Your complete guide to the week’s television, films and sport, across terrestrial and digital platforms
House of the Dragon
Sky Atlantic, 2am & 9pm
The fantasy drama created by George RR Martin and Ryan Condal, adapted from Martin’s Game of Thrones prequel Fire & Blood, returns for a second bloody, action-packed series as Westeros inches ever closer to civil war. The action begins where the first series left off; in Dragonstone, Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) is mourning the death of her son, leaving the scheming and politicising to Prince Daemon (Matt Smith, looking even more moody) and Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best).
In King’s Landing, meanwhile, the impetuous boy-king Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) is proving a handful for his power-hungry mother Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and her father/adviser Otto (Rhys Ifans). Things move rather slowly in the opener but, as ever, it looks stunning – if sepulchral – as multiple storylines play out, with a shocking ending that is thankfully mostly off camera. The large ensemble cast are joined by new characters, including Simon Russell Beale as Ser Simon Strong, Freddie Fox as Gwayne Hightower and Abubakar Salim as Alyn, a sailor who comes to the aid of Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint). The eight episodes are shown weekly. VL
Ancient Builders of the Amazon
PBS America, 7.20pm
“This would make the mind of any archeologist explode,” declares one contributor to this excellent documentary about the Amazon’s secret cities. The conquistadors found a vast wilderness but, as this reveals, if they had arrived 200 years earlier they would have found dense city settlements connected by canals and roadways.
Bake Off: The Professionals
Channel 4, 8pm
It’s the pastry challenge for the four best teams; tonight they must make 18 cross-laminated pain Suisse and 24 savoury brioche doughnuts. The choux showpiece, meanwhile, has a fun circus theme.
Abandoned Engineering
Yesterday, 8pm
This week’s buildings include the wreck of the Great Famine-era Schull workhouse in Ireland, where the horrors its one-time inhabitants suffered still echo; a South Korean hospital at the centre of a bloody military coup; and the Skeleton Coast of Namibia, whose whaling past leaves gruesome clues. Light relief comes from a visit to the now crumbling set in Alabama created for Tim Burton’s Gothic fantasy film Big Fish 21 years ago.
Lost Boys and Fairies
BBC One, 9pm
Daf James’s excellent drama concludes. A grieving Gabriel (Sion Daniel Young) has to decide whether to go through the lengthy process again to adopt Jake (Leo Harris) – this time as a single parent – as social worker Jackie (Elizabeth Berrington) warns him it won’t be straightforward.
Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?
BBC Two, 9pm
Ben Steele’s documentary reports on the tragedy aboard the Adriana, a dangerously overloaded fishing boat carrying migrants which sank in the Mediterranean last June – hundreds drowned, while 104 were rescued. The Greek coast guard is accused of capsizing the vessel, a claim their government vehemently denies. Survivors, rescuers and journalists describe the shocking events.
The Sympathizer
Sky Atlantic, 10.10pm
In the most overtly comedic episode of the Vietnam War drama yet, the Captain (Hoa Xuande) is now a consultant on the Auteur’s (Robert Downey Jr) film, a thinly disguised spoof of Apocalypse Now. David Duchovny is delightfully anarchic as a washed-up, drunken, mad-dog US soldier.
The Expendables (2010) ★★★
ITV4, 10pm
Director Sylvester Stallone gathers together some of Hollywood’s most shirt-splitting muscle – including himself, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li and Jason Statham, as well as cameos from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis – for an all-guns-blazing romp to remove the corrupt leader of a fictitious island. Nothing surprising happens, and it’s awash with blood and gore, but it’s a fun watch that keeps your attention.
Limbo (2020) ★★★★
Film4, 11.05pm
Ben Sharrock’s beautifully shot picture, the first ever filmed on North and South Uist, is virtually plotless – and that’s the point. It centres on four asylum seekers who are staying on a Scottish island, each burdened by their own memories of home and anxiously awaiting news of their settlement claims so they can begin a new life. This is a profound portrait of the refugee experience, perfectly balancing light and shade.
Stan & Ollie (2018) ★★★★
BBC One, 11.40pm
A triumph for Steve Coogan and John C Reilly as Laurel and Hardy in their twilight years, touring the UK in 1953, struggling to get a film made and to fill the venues already reluctant to lend them a stage. Keeping time and pace with the precise comedy of the duo is no mean feat, but Coogan and Reilly manage it with aplomb. Their bickering is well observed, and there’s a faithfulness to the original gags. Scottish director Jon S Baird takes the reins.
