Pick of The Week
Pick of the Week: Monday 8th September
A NUMBER
BBC 2 Wed 10th Sept 9PM Alert Me
Tom Wilkinson and Rhys Ifans star in the screen adaptation of British playwright Caryl Churchill’s stage play from 2002, A Number. It is a fascinating study of family relationships, human identity and nature versus nurture. The potential of erasing the past and starting anew is an appealing one – but at what price? Salter is confronted by his son, Bernard, demanding answers about his existence only to discover a disturbing secret. He is not his father’s son but a clone, and he is not alone. He is one of “a number” – perhaps more than 20 people – who were copied from his father’s first son, whom Salter claims was killed in a car crash.
THE 9/11 FAKER
Channel 4 Thurs 11th Sept 9pm Alert Me
The flagship documentary series, Cutting Edge , returns with a new run of distinctive and compelling films offering a snapshot of life in Britain and beyond. In the years following the 9/11 attacks, many stories emerged of triumph, tragedy and heroism. But one story stood out: Tania Head, one of only 19 people at or above the point of impact to survive, who also lost her fianc? in the attacks. She became President of the World Trade Center Survivors’ Network. But Tania wasn’t who she said she was. On the day of the attacks she wasn’t even in New York; she was in Spain.
ENTOURAGE
ITV 2 Thurs 11th Sept 11pm Alert Me
When Entourage concluded season four earlier this year, the boys had little hope or money after a disastrous screening of Vince’s movie, Medellin, at the Cannes Film Festival. Now, Vince must find a way to rejuvenate his career. His best friend and manager Eric is determined to get Vince back to the top, while struggling with his expanding management company. Agent Ari Gold, who is having a few career conflicts of his own, struggles to deliver for Vince, given the current state of things. Drama, meanwhile, continues his successful television career while experiencing problems in his love life, and Turtle is forced to reexamine his contribution to it all.
WIRE IN THE BLOOD
ITV 1 Fri 12th Sept 9pm Alert Me
When a young woman’s remains are found on a wasteland site, it seems as though the death might be an honour killing. But when the site yields up more remains, of very different victims, the deaths tell a different story. Tony wonders why the bodies are incomplete. And why has the killer tied his victims in such a complex manner. Is the killer a fetishist? Perhaps so, since the investigative trail leads the team to a shocking S&M scene. But with such extreme injuries and with victims ranging from a female alcoholic drifter to a teenage boy, it seems unlikely that this is only about consensual violence.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Film Four Sat 13th Sept 9pm Alert Me
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, two young cowboys paired up for a job tending sheep on a Wyoming mountain. As the days go by, their relationship grows until, after a heavy night drinking whisky, they make passionate love. Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning drama is a bold, emotional story of a passion that cannot be denied but must be hidden from a world that can only condemn it.
Pick of the Week: Monday 1st September
DISPATCHES: UNDERCOVER MOSQUE- THE RETURN
Channel 4 Mon 1st Sept 8pm Alert Me
A year and a half after the critically-acclaimed film Undercover Mosque was first screened, Dispatches goes undercover again to see whether extremist beliefs continue to be promoted in certain key British Muslim institutions. The film also investigates the role of the Saudi Arabian religious establishment in spreading a hardline, fundamentalist Islamic ideology in the UK: the very ideology the Government claims to be tackling.
RISKY BUSINESS
Five Mon 1st Sept 11:05pm Alert Me
(1983)Tom Cruise stars in this anarchic comedy about a normally well-behaved teenager who goes wild while his parents are out of town. Left in charge of the family home – and his father’s Porsche – the 17-year-old embarks upon an unorthodox business venture when a good-looking prostitute appears at his door. After crashing the car and finding himself in need of a fast buck, he takes the hooker in and turns his own home into a brothel.
