Satellite choice
DICKENS MATINEE Great Expectations, 12.45pm, Film4
DAVID LEAN gathers an impressive cast for Dickens’s classic, which sees young Pip masochistically falling for cruel Estella, while Miss Havisham manipulates them. John Mills (pictured with Finlay Currie) and Valerie Hobson play Pip and Estella as adults.
TEST CRICKET West Indies v England, 2.30pm, Sky Sports 2
AFTER a dire ICC World Cup, England will want to bounce back against the Windies. Alastair Cook returns as England captain, but can he improve his form?
FOOTBALL Liverpool v Newcastle United, 7pm, Sky Sports 1
A CLASH that usually provides excitement. Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson is making huge progress with the Reds and could be a driving force in this match.
FUN ACTION FILM Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, 7.10pm, BBC3
THE second in the original Indiana Jones trilogy is another cracking homage to Forties cinema. Kate Capshaw may scream too much, but that terrific opening dance number really can’t be beaten for sheer Busby Berkeley scale.
RUSSIA TODAY Far Right And Proud: Reggie Yates’ Extreme Russia, 9pm, BBC3
THE fervent nationalism on display in Reggie Yates’s new series has its absurd moments — the insistence that all animals instinctively love Putin, for instance — but it takes on a much more uncomfortable tone during an extremist march.
EPIC RETURNS Game Of Thrones, 9pm, Sky Atlantic
SEASON five opens in the scenesetting style that the fantasy tends to favour early in its runs, with a flashback for Cersei (Lena Headey, pictured with Ian Beattie) and a tour of the show’s myriad storylines. Tyrion, of course, is plotting, while Daenerys appears to be struggling without her dragons. Never fear, there is some action before the end, though.
SEVENTIES COP REBOOT
Hawaii Five-0, 9pm, Pick
A FREEVIEW premiere for season one of this big, brash TV series remake, which has a robust central duo in Alex O’Loughlin as McGarrett and Scott Caan as Danno.
BRIT-SERIES FINALE
Bluestone 42, 10pm, BBC3
SETTING a comedy inside a bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan was a bold thing to do — the British Army only withdrew in October — and the writers have gone to great lengths to make it feel authentic. There’s plenty of banter in this series three finale, as Ellen tries to restrain the unit’s quest for souvenirs before heading home, while Lt Col Smith tries to secure a table at a restaurant in Blighty.
FREEVIEW CLASSIC North By Northwest, 10pm, BBC4
ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S superb thriller gave Cary Grant another of the roles he was made for, namely an unlikely hero in a sharply cut suit. Grant stars as Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive who, through a typically Hitchcockian (i.e., cruel and decisive) case of mistaken identity, becomes the object of a manhunt — with Eva Marie Saint for company on the run.