What's on TV tonight: Four Days That Shook Britain and Civilisations

Thursday 15 March

Four Days That Shook Britain

ITV, 9.00pm

A year on from the first of the four major terrorist incidents that hit Britain in 2017 – in Westminster, at Manchester Arena, around London Bridge and outside Finsbury Park Mosque – this 90-minute report tells the stories of the attacks and the experiences of some of the people caught up in them. Victims, bystanders, paramedics, police and emergency-service workers all offer eyewitness accounts, some deeply affecting. (Lucy Jarvis, injured in the Manchester Arena bombing recalls: “I was on the floor and couldn’t see properly... I felt like I wanted to go to sleep, which worried me. I said to my friend: Am I going to die?”) There are contributions from politicians and visitors to Parliament on the day of the Westminster Bridge attack, Ariana Grande fans who attended the concert in Manchester, restaurant and pubgoers caught-up in the London Bridge attack, and members of the Muslim community in Finsbury Park.

This film offers a viscerally compelling insight into the horror of being caught up in a terrorist attack and the physical and emotional fallout that comes after, as well as a sense of the wider political and public responses. Gerard O’Donovan

Location, Location, Location

Channel 4, 8.00pm

There have been so many series of Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer’s property show that even Wikipedia has given up counting. Despite being on air for 18 years the lure of their house-hunting adventures remains – tonight’s new episode visits York and London. GO

Civilisations

BBC Two, 9.00pm

Simon Schama returns to explore our obsession with depicting nature in art. What he discovers – through the Song dynasty in China, renaissance Italy and Germany, and the photographs of Ansel Adams – is that what is depicted often represents not so much reality as ideals of nationality, identity and elusive earthly paradise. GO

My Baby’s Life: Who Decides?

Channel 4, 9.00pm

Medical science’s ability to prolong life has huge cost and ethical implications for the NHS. This powerful two-part documentary, filmed at Southampton Children’s Hospital’s paediatric intensive care unit, explores the question of whether anyone has the right to decide whether a baby should live or die. GO

The Good Fight

More4, 9.00pm

The spin-off from the successful Chicago-based legal drama The Good Wife returns for a second 13-part series, yet again focusing on the resurgent career of formerly all-powerful attorney Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski). Tonight, the prospect of attracting another star-name partner to the firm gives the troubled law team a sense of renewed purpose. GO

Britannia

Sky Atlantic, 9.00pm

Jez Butterworth’s hallucinogenic Romans-in-Britain drama hasn’t entirely lived up to its home-grown Game of Thrones promise. But while the plot rambles wildly, the series has been highly entertaining in parts and, overall, nothing if not original. Tonight’s concluding episode sees devil incarnate Aulus Plautius (David Morrissey) draw all the warring factions – Cantii, Regni, Romans and druids – together for a suitably gore-filled finale that manages to thrill and surprise, and even leave the door wide open for another series. GO

Winter Paralympics

Channel 4, 12.15am

Coverage from Pyeongchang as Team GB take on the hosts South Korea in wheelchair curling. Other highlights include the women’s sitting, standing and visually impaired slalom races. GO

12 Angry Men (1957, b/w) ★★★★★

Film4, 2.30pm

Sidney Lumet’s astonishingly powerful courtroom drama goes behind the closed doors of the jury room as an 18-year-old boy is put on trial for stabbing his abusive father to death. Henry Fonda, as one of the jurors, begs his 11 colleagues to look closely at the facts of the trial. What results is a study in humanity as each of the jurors faces his own prejudices and emotions. Lee J Cobb co-stars.

We Bought a Zoo (2011) ★★★☆☆

Film4, 6.35pm

Despite being loosely based on a true story, this sunny production from Cameron Crowe confirms that living in a zoo is perhaps a childhood dream best kept that way. The film skips along merrily as father-of-two Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) attempts to rebuild his life following the death of his wife and buys a new home in a working wildlife park on the brink of closure. Scarlett Johansson co-stars as the head zookeeper.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) ★★★☆☆

ITV4, 8.00pm

Australian model George Lazenby might look great in a tuxedo but he is a terribly uncharismatic Bond (it was his only turn as 007): however, everything else is very good. Diana Rigg makes a classy love interest, Telly Savalas is a commanding Blofeld hiding out in a kinky mountaintop lair, Louis Armstrong’s theme is brilliant and the ski chases remain the best of the franchise.

