What's on TV tonight: Stath Lets Flats, This Is Congo and more

While the current series of Poldark continues to thrill fans of brooding men and tempestuous women, this timely repeat of a documentary from 2009 looks at the original Seventies drama. That Sunday night hit made stars of Robin Ellis and Angharad Rees, who played Ross and Demelza, but it also infuriated author Winston Graham thanks to some large deviations from his source material.

The Highland Midwife

Channel 5, 8.00pm 

This lovely fly-on-the-wall series covering midwives in the Scottish highlands makes a welcome return. In this tense opening episode, Ruth, Morven and Hazel struggle with a trio of difficult births.

The People vs the NHS: Who Gets the Drugs?

BBC Two, 9.00pm 

Part of the BBC’s NHS at 70 series, this diverting documentary looks at how the health service’s cash-flow crisis can impact lives. Using the legal battle over PrEP, a drug widely believed to reduce the risk of contracting HIV as its focus, the film asks how funding decisions are made.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing

BBC Two, 10.00pm; NI, 11.15pm 

There’s a real pleasure to be found in watching Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse while away time fishing. Even the more serious moments – this week both men discuss death while standing in the Middle Wye – are leavened by dry wit. It’s a delight.

This Is Congo – Storyville

BBC Four, 10.00pm

Photographer Daniel McCabe’s hard-hitting film about the Democratic Republic of Congo is the sort of documentary that haunts you long after the credits have rolled. McCabe talks to soldiers, workers and families about their experiences in this war-ravaged country, building up a devastating and heartbreaking picture. It’s an important and necessary reminder of a part of the world that is too often ignored. SH

Lookalikes

Channel 4, 10.30pm 

Channel 4’s uneasy hybrid of structured reality TV show and comedy returns for a second series with David Beckham lookalike Andy Harmer and his frenemy Tim Oliver, a David Brent impersonator, battling to keep their rival agencies afloat… SH

My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) ★★☆☆☆

Sony Movie Channel, 4.35pm

Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Dermot Mulroney and Rupert Everett star in this slushy romcom. Roberts plays Julianne, who falls in love with her old friend (Mulroney), only to discover that he’s due to marry another girl (Diaz) the next day. Everett isn’t one of the love interests – he plays Roberts’s gay best friend – but he manages to elope with the film.

Fatima (2015) ★★★★☆

Sky Cinema Premiere, 10.00pm

French director Philippe Faucon had success at Cannes with this insightful study of female behaviour. Fatima (Soria Zeroual) is a 44-year-old Moroccan woman raising two teenage girls in Lyon. The youngest, Souad (Kenza-Noah Aïche), is a sullen, sexy rebel ashamed of her mother for working as a housecleaner.It’s a little slow in parts but, like its heroine, that’s all part of the film’s quiet dignity.

The Blair Witch Project (1998) ★★★★☆

Sky One, 11.00pm

An inventive horror whose frights are all created via suspense and the power of suggestion. Made on a meagre budget of around $ 750,000 (it grossed around $ 250 million at the box office), it purports to be the footage left behind by three American film students who enter a forest to investigate the legendary “Blair Witch”. Some moviegoers were physically ill due to the shaky camerawork.

Thursday 28 June

Good Evening Britain

ITV, 9.15pm

Despite BBC Breakfast being the undisputed champion in terms of viewers, there’s no denying that Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan continue to hog the column inches due to their combative relationship and controversial interviews on Good Morning Britain. This late-night, one-off incarnation follows ITV’s coverage of England’s World Cup match with Belgium (see preview, below), a tie which should go a long way towards clarifying the Three Lions’ realistic hopes for the tournament. Expect debate, chat and a few famous faces offering their opinions on the result, plus coverage of showbiz stories in what is presumably a high-profile pilot for a permanent fixture in this prime-time slot, following the unmitigated disaster of The Nightly Show.