LOST IN AUSTEN
ITV Wed 3rd Sept 9pm Alert Me
Lost In Austen is an ingenious reinvention of the classic novel Pride and Prejudice in which Jane Austen’s story is thrown off track by a very modern heroine, Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper). Amanda swaps places with Elizabeth Bennet (Gemma Arterton) and takes centre stage in the celebrated love story.
UGLY BETTY
Channel 4 Fri 5th Sept 9pm Alert Me
The hugely popular, award-winning comedy returns for a new run of brand-new episodes in the concluding half of season two. Upset by the influence size-zero models have on Justin’s classmates when they are on a school trip to Mode , Betty tries to convince Daniel to use a wider variety of models during Fashion Week. Amanda is convinced she has to kiss Betty after a psychic gives her a cryptic message to help find her father. And Wilhelmina has to find a surrogate to carry her baby… just when Christina needs money to pay for her husband’s medical treatment.
JOANNA LUMLEY - IN THE LAND OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
BBC 1 Sun 7th September 9pm
Joanna Lumley pursues a life-long dream to track down the elusive and beautiful Northern Lights in this amazing journey in Norway’s Far North. Yet with no guarantees that this incredible natural phenomena will appear, it’s in the balance as to whether her journey will be in vain or if she will finally fulfil her lifetime ambition and see the Northern Lights herself.
Pick of the Week: Monday 18th August
THE GENIUS OF CHARLES DARWIN
Channel 4 Monday 18th Aug 8pm
As the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s masterpiece On the Origin of Species approaches, Professor Richard Dawkins presents the ultimate guide to Darwin and his revolutionary Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection , which Dawkins considers the most important idea ever to occur to a human mind. In this powerful three-part polemical series, Dawkins explains who Charles Darwin was, how he developed his theory, what it is, and why it matters. In this final episode, as he meets creationists, scientists and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dawkins examines why, despite a “mountain of evidence”, Darwin’s theory remains one of the most controversial ideas in history.
BLOOD AND GUTS - A HISTORY OF SURGERY
BBC FOUR Wednesday 20th Aug 9pm
Today, surgery saves hundreds of thousands of lives a year. But getting to this position has not been a simple story of selfless men working tirelessly in the pursuit of medical advancement. It is also a bloodstained tale of blunders, arrogance, mishaps and mistakes. The road to surgical advance has been paved by heroes. However, it has also been littered with lobotomised patients, grave-robbing and neo-Nazis.
Blood And Guts – A History Of Surgery explores how brilliant surgical breakthroughs, sometimes humorous, often tragic, shaped the evolution of modern medicine.
Final Episode: HARLEY STREET
ITV 1 Thursday 21 Aug 2008 9
Simon Burgess (Tim Dutton) turns up unexpectedly at the clinic after falling over in the street. He was a lecturer at Robert (Paul NIcholls) and Martha’s (Suranne Jones) medical school and as Annie (Kim Medcalf) cleans up his wound we learn he’s come to see Martha on the pretence of discussing a lecture he’s giving. She and Simon haven’t seen each other for 12 years and it’s clear they were once lovers. Martha’s shocked when Simon reveals he could have Huntington’s Disease (a debilitating and ultimately fatal disease) and asks her to test his blood, claiming she’s the only person he can trust. The news hits Martha hard especially when she realises he could be the father of her daughter, Tess, since they had a three week affair 12 years ago. If Simon has the disease there’s a chance he could have passed the genetic condition onto Tess.
Meanwhile, Robert’s sister, Kate (Polly Maberly), calls worried about Mal (Philip Jackson) who’s having difficulty breathing. Robert tells her to take him straight to A&E where he’s diagnosed with pneumonia. His kidney condition means he has a low immune system and a simple cough has escalated. Robert’s initially angry with his father for not telling him about his condition and as they discuss their troubled relationship, Robert explains he’s never been able to forgive him for hiding the truth about his mother’s illness when she was dying. We see a new side to their relationship as they resolve their differences and Mal is instrumental in making Robert realise his feelings for Martha.
