Satellite choice
CLASSIC DICKENS
Oliver!, 3pm, Sky Family
THE classic big-screen version of Lionel Bart’s stage hit, which took Dickens’s ’ story off child poverty t set in grimy London and turned it into an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza. Great stuff.
HITCHCOCK THRILLER Shadow Of A Doubt, 3.55pm, Film4
OFTEN cited as Hitchcock’s favourite of his American films is this quietly menacing thriller. Teresa Wright is the girl who suspects there’s something very strange about her beloved uncle.
ONE MAN’S DREAM The Underwater Dream Machine, 7.50pm, PBS
ENTREPRENEUR Peter Robbins has dreamed of having his own submarine since reading Jules Verne as a boy, and now he’s building one in Plymouth. The design has one amazing aspect: it’s transparent. This new documentary deals with the construction, and the footage of the test dives — looking for wrecks in the English Channel, down to 1,000 feet — is truly exciting.
STRANGE BUT TRUE
I Woke Up Gay, 9pm, BBC3
CHRIS BIRCH was a beer-swilling, 19-stone heterosexual rugby fan who worked in a bank — then, he had a stroke, woke up and was gay. Chris is now a hairdresser, and wants to understand his transformation and refute claims that he was always homosexual. His story is riveting.
STAR STRUCK
Fame Report, 10pm, More4
PAMELA STEPHENSON presents an honest, interesting investigation into why people seek fame, speaking to Stanley Tucci, John Hurt and (most revealingly) Mel C and troubled ex-child star Tatum O’neal. The search for celebrity is the search for security, but the reality can bring anything but.
BRITISH COUNTIES No County For Old Men, 10pm, History
THE Fast Show’s John Thomson and Simon Day (pictured) tour British counties in this jolly new series, uncovering local traditions and realities. They start in Cornwall where, 70 years ago, there were so many shipwrecks that the resulting timbers provided most of the local fencing. The duo go training with the RNLI and learn Cornish, but they’ve always got half an eye on the next gag. Comedians can’t switch that off.
CLASSIC COP MOVIE The French Connection, 10.10pm, Sky Modern Greats WILLIAM FRIEDKIN’S twitchy crime drama, with Gene Hackman as the cop who’ll do whatever it takes to get results. Not for those of a nervous disposition. p
TOP U.S. COMEDY
Community, 10.30pm, Sony TV
EPISODE two of this whip-smart U.S. comedy’s new, second season, and the college is celebrating German culture. Annie is unimpressed. ‘A little goes a long way,’ she opines. Meanwhile, one of Jeff’s (Joel Mchale, pictured centre) old colleagues turns up.
FACT-BASED MOVIE I Am You, 11.50pm, Sky Drama
THOUGH the story is utterly shocking, this true-crime drama would be rather ordinary were it not for its starry cast. Guy Pearce and Miranda Otto are the couple at the centre of a murder case.