WHAT’S HOT TO WATCH TODAY
BANISHED (9pm, BBC2) is well worth an hour of your time tonight. It’s a powerful new seven-part period drama from the consistently excellent Jimmy McGovern, centred on a penal colony in Australia in the late 18th Century.
You don’t need to know all the history, other than the fact that the British government set up these places so they could dump people there if they’d done something truly unforgivable, such as kill someone or steal a loaf of bread or fail to buy a TV licence. And besides, the story claims only to be loosely inspired by real-life events.
With a great cast headed up by Russell Tovey, Julian Rhind-Tutt and MyAnna Buring, it’s a drama that certainly doesn’t faff around, pulling you in to this brutal world from the very first scene and leaving you in no doubt as to who to love and hate. THE SUPERVET, the flyon-the-wall series featuring the remarkable Noel Fitzpatrick, is back tonight on Channel 4 (8pm). It may not be the easiest watch, with the devoted owners of some seriously poorly pets (tonight’s include a dog with a life-threatening tumour) praying that this guy and his inventive approach can give them new hope. But if you were to set up two separate buckets beforehand, into one of which you’ll weep sad tears and into the other you’ll weep happy ones, the latter is sure to be the fuller by the end. THE NATION’S FAVOURITE 70S NUMBER ONE (8.30pm, ITV) is a 90-minute celebration of the pop single’s golden age, narrated by Zoe Ball and featuring chats with stars including ABBA and Blondie’s Deborah Harry.