Code Blue: One Punch Killers
ITV1, 9pm
Pulling apart the medical, ethical, legal and emotional fallouts from three one-punch attacks in south Wales, Joanna Grace’s documentary may be harrowing but also feels important given the apparent proliferation of such cases: they have accounted for one in seven homicides in south Wales in the past three years. The circumstances around each attack differ in some respects but share several common aspects: the offenders were men and either drunk or high (or both); they instigated their altercations outside nightclubs; they launched attacks with all the hallmarks of a “boxer’s punch”, in each case on a complete stranger; and, when arrested, they were either evasive or unrepentant.
The families rail at the seemingly lenient sentences meted out to the men who in one case killed their loved one, and in the other left him with permanent brain damage (the third was given a life sentence for murder). Their tributes to Andrew Nicholas, Matthew Thomas and Chris Harris, blameless victims all, celebrate their lives as much as mourn their appalling loss. A night out with patrols around south Wales suggests preemptive solutions, but it comes too late for these three families. GT
Super Dogs with Extraordinary Jobs
Channel 5, 7pm
This irresistible two-part series follows carefully trained canines as they assist those in need, whether it is sniffing out smuggled drugs or providing support to people suffering PTSD.
AI Revolution
PBS America, 7.25pm
Exploring the origins of Artificial Intelligence from the wartime prescience of Alan Turing onwards, this balanced film explores both the enormous positive potential of AI (driving innovative medical and environmental developments) and possible causes for concern (the shortcuts of Chat GPT, the imminence of the singularity).
The Great British Sewing Bee
BBC Two, 9pm
Ten sewers remain as we reach the halfway point with India as the theme: the Pattern Challenge features Nehru jackets, calico and Madras cotton are required for the Transformation, and the sari inspires the Made to Measure test.
Super Surgeons: A Chance at Life
Channel 4, 9pm
Channel 4’s answer to the BBC’s Surgeons: At the Edge of Life continues to impress in its own right with a second four-part visit to the cancer specialists of the Royal Marsden. With one young midwife-in-training facing a possible limb amputation and a man dismayed at the apparent return of his testicular cancer, solutions balancing empathy and innovation are called for.
Peacock
BBC Three, 9pm & 9.30pm
Just like the same team’s People Just Do Nothing, Peacock is a forensically detailed, unnervingly accurate deconstruction of masculinity played for excruciating laughs. Back for a second series (boxsetted tonight), personal trainers Andy (deluded Allan Mustafa) and Jay (smooth Lucien Laviscount) are competing to be top dog at the gym – but can Andy’s new relationship with soulmate Georgia (Mandeep Dhillon) compensate for his rampant insecurities?
Flee: Storyville
BBC Four, 10pm
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s superb 2021 documentary bears an additional charge since the Taliban’s takeover. It tells the true story of Amin, a gay man forced to leave Afghanistan after the Mujahideen seize power. Through ingenious animation and paced like a thriller, it is a hugely effective evocation of trauma amid persecution, punctuated by moments of joy and release when he finally finds a new home in Denmark.
James Blunt: One Brit Wonder (2024)
Netflix
Everybody has their own view on the chart-topping, smooth-singing creator of perennial earworms You’re Beautiful and Goodbye My Lover. Chris Atkins’s heartfelt documentary, though, offers a more personal look at Blunt’s life and career: from his time serving as an officer on the front line in the British army to shifting 12 million copies of his debut album, Back to Bedlam, and now, kicking back on his adopted home of Ibiza.
Lonely Are the Brave (1962, b/w) ★★★★
Film4, 4.45pm
Adapted by David Miller from Edward Abbey’s novel The Brave Cowboy, this noir Western stars Kirk Douglas as a Korean War veteran who eschews modern technology and fights to free his old riding buddy, who has been arrested for helping illegal immigrants. It adds some original modern beats to the genre – the scene of a helicopter pursuing a lone horseman lingers long in the memory.
Patch Adams (1998) ★★★
Sky Cinema 90s, 10.25pm
Loosely based on the life of Dr Hunter “Patch” Adams, Tom Shadyac’s drama was panned by critics upon release for being too sentimental – but it’s worth a watch solely for Robin Williams in the lead. He plays Adams, who, after institutionalising himself with suicidal depression, discovers his calling as a doctor. Disillusioned by bureaucracy, he forges his own path with the mantra that laughter really is the best medicine.