INTERVENTION
Fiver Thursday 21st Aug 10pm
Brand new to FIVER comes this emotional,revealing and occasionally graphic documentary series from the US. Offering a remarkable insight into the world of addiction, Intervention tells the story of a different sufferer each week through candid, intimate footage, before showing us what happens when their loved ones plead with them to seek professional help.
First up is Alyson, a bright 27-year-old who was once a prize-winning student with a scholarship to a prestigious university. Having also worked at the White House on several occasions as an intern, her family had every reason to think she was in the process of building a happy and successful life for herself. However everything went wrong when, while still at college, she met and fell in love with a boy named Richie.
WATCH ME DISAPPEAR
Channel 4 Friday 22nd Aug 7:35pm
As part of Channel 4’s Generation Next season, documentary new talent strand First Cut continues with Lucy Cohen’s extraordinary directorial debut. Each year in Britain around 2,500 people are buried alone. No one claims them, and no one attends their funerals. Others have lain dead and undiscovered for weeks, or even years, before they are found, and relatives traced. Driven by a desire to find out more about these lonely individuals from the people who knew and loved them, Lucy Cohen’s bitter-sweet first film pieces together two peoples’ lives, and asks how - in crowded, hectic, connected, modern Britain - it is possible for anyone to simply slip through the cracks and disappear. Using coroner’s reports, reconstruction and good old-fashioned detective work, Cohen painstakingly puts together the stories of two people who died on the same case files of the same coroner in Manchester and who are buried in the same graveyard. As she tracks down relatives and friends, touching stories emerge: the hard-working student dreaming of setting up his own business, and the fashion-conscious girl who stood up to school bullies and played on the street. Celebrating these lost lives, Cohen finds warmth and humour far removed from the bleakness of a lonely death. And taking us back to their gravesides, Cohen pays her respects to those who died unnoticed, but who lived like the rest of us. “By 2010, 16 million of us will be living alone,” says Cohen, “will we die that way too?”
Pick of the Week: Monday 11th August
KEVIN MCCLOUD AND THE BIG TOWN PLAN
Channel 4 Monday 11th Aug 9pm Alert Me
In a new four-part series Kevin McCloud follows an innovative community-led regeneration scheme in the former mining town of Castleford in Yorkshire. He wants to find out if good design can help to kick-start regeneration and improve the quality of life of a town, and to see if the involvement of residents can add to the project’s chances of success. The series follows the triumphs and tribulations of the process, looks at the reality of regeneration and finds out what residents and experts make of the experience.
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Film Four Tuesday 12th August 9pm Alert Me
Uplifting and life-affirming drama starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman as Andy Dufresne and Ellis Boyd Redding, prisoners serving long sentences in the vicious Shawshank jail. The two come to terms with their imprisonment while surviving the sadistic acts of prison warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton), and for both, a different sort of redemption awaits. Directed by Frank Darabont, and based on Stephen King’s short story, Channel 4 viewers voted The Shawshank Redemption the third best film of all time.
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
BBC 1 Wednesday 13 August 9pm Alert Me
Holby City star Patsy Kensit is the first of eight celebrities to embark on an emotional personal journey to investigate her family history, as Who Do You Think You Are? returns to BBC One for a new series. Patsy’s investigation begins with the colourful life of her late father, Jimmy Kensit, who was deeply involved with London’s most notorious gangsters of the Sixties: the Krays and the Richardsons. Wanting to understand the roots of his criminality and to discover how far back the “family trade” goes, Patsy meets a criminologist who has unearthed a copy of her father’s criminal record – which reveals the full extent of his activities. She is then shocked to find documents in the National Archives that show her grandfather was also a prolific criminal. As Patsy’s journey continues, she comes across a truly remarkable vicar who shines a new light on her family history and provides her with a fresh insight into her own faith and values.
