Picks of the week
The Fall, Wednesday, 8.30pm Rialto
This 2016 documentary looks at one of the most controversial sporting episodes of the 1980s. On August 11, 1984, 12 athletes lined up for the women’s 3000m race at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Only two really stood a chance to win – Team USA’s hot favourite Mary Decker and the 18-year-old footwear-free South African Zola Budd. ‘‘An intriguing look at the ugly, inglorious side to the Olympics,’’ wrote The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw.
Bafta Awards, Monday, 8.30pm UKTV
Joanna Lumley hosts the 71st edition of the United Kingdom’s annual night of cinematic celebration for the first time. Leading the nominations this year are The Fall looks at when Mary Decker met Zola Budd at he 1984 Olympics. Darkest Hour, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water.
The Vietnam War Monday, 8.30pm Maori TV
Premiere of Ken Burns’ Peter Coyotenarrated 10-part, 17-and-a-half-hour series about America’s most-controversial military engagement. Ten years in the making, it cost around US$30m to create. ‘‘It comes so close to becoming not just impressive but important, challenging, even agenda-setting,’’ wrote New York magazine’s Matt Zoeller Seitz.
Queen – Rock the World, Monday, 8.30pm Prime
Made to mark the 40th anniversary of the release of their sixth album, News of the World, this 2017 BBC documentary features footage captured by BBC presenter Bob Harris in 1977 as he followed the band on their groundbreaking tour of North America. ‘‘Really committed Queen fans are the ones that would most adore this film, but it was also fascinating historical record of how successful late-70s rock was concocted, managed and performed – and highly valuable as a portrait of [Freddy] Mercury’s visionary talent,’’ wrote The Telegraph’s Lucy Jones
The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer, Thursday, 7.30pm History
Almost 50 years after his reign of terror, the coded messages of one of America’s most vicious serial killers have never been truly deciphered. Now, Sal LaBarbera, the most-successful homicide detective in the LAPD, will try to hunt him down with the help of a crack codebreaking team.
– James Croot