Seven Days

mike mulvihill’s guide to the week’s TV

SATURDAY

JONATHAN EDWARDS – ONE GIANT LEAP 5.30pm, bbc2 ★★★★ On August 7, 1995 in Gothenburg, Sweden, Jonathan Edwards set the world record in the triple jump – twice – and it still stands today. Twenty-five years on, Jonathan looks back at this remarkable achievement.

ROLLING IN IT 6.25pm, itv ★★★ Stephen Mulhern hosts this new game show in which contestants are paired up with some famous faces. The aim of the game is to roll coins down a moving conveyor belt towards slots worth varying sums of money. Hit the slots, and they bank the cash – but go down the ‘bankrupt’ slot, and they could lose it all.

TOTAL WIPEOUT: FREDDIE & PADDY TAKEOVER 7.10pm, bbc1 ★★★★ New, six-part series featuring classic episodes of the challenge game show, with fresh commentary provided by Top Gear presenters Freddie Flintoff and Paddy Mcguinness.

CASUALTY 8.40pm, bbc1 ★★★ David treats a patient in a mental health crisis, which brings back painful memories for him, but an old friend offers him reassurance. Ethan, meanwhile, faces up to his own past, with a little help from Fenisha.

MEGHAN & HARRY: THE NEW REVELATIONS 9pm, ch5 ★★★★ Featuring exclusive interviews with royal insiders, this documentary promises to tell the real story of the past two tumultuous years in the lives of the controversial couple.

SUNDAY

SONGS OF PRAISE

1.15pm, bbc1 ★★★ The Reverend Kate Bottley visits Coughton Court in Warwickshire to learn about the founding of the National Trust, and there are new musical performances by male vocal quartet Tessera and singer Shaun Escoffery.

BEST OF TOP GEAR

6pm, bbc2 ★★★★ An hour of highlights from the two most recent series of the motoring magazine show, which saw Paddy Mcguinness and Freddie Flintoff taking over as presenters.

COUNTRYFILE

7pm, bbc1 ★★★★

The theme this week is weird and wonderful as Ellie Harrison visits Broadway Tower in the Cotswolds – a folly that sums up British eccentricity – and presents offbeat reports from the archives, including Anita Rani’s visit to a farmer growing a crop of chairs.

INSIDE LEGOLAND 8pm, ch5 ★★★ Take an access-all-areas tour of one of the UK’S most popular family theme parks, and every child’s perfect day out. But what does it take to keep Legoland Windsor running? This four-part documentary meets some of the hundreds of employees, including the lucky few who spend their days building the park from millions of real Lego bricks.

EQUATOR 8pm, SKY NATURE ★★★★ See Showtime, page 12.

A SUITABLE BOY 9pm, bbc1 ★★★★ No boy is suitable for her daughter, it seems, and now, Rupa is concerned by Lata’s growing friendship with poet Amit Chatterji. And so, she enlists the help of a friend to find her headstrong daughter a husband in the third part of Andrew Davies’s vibrant adaptation of Vikram Seth’s novel.

MONDAY

COUNTDOWN 2.10pm, ch4 ★★★ Fans of the long-running letters and numbers quiz rejoice, as this week sees the first of a new run of episodes since filming was suspended due to coronavirus. Nick Hewer will be relieved to be back in the chair.

DEVON AND CORNWALL 8pm, ch4 ★★★ After last week’s lobster festival, Clovelly fisherman Stephen Perham looks forward to the herring season, while Lanlivery potato farmer Steve Dustow – who makes vodka with spuds – is working on a new line of gin.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN IRAQ 9pm, bbc2 ★★★★ The final part of this absorbing series charts the rise of Islamic State, the militant group that filled a vacuum left when US troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011. Witnesses recall one of the most brutal regimes the world has ever known, where daily executions, handcutting and stonings were the order of the day.

UNSAID STORIES 9pm, itv ★★★★ Showing nightly, these four new short dramas were inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, and were recently filmed in London. Look out for Adelayo Adedayo (The Capture), Nicholas Pinnock (Marcella) and Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You) in the cast.

THE YORKSHIRE JOBCENTRE 9pm, ch4 ★★★★ With unprecedented access to Southern House, a bustling Jobcentre Plus in the heart of Leeds, this observational series meets some of Yorkshire’s unemployed as they try – with varying degrees of effort – to find jobs.

TUESDAY

EASTENDERS: SHIRLEY CONFESSES

7.30pm, bbc1 ★★★★ The Carters continue to reel from the revelation that Shirley is Mick’s mum in this episode first shown on Boxing Day in 2014. Plus, will Nick leave the Square as planned?