THE X FACTOR
ITV 1 Saturday 16 August 2008 7:30pm Alert Me
This year, Judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Dannii Minogue are joined by new X Factor judge Cheryl Cole from one of the most successful pop groups of the decade, Girls Aloud. In this first episode the X Factor auditions 2008 kick off in Manchester before moving to London and Cardiff. Cheryl faces up to her first day as an X Factor judge in Manchester with a huge dilemma as she’s called on to judge a friend from her past. In London, the judges audition a 26-year-old mother of 5 with not only some shocking real life experience but an amazing talent and having found one of the best ever boybands in London, the judges travel to Cardiff to be confronted by one of the all time worst.
THE PERFECT VAGINA
Channel 4 Sunday 17th Aug 10pm Alert Me
The G- Spot, a female-led documentary strand of intelligent and provocative films investigating a range of topical issues that impact on how women live now, continues with The Perfect Vagina . Vaginal cosmetic surgery on the NHS has doubled in the UK over the past five years and in the private sector there has been an estimated 300% increase in labiaplasties. In this honest, witty and compassionate film, Lisa Rogers tries to find out why more and more women are considering vaginal surgery for either aesthetic or cultural reasons.
Pick of the Week: Monday 4th August
ARENA: THE UNDERGROUND
BBC 4 Monday 4th August 10:20pm Alert Me!
The extraordinary subterranean world of the Tube is the subject of the final part of Arena’s London Transport Trilogy. The London Underground is the world’s oldest underground railway system and is used by a staggering 3m passengers every day. Arena – Underground travels through 150 years of tube history, using literature, music and film inspired by it. The film tells the story of a mother and child through 150 years of ordinary underground journeys, beginning with a public hanging in 1863. The reconstruction and archive is interwoven with the stories of passengers and train drivers, from Margaret, who sheltered at Hampstead Station during the war, to Ted from the Lost Property Office. Psychologist Peter Collett provides comment on the unique and peculiarly British behaviour to be found on the Tube.
FILM: THE PLAYER
Film Four Tuesday 5th August 11:10pm Alert Me!
In the Films to See Before You Die strand, Paul Kaye introduces Robert Altman’s satire on Hollywood mores. Tim Robbins stars as Griffin Mill, a studio exec who commits the ultimate sin and forgets to call a writer back. Suddenly, threatening faxes and mail start arriving just as his job is under threat from slimy Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher) and girlfriend Bonnie Sherow (Cynthia Stevenson) is showing just a tad too much intelligence for the trophy wife he planned. This is a classic satire with a wonderful performance from Robbins.
NEW SERIES: FASHIONISTA DIARIES
Fiver Wednesday 6th August 8pm Alert Me!
If you think the fashion industry is all about glitz, glamour and celebrity-packed parties, you would be 100% correct. But it’s not all haute couture, schmoozing with the stars and partying till the early hours for the men and women who are trying to make it in this cut throat business. Fashionista Diaries follows six young hopefuls as they are given the opportunity to work in different aspects of the fashion world. Can they handle the sky high rent, long hours and hectic social life that blurs the lines between work and play? Working towards the fashion industry’s biggest event, New York Fashion Week, the interns compete for the ultimate prize – who will be given a full-time job?
NEW SERIES: SPOOKS- CODE 9
BBC3 Sunday 10th August 9pm Alert Me!
Spooks – Code 9 is a new six-part drama for BBC Three, allowing viewers to see the future of Spooks and to get even closer to the world of conspiracy and espionage.
The year is 2013. Thames House is gone and regional MI5 Field Offices have sprung up in its place. London has been evacuated following a nuclear bomb and the country’s power base has shifted north Are six young new recruits tough, moral and clever enough to protect Britain’s future?
As the team prepare to move in on a dangerous Assassin who is after the Prime Minister, they realise the signs just don’t add up. Realisation hits that the PM may not be the target – and that one member of Field Office 19 is walking straight into a trap.
BONES
Thursday 7 August 2008 at 21:00 Alert Me!
