LOST TEMPLES OF CAMBODIA

Channel 4, 8.20pm Sky Documentaries, 9pm

For such an established favourite on the retiree tourist and gap-yah backpacker trails, Cambodia rarely seems to feature on TV’s armchair travel circuit. So much the better for archaeologist Pauline Carroll, who never has to worry about viewers’ over-familiarity with the sites that she visits in this three-part series on the country’s wealth of ancient religious complexes. She also covers the archaeological discoveries still being made, as more and more evidence emerges of the great civilisation that flourished in the region a millennium or more ago, before falling into rapid decline.

In tonight’s opener, Carroll visits Angkor, former capital of the ancient Khmer Empire and home to the worldfamous temple complex at Angkor Wat. After, she explores the nearby Bayon temple with its monumental stone heads and intricate carved-stone galleries, as well as the more remote outpost at Mahendraparvata – another major ancient Khmer city that has been gradually re-discovered beneath the jungle by a team using laser imaging technology – where she gets to grips with the latest theories on the lost empire and the reasons for its collapse. Gerard O’Donovan again hosts the gameshow in which 100 contestants take on the challenge of answering questions of increasing difficulty (based on the percentage answered by a test group) with up to £100,000 to be won.

PETE DOHERTY: STRANGER IN MY OWN SKIN

“How to talk about memory? Very unreliable. What actually happened? Flashes mostly…” Thankfully, because so much of his life has been lived in the glaring public eye since he first found fame with The Libertines, Doherty has assistance in recounting his life.

The music, the drugs, the lovers, the chaos...

It’s all here in this frank, if rather too adoring, portrait made by his wife Katia de Vidas.

Movie Themes at the BBC: Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Archaeologist Pauline Carroll visits ancient religious sites