CUBA: CASTRO VS THE WORLD 9pm, bbc2 ★★★★ The second and final part of this fascinating documentary charts Cuba’s relationship with America from the 1990s to the present day. We hear from President Clinton himself on his motivations to keep his boisterous neighbour in check, while in the present, there’s speculation on the future of Uscuba relations under the Trump regime

OUR YORKSHIRE FARM 9pm, ch5 ★★★ As the Owen family prepare Ravenseat Farm for the chilly winter months, young sisters Edith and Violet search an old barn for signs of life left behind by previous shepherding families over the past 700 years.

JOANNA LUMLEY’S UNSEEN ADVENTURES 9.15pm, itv ★★★★ In this last episode, we find Joanna in Iran, exploring the tomb of Cyrus the Great, before following the Silk Road through Azerbaijan, Georgia and on to Venice. Then, she’s off to Haiti and Cuba for some fun in the sun.

SHAMELESS 10pm, ch4 ★★★★ Another chance to see the first series of the Bafta-winning drama following the fortunes of the feckless Gallagher family living on Manchester’s Chatsworth estate. It was to prove a springboard for such future stars as Anne-marie Duff and James Mcavoy.

WEDNESDAY

GREAT CONTINENTAL RAILWAY JOURNEYS 8pm, bbc2 ★★★★ Episode three takes Michael Portillo from Berlin to Stuttgart and, as he’s using a 1936

Bradshaw’s Guide, he’s focusing on a very dark period in German history. He visits the site of the famous 1936 Olympics, and learns about the birth of the iconic VW Beetle.

PHIL SPENCER’S STATELY HOMES 8PM, CH4 ★★★★ Phil visits Hampton Court Palace just outside London, most famous as King Henry VIII’S home. Experts show our host around some of the palace’s 1,300 rooms, including the ‘Great House of Easement’, a toilet that could seat 30 people – together!

REPORTED MISSING 9PM, BBC1 ★★★★ When Mark Smith, an ex-soldier with PTSD, goes missing after posting that he wants to end it all, Cheshire Police need to work out fast what may lie behind his disappearance. This documentary follows their frantic search.

LOSE A STONE IN 21 DAYS WITH MICHAEL MOSLEY 9PM, CH4 ★★★ It’s week two of their very low-calorie diet, and tempers are beginning to fray among the five volunteers. And things are about to get worse as Michael Mosley and his GP wife, Clare, introduce some high-intensity workouts that will push the group to their limit.

THURSDAY

CELEBRITY MASTERCHEF: A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS 8PM, BBC1 ★★★★ This week’s episode looks back at celebrities’ first experiences in a professional kitchen, and revisits a classic challenge from 2013, where the semi-finalists had to cook a high-end meal for 150 guests at Cambridge University.

WONDERS OF THE COAST PATH 8PM, ITV ★★★★ In Pembrokeshire, Sean Fletcher joins the British Army’s Royal Lancers on the Castlemartin military firing range, and gets the chance to drive a mighty Scimitar tank.

ESCAPE TO THE CHATEAU: MAKE DO AND MEND 8PM, CH4 ★★★★ Dick and Angel Strawbridge meet Xuxa and Simon, who are keen to transform the Second World War air raid shelter in their garden into a beautiful craft room.

INSIDE BRITAIN’S FOOD FACTORIES 8.30PM, ITV ★★★ This episode is a celebration of British classics: traditional Lancashire Eccles cakes, Tiptree jam and Bombay Sapphire gin.

TO CATCH A SEX OFFENDER: CRIME & PUNISHMENT 9PM, CH4 ★★★★ The series that follows the work of the legal system returns with a harrowing programme that explores the challenges of the complex, devastating crime of rape. Why does only one in 30 reported cases end with a conviction?

SEMI-DETACHED 10PM, BBC2 ★★★★ In another frantic half hour of comedy, the permanently put-upon Stuart (Lee Mack) is late for a much-needed Dj-ing job, having lost the device with his music on. During his search, the poor man stumbles upon an angry daughter, a poorly cat and a dead body.

FRIDAY

UNREPORTED WORLD 7.30PM, CH4 ★★★ Before coronavirus took hold in the US, reporter Karishma Vyas met some of the women voters who support Donald Trump in his bid for re-election. What do they see in him, and what is he offering them?

TRAVEL MAN’S GREATEST TRIPS 8PM, CH4 ★★★ This week’s compilation sees Richard Ayoade and his famous travelling companions appreciating arts and crafts, from Rebel Wilson passing judgment on Michelangelo’s David in Florence to Joe Wilkinson visiting a stained-glass workshop in Krakow.

JACK WHITEHALL’S SPORTING NATION 8.30PM, BBC1 ★★★★ Jack turns his attention to ‘glorious failure’ – how, when the British do badly at sport, they do so in spectacular fashion. Needless to say, ski jumper Eddie the Eagle features.

GARDENERS’ WORLD 9PM, BBC2 ★★★★ This week, we catch up with Adam Frost and the gardening projects he’s been working on, while a Hampshire sea captain reveals the secrets of his low-maintenance garden.