THIS WEEK’S TOP TV PICKS
ENTERTAINMENT
Piers Morgan’s Life Stories Tonight, ITV, 9pm
A fixture in the charts since the 1950s, Sir Cliff Richard (right), born Harry Rodger Webb in India ia in 1940, is the e only artist to o score a UK No 1 single ngle in five consecutive decades (the first was Living Doll in 1959). The Peter Pan of Pop turned 80 earlier this month, and to mark the milestone he’s joining our columnist for a chat about his life and career. Of course, Piers Morgan isn’t exactly known for being shy and retiring, so once he gets the obligatory birthday ‘Congratulations’ (Cliff was a Eurovision repeat offender, in 1968 and 1973) out of the way, his probing reveals more about the charming performer we have come to know and love over the years.
ARTS
The Olivier Awards Tonight, ITV, 10.20pm The Black British Theatre Awards
Tonight, Sky y Arts, 9pm
Jason J Manford M (right) (r hosts h the Oliviers, originally scheduled for or April at the Royal Albert Hall, but now moved to the London Palladium. Although it has been a horrific year for the theatre industry, with few new productions able to open, there were some bright spots before lockdown, and tonight’s show sees performances from nominated musicals & Juliet and Dear Evan Hansen. On the same night, Ore Oduba returns to host a socially-distanced Black British Theatre Awards at London’s Young Vic theatre. Among the actors nominated are Lucian Msamati, Paapa Essiedu, Sharon D. Clarke and Arinzé Kene.
DRAMA
The Sister Monday-Thursday, ITV, 9pm
From writer r Neil Cross – creator tor of Luther – comes an unsettling thriller with a sinister streak broadcast over four consecutive nights. Russell ell Tovey (above) stars as a married man hiding a dark secret from his wife – precisely how much he knows about her sister’s death years before. That past comes back to haunt him with a knock on the door one night and the unwelcome return into his life of paranormal expert Bob (Bertie Carvel, Doctor Foster), who has disturbing news: the local woods are the site of a new housing development, and something long buried may soon be dug up… A good old-fashioned potboiler that is designed to keep you watching.
NATURE
Autumnwatch Tuesday-Friday, BBC2, 8pm
W With the turning ning of the season it it’s time to welcome back to the reassuring presence of Chris Packham (right) and th the rest of the he A Autumnwatch ch te team as it sends nds d dispatches from rom the natural world across Britain. Packham is holed up in the New Forest, where he can report on the local deer, foxes and badgers, and find out how the white-tailed eagles reintroduced across the water on the Isle of Wight are faring. Up in Tentsmuir in Scotland, Michaela Strachan has all the latest news on the grey seals and their newly born pups on the coast, while Gillian Burke presents a bird’seye view of the Old Moor RSPB reserve in Yorkshire, and Iolo Williams finds hope for the future at the Centre for Alternative Technology in West Wales.
DOCUMENTARY Damilola: The Boy Next Door
Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm shook It I was an a murder that incredulous in nation to its core: a boy who was only ten was s stabbed by brothers aged ed 12 and 13 and d then le left to bleed to death on the South London estate that was his home. But for those children who were friends of Damilola Taylor (above), his killing was also an unthinkably traumatic event that tore their world apart. Now, 20 years on from the murder, radio DJ Yinka Bokinni shares her memories of both the ‘Dami’ she knew and the Peckham estate that, in the wake of his death, became notorious as a no-go zone. Today, though, she and its former residents still retain affection for the sense of community that existed there before it was so suddenly destroyed.