Whether Morgan is the man that audiences want as the nation’s cheerleader/consoler-in-chief is as open to debate as his decision to present Donald Trump with an Arsenal shirt, but ITV has long yearned for a way in which to blend football and entertainment (remember James Corden’s World Cup Live, or the magnificent Rio’s World Cup Wind-Ups?), so expect everything to be thrown at the screen in search of the perfect formula. Gabriel Tate

FIFA World Cup 2018: England vs Belgium

ITV, 6.15pm

Gareth Southgate’s young lions face Belgium’s “golden generation” who have yet to turn their enviable gathering of talents into serious tournament challengers. Mark Pougatch is in the studio while Clive Tydesley provides the commentary, with kick-off at 7.00pm.

Celebrities on the NHS Frontline

BBC One, 9.00pm; not Wales

Armed with their own experiences of the NHS, Paralympian Jonnie Peacock, ex-MP Ann Widdecombe, reporter Stacey Dooley and TV presenter Michael Mosley work with hospital staff in a bid to understand the challenges that the service now face. These include smaller budgets, increased scrutiny and an ageing population. It may sound gimmicky, but this two-parter is very absorbing.

Japan’s Secret Shame

BBC Two, 9.00pm

In 2017, Japanese woman Shiori Ito went public with rape allegations against a more prominent fellow journalist. These were met with silence or worse. Here she explores why other victims in the country are unwilling or unable to speak out.

Humans

Channel 4, 9.00pm

The penultimate episode of the third series of this always absorbing drama finds the part human, part synth Leo (Colin Morgan) in peril, and Mattie (Lucy Carless) reveals her secret. GT

Outlander

More4, 9.00pm

Juggling sweeping adventure with tense espionage (18th-century style) and introspective character studies, this period romp continues with Claire (Caitriona Balfe) finding a sense of purpose in helping the sick. Meanwhile, Jamie (Sam Heughan) continues his efforts to derail history’s march towards the Battle of Culloden by engaging the services of a pickpocket plying his trade in a brothel. The result is cheerfully daft and occasionally surprisingly deep. 

Running Wild with Bear Grylls

Discovery, 10.00pm

In between wrangling civilians on The Island, Bear Grylls likes to go yomping with famous people, who have included in the past Barack Obama and Roger Federer. This week, Oscar nominee Don Cheadle treks through the New England mountains, with all of its precarious climbs and dangerous rivers. This time, the compulsory unpalatable meal features porcupine carcass. GT

True Grit (1969) ★★★★☆

Film4, 3.45pm

John Wayne gives an imposing performance – for which he won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe – in this muscular western, directed by Henry Hathaway. Wayne plays Rooster Cogburn, an ageing, hardbitten marshal who’s called on to track down a murderer. Also on the trail are the victim’s 14-year-old daughter (Kim Darby) and an opportunistic Texas Ranger (Glen Campbell) who wants to collect the reward.

Summertime (1955) ★★★★☆

Talking Pictures TV, 6.00pm

From the mid-Fifties, David Lean developed a taste for filming further afield and directed Katharine Hepburn in this romance set in Venice. Jane Hudson (Hepburn), a secretary from the American Midwest, is finally realising her dream of taking a holiday in Venice, where she embarks on a tentative romance with a antiques dealer (Rossano Brazzi). Jack Hildyard’s cinematography ravishes.

Rocky III (1982) ★★★☆☆

ITV, 10.55pm; not STV

Stallone is once more infront of and behind the camera in this third instalment in the series. Old rival Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) becomes Rocky’s new trainer after the Italian Stallion takes a pounding from the vicious Clubber Lang (Mr T). One sun-soaked sequence features Rocky and Creed frolicking around on a beach and embracing in vests. Meanwhile, Hulk Hogan co-stars as wrestling champion Thunderlips.

Friday 29 June

Romper Stomper

BBC Two, 11.05pm & midnight; Scot and NI, times vary

It’s already had an airing on BBC Three but this gritty, politically charged six-part Australian series, about a gang of ultra-violent neo-Nazis in Melbourne and the left-wing student group that opposes them, deserves this prominent BBC Two late-night slot. 