The body of a man dressed as Santa is discovered, kicking of this Christmas special of Bones. The case becomes stranger when Booth and Brennan discover thousands of dollars stashed in a dresser at the victim’s house. Brennan tries to organise Christmas with her father and brother in prison, and Brennan agrees to kiss Booth under the mistletoe.
Pick of the week: Monday 28th July
Monday 28th July- Sunday 3rd August
FILM: THE SEVENTH SEAL
Film 4 Tuesday 29th July 10:45pm Alert Me!
On the first anniversary of his death, Film4 presents a short season of films by Ingmar Bergman. One of cinema’s seminal films, Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece passes the test of time. A knight and his squire (Max Von Sydow and Gunnar Bjornstrand), returning home from the Crusades through a plague-ridden land, meet Death (Bengt Ekerot) who engages the knight in a chess game as the pair debate the mysteries of life, faith and death itself.
HOUSE OF SADDAM
BBC TWO Wednesdaay 30th July 9pm Alert Me!
Igal Naor plays the ruthless dictator Saddam Hussein in a gripping, new, four-part drama series that charts the rise and fall of one of the most significant political figures in recent history.
As war wages, Saddam faces troubles at home; the death of his domineering mother; the youthful nonchalance of his son and heir, Uday; and the deterioration of alliances with Barzan Ibrahim, his half-brother and former deputy. Saddam finds solace in the beautiful, married, Samira Shahbandar, who becomes his mistress much to the chagrin of his glamorous wife – Sajida.
FILM: CLUELESS
Thursday 31st July 9pm Alert Me!
Amy Heckerling, who directed the superb Fast Times at Ridgemont High , scores again with this high-school take on Jane Austen’s Emma . Alicia Silverstone plays Cher Horowitz who, thanks to her rich lawyer daddy, has it all. She and her school friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) decide to take new girl Tai (Brittany Murphy) under their wing and make sure she finds a date. They succeed, only to find they’ve created a monster…
DANGEROUS JOBS FOR GIRLS
Channel 4 Wednesday 30th July 10pm Alert Me!
What happens when high-flying career women, who think there’s nothing they can’t do, meet men who think women aren’t up to the job? In the flood plains of Brazil, the forests of north-west Canada, the grasslands of South Africa, and the Southern oceans of Australia, there are jobs so dangerous that they’ve been done by men alone for generations - until now. In a new documentary adventure series, four teams of high-achieving British women travel to four far-flung corners of the world to take on tough, physical jobs. Can the women beat the boys at their own game? In tonight’s opening episode three women head to Brazil to work as cowboys.
MY STRANGE BRAIN
Channel 5 Thursday 31st July 11pm Alert Me!
This brand-new documentary series explores unusual neurological conditions. The first instalment profiles four people with different disorders that affect their memories and sleeping patterns. One woman was struck down by a virus that has erased all her recollections of the last 20 years, while another woman is unable to record new memories. The film also meets a man who loses his muscle tone every time he experiences heightened emotions.
Pick of the Week: Monday 21st July
Monday 21st July - Sunday 27th July
DISPATCHES: THE JAB THAT CAN STOP CANCER
Channel 4 Monday 21st July 8pm Alert Me!
In the next few weeks every girl aged 12 to 13 in Britain will be offered a vaccination to help protect her against cervical cancer. It’s the first time a jab has been developed that can prevent a cancer. The vaccine works by stopping women contracting the virus that causes cervical cancer. But while some hail it as a medical breakthrough, it has provoked controversy. Journalist Jane Moore, who has two daughters, sets out to find answers to the questions every parent will ask before deciding whether to allow their daughters to have the vaccination. Will it work? Is it necessary? And is it safe? The Jab That Can Stop Cancer sets out some of the key facts about the sexually-transmitted virus that causes the cancer and examines how the Government arrived at its decision to give it to all girls. And as this new vaccine is the most expensive the NHS has ever bought, Jane Moore investigates whether the new mass inoculation is value for money.
