Satellite choice
FILM ROMANCE Life Itself, 2pm, 8pm, Sky Premiere
SOPPY drama following the life cycle of a romance. It has a strong cast, including Olivia Wilde, Oscar Isaac, Antonio Banderas, Annette Bening and Mandy Patinkin.
ANIMATED MOVIE Zombillenium, 4.40pm, Sky Family
SET in a Halloween theme park that is secretly built over a gateway to Hell and staffed by real monsters, this will be too creepy for youngsters, but has a stylish edge for tweens and up.
CARE HOME DRAMA The Dumping Ground, 5pm, CBBC
THE return of CBBC’s Bafta-winning drama about a children’s care home. In the first of the new series, Sasha (a Bafta-nominated Annabelle Davis) is upset by the arrival at Ashdene Ridge of Freya, a face from her past with whom she has a tricky relationship — and who may be up to no good.
RUGBY UNION Sale Sharks v Saracens, 7pm, BT Sport 1
SALE haven’t lost in the Premiership since November’s 31-25 away defeat to Saracens. Can the Sharks get the better of the reigning champions on home turf?
EIGHTIES HITS Top Of The Pops: The Story Of 1987, 9pm, BBC4
THIS was the year of T’Pau’s China In Your Hand, Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up and Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is A Place On Earth. And that’s just scratching the surface, something this enjoyable new account of the year easily accomplishes — and more.
U.S. FIREFIGHTERS Chicago Fire, 9pm, Sky Witness
A NEW season for the soapy drama — and could Dawson be leaving? At the firehouse, a new team member arrives, while Chief Boden clashes with the new Assistant Deputy Commissioner, who virtually has ‘know-nothing pen-pusher’
etched on to his forehead.
LOVE RIVALS Delicious, 9pm, Sky One
SAM and Gina (Emilia Fox and Dawn French, pictured) really don’t learn from their mistakes. It’s part two of the new series, and they’re both sleeping with the same man again. What’s worse is that the loathsome Mason Elliott has another agenda beyond simply bedding every half-drunk woman who crosses his path . . .
NCIS, 9pm, Fox U.S. CRIME FIGHTERS
DIRECTOR Vance has been abducted at the start of the new, 16th season, and what’s more, he’s holding up banks for terrorists. Gibbs — now Acting Director and hating the paperwork — is on the case in an exciting story that involves an escalating series of bombings and a British ambassador who can’t seem to stop apologising.
SITCOM RETURNS Cuckoo, BBC3 (via iPlayer)
ANDIE MacDOWELL plays the latest eccentric American to disturb Ken (Greg Davies, pictured with MacDowell) and the Thompsons as BBC3’s comedy returns for a fifth series (also showing tonight on BBC1). All seven parts are available.
ANCIENT WORLD Blowing Up History, 10pm, Quest
THIS new-to-Freeview series uses computer wizardry to take apart old buildings and reveal their inner secrets. The excellent classicist Edith Hall is one of the experts at the first site — the Acropolis of Athens, where another temple has been found under the Parthenon.