It is based on the cult 1991 film of the same name, in which Russell Crowe came to prominence as a psychotic skinhead, and the movie’s director Geoffrey Wright is behind this update, too, writing the opening episode (of this double bill). Actor Toby Wallace is a strikingly charismatic presence – balancing charm with an undercurrent of real menace – as Kane, an angry young man just out of the army, who together with his dumber sidekick Stix (Kaden Hartcher) gets drawn into the right-wing group of activist Blake Farron (Lachy Hulme). But it is Farron’s younger wife Zoe (Sophie Lowe) who is the real draw for Kane – spelling major trouble ahead for all. Violence, romance and a thoughtful approach to extreme politics makes a potent, dramatic mix, and the results are explosive at times. For fans of the original, Jacqueline McKenzie, who played Kane’s mother Gabrielle, reprises the role here. Gerard O’Donovan

Glow

Netflix, from today

The first season of this comedy about Ruth (Alison Brie), a struggling actress who is drawn into the weird world of women’s wrestling was a big hit. This second run, in which Ruth and the gang get a proper tilt at fame, is just as good.

James Martin’s American Adventure

ITV, 8.00pm; not UTV or Wales

Chef James Martin takes to the US highways in search of “some of the greatest food on the planet”. In this opener, he mounts a vintage Harley Davidson to hog it up in the Napa Valley, home to some of California’s greatest wine makers and fine-dine restaurants.

The Bridge

BBC Two, 9.00pm

Poor Saga Norén (Sofia Helin) has been through the wringer in this fourth season of the bleak but absorbing Scandi thriller. This is the final episode, so expect it to go out with a very big bang as Saga finds a match for the killer’s fingerprint… but nothing’s ever that simple, is it?

Duran Duran Night

BBC Four, from 9.00pm

Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor invite viewers to join them for two films – There’s Something You Should Know (9.00pm) and Duran Duran: A Night In (10.00pm) – in which they look back over their 40th years in pop, plus Duran Duran: Unstaged, their 2011 concert collaboration with director David Lynch.

Download Festival 2018

Sky Arts, 9.00pm

Here are highlights from the summer’s biggest metal and rock weekend, which was held earlier this month at Donington Park, with Guns N’ Roses, Marilyn Manson and Ozzy Osbourne among the headline acts. GO

Frankie Boyle’s New World Order

BBC Two, 10.00pm; NI, 11.05pm

More hardcore topical comedy as Frankie Boyle dissects the week’s headlines and assorted bizarre news stories with the help of a studio audience and guests Sara Pascoe, Katherine Ryan and Miles Jupp.

The Big Narstie Show

Channel 4, 11.00pm

The popular, sometimes controversial grime MC, rapper and internet sensation teams up with comedian Mo Gilligan to host a new late-night alternative entertainment show, with music, sketches, viewer interaction and guests in the studio talking news, television shows and the latest trends. GO

Rush Hour (1998) ★★★★☆

ITV4, 9.00pm

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker join forces in this culture-clash cop comedy. When the Chinese consul’s daughter is abducted, the diplomat summons trusted friend Detective Inspector Lee (Chan) from Hong Kong. Spurned by the FBI, Lee must team up with a rebellious fast-talking LAPD officer (Tucker) to find the girl. This is a pacy, amiable comedy with impeccably choreographed action sequences.

Mad Max 2 (1981) ★★★★★

ITV, 10.45pm

Mel Gibson reprises his role as Max, a cynical and alienated ex-cop, in this thrillingly intense action sequel that proved to be that rare thing – better than the original. Drifting through the Outback after a nuclear war, he comes upon a small community menaced by a gang that aims to rob them of their oil. Can Max defend them? George Miller (who later, incongruously, co-wrote Babe) again writes and directs.

The Full Monty (1997) ★★★★☆

BBC One, 11.25pm

You’ll never look at Tom Wilkinson in the same way again after seeing him gyrate on stage as a stripper in this bittersweet British comedy which opened in British cinemas 21 years ago. Set in Sheffield, it follows six out-of-work men who form an exotic dance troupe in order to raise some funds. And they’re willing to reveal, quite literally, all. Simon Beaufoy’s script is a moving exploration of masculinity. Robert Carlyle co-stars.

Television previewers

Toby Dantzic, Sarah Hughes, Gerard O'Donovan, Vicki Power and Gabriel Tate