THE WIRE
FX Monday 21st July 10pm
The fifth and final season of this excellent police drama begins on Monday on FX. Mayor Carcetti struggles to keep his pre-election promises, and is forced to choose between education and law and order. Meanwhile, McNulty keeps Marlo under surveillance. Morale is low in the force and Detective Jimmy McNulty returns to the homicide department.
ZOOLANDER
Film 4 Tuesday 22nd July 2008 9pm Alert Me!
Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) is the world’s top model. Then Hansel (Owen Wilson) arrives. The new face du jour wins Male Model of the Year and usurps the throne, while Zoolander’s world implodes when his friends are killed, and the media start a feeding frenzy. Avant-garde designer Mugatu (Will Ferrer) steps in to play saviour, offering Derek a chance to model his new ‘derelicte’ range of couture inspired by the homeless. But Mugatu has another agenda: to assassinate the Malaysian PM, whose child labour laws threaten his business. Zoolander is brainwashed to carry out the deed, but the plan hasn’t figured on interfering reporter Matilda Jeffries (Christine Taylor) and some unexpected allies…Stiller’s previous efforts as director - Reality Bites and The Cable Guy - were brave and trenchant. Zoolander ’s satire is blunt and broad-brush, but develops the idiot-made-good persona which has seen Stiller in perpetual employment. As were his family: wife Christine Taylor gets a major role, while mother, sister and brother-in-law get a scene each. Even the pet labrador gets a turn. But it’s veteran comic Jerry Stiller (Ben’s father) that walks away with the movie as Derek’s agent, Maury, dressed as mutton and spouting Catskill-friendly shtick.
BURN UP
BBC 2 Wednesday 23rd July 9pm Alert Me!
Rupert Penry-Jones, Marc Warren, Bradley Whitford and Neve Campbell star in this new, two-part, provocative drama set in the real-life context of climate change, written by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty).
Burn Up is an emotionally powerful story of love, commitment and divided loyalty – a thriller in which the stakes couldn’t be higher. Oil company executives, environmental activists and politicians collide in the battle between economic success and ecological responsibility.
As the drama begins, a team of geologists is murdered in the Saudi desert. One of the team – Masud – survives, and sets in motion a chain of events which will pit friend against friend and country against country.
Sir Mark Foxbay, CEO of Arrow Oil, resigns abruptly and is succeeded by his son-in-law, Tom McConnell, a choice approved by Arrow’s pro-oil lobbyist and Tom’s best friend, Mack. Within days, Tom is handed a writ by Mika – a climate-change activist who alleges Arrow Oil has rendered her Inuit homeland uninhabitable.
To stem bad publicity, Tom and Mack plan to raise the profile of Arrow’s head of renewables, Holly Dernay. But positive PR becomes redundant when, after her writ is thrown out, Mika sacrifices herself in an act which has a devastating impact on Tom, who begins to question his convictions, something hastened by his growing closeness to Holly.
BENICASSIM
ITV 2 Friday 25th July 11:15PM Alert Me!
Benicassim festival, or Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, is Europe’s largest outdoor rock festival and is held in Benicassim, near Valencia in Spain in the height of summer. ITV2 has exclusive access to this year’s festival, which can be seen in this one hour programme.
Topping the bill on this year’s main stage are Irish rock band My Bloody Valentine, Brit Award-winning pop sensation Mika, dynamic duo Gnarls Barkley, American rock band The Raconteurs, Pete Doherty’s Babyshambles and guitar hero Jose Gonzalez.
Brit bands The Courteeners, The Rumblestrips, and The Ting Tings have burst on to the music scene in the past year and will be performing at this year’s festival.
Performances in the dance tent include Hot Chip, Justice, Booka Shade and Calvin Harris.
Pick of the Week: Monday 14th July
Mon. 14th July - Sunday 20th July
THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE MUSLIM WORLD
Channel 4 Monday 14th July 7:50pm Alert Me!