Friday 16 March

Modern-day pilgrims: in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France Credit: BBC

Pilgrimage: the Road to Santiago

BBC Two, 9.00pm; not Scotland

Another week, another series about a group of celebrities bonding over an unusual experience. Pilgrimage, however, has rather more potential than the standard fare as our group – actor Neil Morrissey, entertainer Debbie McGee, singer Heather Small, comedian Ed Byrne, Panorama reporter Raphael Rowe, TV presenter and Invictus Games medallist JJ Chalmers and priest Kate Bottley – have volunteered to walk 800 km of the Camino de Santiago from the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, north-western Spain.

Each participant has their own reason for taking part: while Rowe, jailed as a teenager in a notorious miscarriage of justice, sees it as a way of coming to terms with his past, Byrne, an experienced walker, clearly just fancies the chance to stretch himself. It makes for a fascinating mix and there are some entertaining moments: “Hills are my nemesis,” admits the laid-back Morrissey, while an emotional Bottley raises eyebrows by stating that she didn’t think they’d have to do the walk for real. Yet it’s the quieter bonding moments that really stand out as Rowe and Bottley discuss her faith and his lack of it, and Chalmers and McGee talk about those they’ve loved and lost. Sarah Hughes

On My Block

Netflix, from today

Netflix attempts to corner the teenage comedy market with this warm new 10-part series from Eddie Gonzalez and Jeremy Haft (who wrote for Empire) and Lauren Iungerich (showrunner of MTV high-school series Awkward). The premise is tried and tested – socially awkward youngsters negotiate high school – but the South Central, Los Angeles setting feels fresh. SH

Irish Music Night

BBC Four, from 8.00pm

On the eve of St Patrick’s Day, BBC Four celebrates Irish music. At 8.00pm Songs of Ireland sees musicians including multi-instrumental folk star Finbar Furey performing at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall. That’s followed by The Irish Rock Story: A Tale of Two Cities, Mike Connolly’s excellent 2015 film about Belfast and Dublin’s influences on Irish rock music. The 2012 film, Here Comes the Summer: The Undertones Story, is at 10.00pm, and at 11.00pm is a recording of Irishman Van Morrison’s 2017 concert at the Eden Project. SH

Scruffts: Britain’s Favourite Dog

Channel 4, 8.00pm

Which dog will win the coveted Scruffts Family Crossbreed Dog of the Year title? Alan Carr looks at the semi-finalists, including Staffordshire Bull Terrier/Whippet cross Honey, who assists clinical psychologist Emma with her mental health work to Milo, an Anatolian Shepherd/German Shepherd cross, rescued by owner Charley as a malnourished puppy. SH

Gardeners’ World

BBC Two, 8.30pm; not Scotland

It’s never too early to start planning for the summer harvest and this week’s episode has a fruity focus as Monty Don looks at adding to his crop. Elsewhere, Joe Swift advises on how to brighten up even the dullest of spaces. SH

Requiem

BBC One, 9.00pm

Those who have stuck with Kris Mrksa’s interesting if flawed attempt to meld horror and crime are rewarded with an enjoyably spooky ending as Matilda (Lydia Wilson) attempts to solve the mystery of Carys’s disappearance. SH

The Young Offenders

BBC One, 10.35pm; NI, 11.05pm; not Wales

The joy of Peter Foott’s comedy lies in the warmth that imbues this tale of two hapless, occasionally criminal teenagers. Tonight’s finale see Jock (Chris Walley) impersonate Billy Murphy (Shane Casey), a man who doesn’t take lightly to such crimes. SH

I, Robot (2004) ★★★☆☆

E4, 8.00pm

We’re in Chicago, 2035, and a robot-hating cop (Will Smith) must quell an uprising by the city’s robot servants. Inspired by the stories in Isaac Asimov’s anthology of the same name, this sci-fi thriller is hectic, light and fairly amusing, although – especially at the beginning – the camera has an irksome habit of lingering on certain heavily branded consumer items (trainers, hi-fi equipment) that aren’t central to the action.

Hilary and Jackie (1998) ★★★☆☆

London Live, 10.00pm

This true-to-life blockbuster about British cellist Jacqueline du Pré and her stormy relationship with her sister met with controversy on its release for delving into private lives of real people. It earned plaudits and Oscar nominations for Emily Watson as Jackie and Rachel Griffiths as her sister Hilary, but despite fine acting from the two female leads, it seems both tackier and tamer in the biopic-obsessed 21st century.

Firefox (1982) ★★★☆☆

ITV4, 10.05pm

This techno-thriller is based on a novel by Craig Thomas and on the creation of a fictional super fighter: the MiG-31 Firefox. Clint Eastwood (who also directs) plays a Vietnam veteran, Major Mitchell Gant, who has to steal the revolutionary Russian jet. It’s hard going for even the most dedicated of fans, but Atari later made it into a successful video game. Warren Clarke and Freddie Jones (father of Toby) co-star.