards carrying cameras, and welcoming filmmakers into their everyday lives, this series takes us right into the heart of the action, capturing the unpredictable work of the RNLI in never-before-seen detail.
Wednesday, BBC2, 8pm
DRAMA
Valkyrien
This Norwegian drama about a surgeon, Ravn, who refuses to accept that his terminally ill wife cannot be saved, and takes matters into his own hands is our latest slice of Scandi noir. With the aid of an unhinged former patient, he turns a disused bunker underneath an underground station into his own illegal clinic where he can treat his comatose wife himself. However, his search for a cure requires money, so he treats people who can’t seek medical help through official channels, from refugees to criminal gangs.
Tomorrow, Channel 4, 9pm
FOOD The Big Family Cooking Showdown
A brand new 12-part competitive food show presented by Zoe Ball and Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, The Big Family Cooking Showdown celebrates favourite family recipes being made in kitchens up and down the country, meeting 16 teams of passionate home cooks from across Britain.
In each heat, two family teams go head to head to impress the judges, Michelin-starred chef Giorgio Locatelli and renowned cookery teacher Rosemary Shrager, as they are tasked with a series of challenges both in the studio and in their own homes. ■
Tuesday, BBC2, 8pm