Adam Lambert: Out, Loud & Proud
ITV1, 9pm
When he walked onto the American Idol stage in 2009, Indiana-raised singer Adam Lambert had little reason to believe he would go on to become one of the music industry’s biggest-selling stars – and the new frontman of Queen. But, as this candid documentary shows, Lambert (who finished as Idol’s runner-up) is a remarkably strong-willed and passionate performer; a figure who has always believed in his future stardom. Most of the documentary focuses on Lambert’s sexual identity – his second album, Trespassing, was the first by an openly gay artist to reach Number 1 in the US and Canada – and how other queer, British artists have paved the way for equality.
Speaking to LGBTQ+ artists such as Erasure’s Andy Bell and Skunk Anansie frontwoman Skin, Lambert uncovers their groundbreaking stories and the society that shaped them. His Queen bandmates (Lambert has sung in Freddie Mercury’s place on multiple tours since 2012) Brian May and Roger Taylor also contribute, reflecting on Mercury’s pioneering status and how he paved the way for equal rights for queer people. PP
We Were the Lucky Ones
Disney+
Based on Georgia Hunter’s bestselling novel, this moving drama follows the Jewish Kurc family as they are ripped apart during the Second World War; some forced to flee from Poland to Ukraine, in an ill-fated attempt to flee the Nazis; others facing life in the army. Joey King (Ramona and Beezus) stars.
Black Barbie
Netflix
Produced by Shondaland (Bridgerton, Grey’s Anatomy), Black Barbie tells the inspirational story of the three black women (Beulah Mae Mitchell, Kitty Black Perkins and Stacey McBride Irby) who persuaded Mattel to make their first ever black toy doll in the 1980s; a welcome win for representation.
UEFA Euro 2024: Scotland v Switzerland
BBC One, 7.30pm
Following their opening match against hosts Germany, Scotland take on Switzerland, whose group-stage record in recent tournaments is impressive. Can captain Andrew Robertson lead his side to victory in this tough Group A match – and towards the knockouts – in Cologne?
Waitrose: Trouble in the Aisles?
Channel 5, 8pm
Plagued by falling sales, the rise of competitor Marks & Spencer and annoyed customers – who are still ticked-off at the loss of popular perks such as free newspapers or coffee – Waitrose could well be on its way to losing its crown as the supermarket of choice for the middle-classes. This formulaic fly-on-the-wall show asks why, what can be done to fix its fortunes and uncovers its most expensive products.
Confessions of a Teenage Fraudster
BBC Three, 9pm
“I was s—ting myself,” Elliot Castro tells the camera in this reflective documentary. Told over three bloated episodes, Castro – the Aberdeen teenage criminal who fraudulently recorded people’s credit card details in the early 2000s, while working in a call centre, to fund a lavish lifestyle – shares how and why he did it, and how it felt when the law finally caught up with him.
Remembering The Cops
BBC Four, from 10pm
Katy Cavanagh-Jupe and John Henshaw look back on The Cops, the late Nineties drama that made their names and spawned a new wave of gritty, “northern” police procedurals, from Line of Duty to Happy Valley. If you’ve never seen it, don’t fear, because the excellent first four episodes follow.
Kid Blue (1973) ★★★
Talking Pictures TV, 3.05pm
Outlaw Kid Blue (Dennis Hopper) decides to swap robbing trains for a wholesome life on the straight and narrow in the small Texan town of Dime Box, where he makes friends with a preacher (Peter Boyle) and local worker (Warren Oates) who gets him a factory job. But for Blue, work just may be too hard, especially when there are plenty of trains to rob. James Frawley (The Muppet Movie) directs.
Young Winston (1972) ★★★★
Film4, 4pm
Richard Attenborough’s meticulous biopic traces the early years of one of Britain’s most beloved (and now most controversial) prime ministers. Based on Churchill’s own memoirs, it begins with his stint as a war correspondent in Africa, skips back to his boisterous public schooldays, and leads up to his esteemed entry to Parliament and the start of his path to the premiership. Simon Ward and Anne Bancroft star.
The Bourne Supremacy (2004) ★★★★
Sky Showcase, 9pm
Continuing the story of Jason Bourne, this sequel sees the former assassin (Matt Damon) living in Goa with his girlfriend Marie (Franka Potente) when a Russian assassin arrives to plunge him back into the deep end of a CIA conspiracy. While this is not quite on a par with the first film, Paul Greengrass’s direction is typically exhilarating, and Julia Stiles and Brian Cox lend terrific support.
