Thursday 1 February
Death Row 2018 with Trevor McDonald
ITV, 9.00pm
ITV’s Crime and Punishment strand returns for 2018 with six new documentaries, beginning with this film in which the former News at Ten anchor Trevor McDonald again shares his fascination with the US penal system. He pays a return visit to the stark death row at Indiana State Prison, which, unsettlingly, has since acquired a new “death chamber”. Many of the men McDonald met when he reported from there in 2012 remain in a legal limbo, caught up in the complex system of appeals that goes hand-in-hand with a death sentence in the United States.
Among those he meets again are prison barber Rick Pearish, who the last time they spoke was still holding out hope for release. Now that he’s in his seventies, has his optimism faded? Also interviewed is Ronald Sanford, who is serving 170 years for murdering two elderly women when he was just 13. Unlike the last time, Ronald opens up about what it was in his childhood that made him a killer.
There are some previously unseen faces too, including the latest resident of death row – a convicted serial killer who, in a notably disturbing encounter, makes a shocking admission. Gerard O’Donovan
European Tour Golf: The Maybank Championship
Sky Sports Golf, 5.30am
It’s day one of the tournament at the Saujana Golf and Country Club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which was won last year by Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti.
The Young Offenders
BBC Three, from 10.00am
A terrific TV follow-up to Paul Foott’s award-winning comedy film of the same name, this expletive-ridden six-part series follows the misadventures of charmingly dense Cork teenagers Conor (Alex Murphy) and Jock (Chris Walley), who have an unenviable ability to get into any trouble that’s going.
Animals with Cameras
BBC One, 8.00pm
Gordon Buchanan presents this entertaining new wildlife series in which specially built cameras are fitted to animals to allow unusually intimate recordings of how they live. In this first episode, we see meerkats nesting in burrows, chimpanzee hygiene rituals, and a penguin’s epic swim to Argentina.
Hunted
Channel 4, 9.00pm
It may all be getting a bit familiar now that it’s in a third series, but Hunted still delivers heart-in-mouth moments. That’s certainly the case in this penultimate episode, as Magid makes a daring move across the Peak District to escape his pursuers.
Britannia
Sky Atlantic, 9.00pm
It’s a totally daft take on the Romans’ invasion of Britain – but that’s what makes this Game of Thrones-style drama so enjoyable. In this episode, Plautius (David Morrissey) is convinced his recent trip to the Underworld will give him an edge.
Walks with My Dog
More4, 9.00pm
More celebrity dog walking as Emilia Fox takes her dachshunds for a scamper through Cornwall’s industrial past, Bill Bailey meanders with his mutt along the Norfolk coast, and Katherine Ryan visits Hever Castle with her Tibetan spaniel. GO
The Special Needs Employment Agency
Channel 5, 10.00pm
This is an uplifting documentary series in which young people with special needs are helped to find work by a team of specialist recruiters. Here, Andrew, who has Asperger’s syndrome, seeks to secure a position as a mechanic.
Great Art
ITV, 11.10pm; STV, 11.05pm
Tim Marlow brings his enjoyable visual arts series to a close with an exploration of one of 17th-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s best-loved works, Girl with a Pearl Earring – exploring some of the many mysteries that still surround this enigmatic portrait and its creator. GO
Thunderball (1965) ★★★★☆
ITV4, 9.00pm
Shot in the Bahamas and featuring some cleverly choreographed underwater sequences, Thunderball was the most lavish Bond film of its time (the budget was $5.5 million). Its plot is simple: terrorists have pinched a couple of atom bombs and are holding Nato to ransom. Sean Connery, who trades in the tuxedo for snorkel, plays 007 for the fourth time and never better. Claudine Auger makes a winning Bond girl.
The Pianist (2002) ★★★★☆
London Live, 10.15pm
Roman Polanski’s story about a Polish-Jewish pianist dodging the Nazis in occupied Warsaw (adapted from the memoirs of pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman) won Oscars galore, including Best Actor for Adrien Brody. Atrocities are seen from the protagonist’s point of view as the film develops into a gripping, harrowing story of survival against the odds. Incidentally, Polanski escaped from the Kraków Ghetto as a child.
Tower Block (2012) ★★★☆☆
5STAR, 11.10pm
A year after a youth is beaten to death on their doorstep, the residents of the top floor of a London tower block (all their neighbours have been rehoused) are picked off by a mysterious sniper. Jack O’Connell (Skins, This is England) gets the wittiest lines in this gritty urban thriller, while Sheridan Smith also gives a charming and natural performance which almost compensates for the slightly illogical plot.
Friday 2 February
Requiem
BBC One, 9.00pm
The glut of psychological suspense dramas on our screens makes it hard for new thrillers to stand out but do make time for the BBC’s haunting and unusual Requiem.
Smartly directed by rising star Mahalia Belo, who knows exactly what to do and when to raise the hairs on the back of your neck, this new six-part series melds horror with crime to tell the story of the highly strung Matilda (Lydia Wilson), a promising young cellist whose self-contained world is thrown into disarray by an unexpected and violent death.
