HOT CHOICE
The annoying thing about so many history shows these days is they rubbish the version of history we learnt at school. Makes me wonder why we even bothered turning up. Can you imagine if TV were to take the same dismissive approach to, say, maths? “And in a hard- hitting Channel 4 documentary tonight, we uncover shocking evidence that two and two actually equals seven and always has, and that generations of schoolkids have been ruthlessly misled, and it’s all the fault of, I dunno, Brexit or something.” So I’m thrilled to see Channel 5 bucking the trend, in HENRY VIII: ENDGAME ( 9pm), the last in its series about the monarch we were always taught was, among other things, a big fat pig. It doesn’t actually say: “Yep, Henry was a big fat pig, just as we thought”, but it does confirm that in his final years his diet had indeed become excessive. Gone was the athletic figure of his youth, to be replaced by an obese, gout- ridden ogre with permanent constipation. I guess that’s what happens if you gorge yourself on things like porpoise and seal, which by all accounts he genuinely did. Elsewhere tonight, we’re looking back to a year that included the first Harry Potter and Bridget Jones films, the opening series of The Office and the Eastenders mystery of Who Shot Phil Mitchell And Why The Hell Didn’t They Make A Better Job Of It? Any idea which year that was? You can find out at 10pm on BBC Two in THE NOUGHTIES: 2001. Although I think you may have just guessed.