Question Time Leaders’ Special
BBC One, 8pm
From football to political footballs: hot on the heels of England’s crucial Euros match against Denmark (see below), another potentially pivotal clash – this one to help us determine who leads our country for the next five years. It’s been just over a week since the last leaders’ debate, on Sky News, (and a fortnight since the BBC’s seven-way event, plus Sunak and Starmer’s ill-tempered opening round on ITV1) and audience interest might just have revived enough to sustain this gruelling two-hour session. Especially now that all the party manifestos have been published, pored over and analysed, so there should be specific policy points for all the parties to promote and defend.
On the panel are the leaders of the four biggest parliamentary parties – representing the Conservatives (Rishi Sunak), Labour (Keir Starmer), Lib Dems (Ed Davey) and SNP (John Swinney) – and, with just two weeks to go before polling on July 4th, they will all be hoping to score decisive blows – or at least avoid another devastating gaffe. For the smaller parties this is the final TV-debate opportunity; Starmer and Sunak are due to go head-to-head yet again on the BBC next week. Fiona Bruce chairs from York. GO
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
Netflix
We’ve all seen the high-kicking teams of young women who perform to crowds at American football matches. This eye-opening series explores what it takes to make the grade. With “unfiltered” access to auditions, training camps and a full NFL season, it’s a lot more about talent and ambition than rah-rah-rah.
Federer: Twelve Final Days
Amazon Prime Video
After 24 years, 1500 matches and more than a hundred singles titles (including 20 Grand Slams) tennis icon Roger Federer took the decision to quit the competitive arena in 2022. For his final days he invited a film crew to record his emotional departure – the footage was not intended to be for the public. A little arm-twisting from Amazon – plus docu-biopic king Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy) – and the result is a sports film of the highest order.
UEFA Euro 2024: Denmark v England
BBC One, 4pm
In their second group-stage match, England take on the Danes (a team they beat in the Euro 2020 semi-finals, so hopes will be high) at the Frankfurt Arena. Gary Lineker hosts, with commentary by Guy Mowbray and Alan Shearer. Kick-off is 5pm.
The Supervet: Noel Fitzpatrick
Channel 4, 8pm
A “puppy special” looking back at some of the youngest animals that Noel Fitzpatrick has treated over the years. Among them, a three-month-old spaniel with leg deformities and a Jack Russell injured in a freak accident.
The Stormtrooper Scandal
BBC Two, 9pm
Non-fungible tokens were the South Sea Bubble of the art market, digital artworks in which hundreds of millions were invested in the early 2020s only to prove almost worthless. This film explores one of the biggest scandals, relating to a series of NFTs released by curator Ben Moore. A story of ambition, betrayal and fingers badly burned.
Outrageous Homes
Channel 4, 10pm
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is the perfect host for a series celebrating homeowners who take their decor to the max. Tonight he meets a 1970s obsessive in Manchester and takes a dip in a supersized fishtank in a 1920s Nottingham semi. At 9pm, the far more modest and sane George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces returns.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) ★★★★★
Film4, 1.15pm
David Lean’s largely fictional telling of the Second World War story of the Thailand-Burma Railway, based on the novel by Pierre Boulle, is wonderfully complex. It features Alec Guinness in his finest performance as Colonel Nicholson, who goes mad before our eyes, as he and other Allied PoWs hack the 255-mile railway out of harsh jungle while battling torture, starvation and disease.
Only You (2019) ★★★★
BBC Three, 9pm
Harry Wootliff’s debut is an engrossing love story, starring The Crown’s Josh O’Connor and Laia Costa. He plays the wide-eyed romantic Jake; she is the cynical Elena, 10 years his senior and less convinced that their affair will last after they bump into each other one New Year’s Eve while fighting over a taxi. Eventually, a relationship forms, but the strains of beginning a family start to take hold. Also on Tuesday, BBC Two, 11.05pm.
Mrs Dalloway (1997) ★★★★★
BBC Four, 10.30pm
Virginia Woolf’s classic story of a day in the life of a woman giving a party translates surprisingly well to screen. This very good all-Brit adaptation (written by Eileen Atkins) stars the inimitable Vanessa Redgrave as our hostess, and Rupert Graves as a shell-shocked veteran of the Great War, the most interesting of the characters with whom Dalloway’s day intersects. Michael Kitchen and Natascha McElhone are excellent in support.
Yellowstone: One-Fifty
Paramount+
In the hugely successful drama series Yellowstone, Kevin Costner plays John Dutton, the ruthless owner of a Montana ranch which borders the Yellowstone National Park. For this elegiac four-part documentary series, the actor ventures deep into the canyons and forests that make up one of America’s most awe-inspiring landscapes. Originally airing in the US in 2022, the series is a celebration of the park’s 150th anniversary. Thus Costner tells the absorbing story of its birth. He explains how, in 1871, a geologist called Ferdinand Hayden led an expedition to the region on the orders of Congress. His mission was to size up this mysterious new land for potential industry. Instead, the expedition was so overawed by Yellowstone’s beauty that Congress eventually made it the world’s first national park.