After walking out on her long-dreamt-of US tour, Matilda and her faithful accompanist Hal (Joel Fry, excellent in a rare serious role) head to Wales, where grief and past secrets threaten to engulf both her and everyone she comes into contact with.
To say any more would be unfair but Australian writer Kris Mrksa (best known for crime drama Underbelly) plays a very clever game with the genre, referencing everything from Don’t Look Now to Rosemary’s Baby and ensuring that the audience is both on the back foot and desperate to find out more. Beautifully paced and intelligently told, the resulting story is worth staying in on a Friday night for. Sarah Hughes
Altered Carbon
Netflix, from today
“The first thing you’ll learn is that nothing is as it seems,” intones the solemn voice-over in this adaptation of Richard Morgan’s excellent novel from 2002. Netflix’s latest foray into hardcore science fiction follows a prisoner who, after 250 years in suspended animation, returns to life in a new body with one chance to win his freedom: solving a mind-bending murder. It’s stylishly shot, and features a strong cast, including James Purefoy, Joel Kinnaman, and Hamilton star Renée Elise Goldsberry.
Anglo-Welsh Cup: Northampton Saints v Harlequins
BT Sport 1, 7.15pm
Out-of-sorts Northampton, who’ve won just one of their last eight Premiership games, face Harlequins in the Anglo-Welsh Cup at Franklin’s Gardens. The last time these teams met, in December, Quins ran in seven tries, with Dave Ward, Danny Care and Tim Visser among the scorers, as Saints slumped to an embarrassing 50-21 defeat at Twickenham.
Super League: St Helens v Castleford Tigers
Sky Sports Main Event, 7.30pm
The Totally Wicked Stadium host the action as St Helens and Castleford Tigers get their seasons under way. These sides last met in the semi-finals of last year’s competition in September, with the Tigers winning a dramatic match at the Mend-a-Hose Jungle 23-22 after extra-time, setting up a Grand Final meeting with Leeds Rhinos.
Celebrity 5 Go Barging
Channel 5, 8.00pm
Last year, four celebrities gave us laughs as they took to the canals of England and Wales for the first run of this series. Now it returns with a new motley crew – Tom Conti, Diarmuid Gavin, Tessa Sanderson, Tony Christie and Penny Smith – and this time they are heading to France. So expect some crashes and fireworks.
A Vicar’s Life
BBC Two, 8.30pm; not Wales
The likeable series about vicars in Herefordshire continues with assistant curate Father Matthew Cashmore joining a relief effort taking aid to refugees in Calais, while his boss, the Reverend Ruth Hulse comes up with a novel way of boosting church attendance.
Nigel Slater’s Middle East
BBC Two, 9.00pm; not Wales
Nigel Slater is the sort of company you want on a food journey: enthusiastic, interesting and curious about the places he visits. This new series sees him heading throughout the Middle East, starting off in the food paradise of Beirut before moving on to the Beqaa Valley.
Hits, Hype & Hustle: An Insider’s Guide to the Music Business
BBC Four, 9.00pm
The music industry guide concludes with a focus on reunions, presented by PR man Alan Edwards. “It was supposed to be edge of the seat stuff but, in reality, it was end of the pier,” he says, with a wicked grin, of the Sex Pistols reunion he engineered. Elsewhere, we’re treated to footage of Debbie Harry performing with a giant pair of horns on her head. SH
Celebrity Big Brother: Live Final
Channel 5, from 9.00pm
This series of the reality show, which is celebrating the year of the woman, apparently, reaches its finale. Sadly, the all-female house was short lived and the series has been reduced to the usual mix of crude comments and bed-hopping. SH
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) ★★☆☆☆
Sky Cinema Premiere, 8.00pm
Guy Ritchie’s combat-heavy Camelot is a very silly place. It sets up Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) as a Moses figure who’s sent to Londinium when Vortigern (Jude Law) overthrows Camelot. What follows is a quick-witted caper, but the sword-pulling scene is sabotaged by a David Beckham cameo that saps the moment of its mythic excitement.
Sorcerer (1977) ★★★★☆
Film4, 10.45pm
Given the wild success that William Friedkin had achieved with The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973), the catastrophic failure of Sorcerer, a thrillingly downbeat action film about truck drivers, counted as the bitterest blow of his career: he’s always talked about it as his favourite film. Indeed, it’s far too technically accomplished and conceptually bold to have deserved such short shrift.
This Is 40 (2012) ★★★☆☆
Channel 4, 12.10am
Judd Apatow revisits two characters from his 2007 hit Knocked Up. Leslie Mann, Apatow’s wife, and Paul Rudd play a stressed-out Los Angeles couple whose 40th birthdays bookend the film. Apatow and Mann’s real-life daughters also play their children. It’s a perceptive comedy on middle-age and one that guarantees big laughs alongside some of Apatow’s most pertinent observations on love.
Television previewers
Toby Dantzic, Catherine Gee, Simon Horsford, Sarah Hughes, Clive Morgan, Gerard O'Donovan, Vicki Power, Patrick Smith, Gabriel Tate and Rachel Ward