Costner does his best man-of-the-woods impression in retracing Hayden’s footsteps; fishing in the lake, cooking over the fire. Understandably, he saves his most profound reverence for the Grand Prismatic Spring, a hot spring that shines five different colours. “When I was younger I saw pictures and I thought, ‘Could there be a place like this in the world?’.” SK
Isle of Wight Festival 2024
Sky Arts, 7pm
Sky Arts kicks off festival season with a bang, as UK electronica royalty The Prodigy headline the opening night on the Isle of Wight (11.30pm). Before then, you can catch acts such as Crowded House and The Streets. The weekend’s other headliners are Pet Shop Boys and Green Day.
Rubbish Tip Britain: Dispatches
Channel 4, 8pm
An investigation into the putrid world of waste crime. One major landfill site, for instance, is full of banned toxic waste, while new satellite data suggests that hundreds of unregulated waste dumps are being operated in plain sight. Couple that with the low number of prosecutions for fly tipping and it all starts to stink.
Chinook: Zulu Delta 576
BBC Two, 9pm
The concluding part of the documentary, about the 1994 Mull of Kintyre Chinook helicopter crash, contests the RAF’s claim that the fatal accident was due to the “negligence” of pilots Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook. Instead, evidence points to a potential cover-up of the truth – faulty computer software that made the aircraft unfit for flying.
Paranormal: The Village That Saw Aliens
BBC Three, 9pm/9.30pm
Is the truth out there? Tonight’s concluding two-parter features some titillating claims. Take the multiple people in south Wales who say they have all seen the same cigar-shaped UFO. Yet for all of its contrived mystery and spooky music, there’s not much here that will turn a sceptic into a believer.
Rebus
BBC Scotland, 9pm
In a TV landscape full of identikit detective dramas, the quality of Rebus blazes bright. Tonight’s superb finale continues the show’s form for navigating horror with humanity and soul. There is a particularly striking scene in which Rebus’s (Richard Rankin) army veteran brother Michael (Brian Ferguson) delivers an impassioned soliloquy about the emptiness of civilian life.
Sister Boniface Mysteries
Drama, 9pm
The writers are having a lot of fun this series. A few weeks ago the cosy detective drama opened with a riff on James Bond. Tonight, we meet Kirk Fabricant (Mark Heap), the kidnapped actor behind cancelled science-fiction show “Professor Y”. His spaceship is a telephone box. He travels in time and space. Hmm, Who could that be a reference to?
Bread & Roses (2023) ★★★★
Apple TV+
Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) co-produced this powerful documentary from film-maker Sahra Mani. Bread & Roses is set in the aftermath of the Taliban regaining power in Afghanistan in 2021. It features footage from Sharifa, an ex-government employee forced indoors, Zahra, a woman organising activists in her dentistry practice, and Taranom, who seeks refuge in Pakistan.
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974) ★★★
Film4, 4.35pm
In this Ray Harryhausen stop-motion animated adventure, based on the classic Middle Eastern tale, John Phillip Law plays the intrepid sea-captain who sails to the mythical isle of Lemuria in search of the missing part of an amulet, but it’s Tom Baker’s splendid display of manic grinning as evil Prince Koura which anchors the film. Look out for Robert Shaw’s cameo as an oracle with scary teeth.
Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023) ★★
Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm
Five Nights at Freddy’s started out as a survive-the-robots horror video game in 2014, which has since spawned a huge cult franchise and eight sequels. The film, which spent the best part of a decade in development, stars Josh Hutcherson as a troubled security guard who starts a job at an abandoned pizzeria where he discovers that its animatronic mascots are possessed by murdered children.
Booksmart (2019) ★★★★
BBC Three, 10pm
Olivia Wilde’s brilliant directorial debut takes place primarily over one night: high-school graduation. It stars Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever (soon to take the lead in HBO’s The Last of Us) as nerdy best friends who, on the final day of school, are faced with the awful realisation that while they chose studying to get into college over partying, their classmates managed both. Cue a John Hughesian night of self-realisation and fun.
Television previewers
Stephen Kelly (SK), Veronica Lee (VL), Gerard O’Donovan (GO), Poppie Platt (PP) and Gabriel Tate (GT)