Week-long series presenting Islam as it is lived and practised. The guides are six pilgrims from different parts of the world - including a young Spanish pizza chef, a newspaper boy from Jerusalem, and a PR professional from Pakistan. They all have a dream, to visit Mecca for pilgrimage. The Seven Wonders of the Muslim World tells their stories in six, intimate ten-minute portraits exploring their lives and the way they worship - from Djenne in Mali to Lahore, Pakistan, and Tehran to Istanbul. Contrasting lives, in diverse settings, yet with a single common thread: Islam - the fastest-growing faith, which dominates the lives of 1.3 billion followers. Their stories reveal how modern Muslims live and the programme explores some of the most stunning examples of Islamic architecture on the planet.
SHARIAH TV
Channel 4 Tuesday 15th July 12:05am Alert Me!
Returning for a fifth series, but at an unfortunate hour, Shariah TV travels to New York to see what Britain can learn from post 9/11 America’s relationship with its Muslim community. Broadcaster and journalist Tazeen Ahmad brings together young Muslims to quiz scholars and Imams from across the USA and find out what their duty is towards the country so many of their fellow Muslims across the world see as their enemy. James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, and Reza Aslan, seen by many young American Muslims as ‘The Golden Boy of Islam’, are among the panellists as they face questions on living in the shadow of 9/11, the role of Muslim women in the land of the Civil Rights movement and how Muslims relate to other faiths in ‘God’s Own Country’.
PRIVATE PRACTICE
Living TV Tuesday 15th July 10:00pm Alert Me!
Private Practice follows Grey’s Anatomy’s neo-natal surgeon Addison Forbes Montgomery (Kate Walsh,) as she moves from Seattle to Santa Monica, California, and starts over. After a failed attempt at marriage reconciliation with estranged husband Derek ‘McDreamy’ Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), and a knock back from a promotion in Seattle Grace Hospital, Addison accepts a position at the Oceanside Wellness Center in this brand new series. Joining her new colleagues, Addison discovers that the entire staff have their own life issues. The sexy alternative medicine doc who has one-night stands; the gynaecologist who doesn’t know a thing about women; and the therapist who doubts she’s doing any good at all.
HARLEY STREET
ITV 1 Thursday 17th July 9:00pm Alert Me!
This new ITV drama follows Dr Robert Fielding (Paul Nicholls) and Dr Martha Elliot (Suranne Jones) along with Dr Ekkow Obiang (Shaun Parkes) as they a modern GP practice, 195 Harley Street.
While all three doctors are absolutely dedicated to their GP work at 195 they do have other interests. Robert divides his time between the practice and the white knuckle thrills of a London A&E where he does locum Registrar shifts for his friend, Dr Ross Jarvis (Tom Ellis). Martha is a psychologist who juggles the demands of her busy career alongside being a single mum to her twelve year old daughter, Tess (Rosie Day). Ekkow is a renowned plastic surgeon, and a mastermind in his field.
BBC PROMS 2008: First Night of the Proms Live
BBC 2 Friday 18th July 8pm
Introduced by Charles Hazlewood and Suzy Klein, live from London’s Royal Albert Hall, the first Prom features Finnish soprano Karita Mattila singing Strauss’s Four Last Songs; pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard playing Beethoven’s Rondo in B flat major; Nicholas Daniel performing Mozart’s Oboe Concerto; and organist Wayne Marshall launching proceedings on the Royal Albert Hall’s historic organ with Strauss’s Festliches Präludium. The concert ends with Scriabin’s powerful Poem of Ecstasy.
For the first time, the BBC Two Proms are presented from a specially built studio within the Royal Albert Hall building, where Charles and Suzy are joined by guests and artists to discuss the concert, signalling the start of new-look Saturday night BBC Two broadcasts throughout the season (starting on 26 July). The studio will have a large screen showing preparations within the auditorium, as well as specially pre-recorded films and live down-the-line interviews with artists backstage.
Pick of the Week: Monday 7th July
Mon. 7th July - Sun. 13th July
BONEKICKERS
BBC 1 Tuesday 8th July 9pm Alert Me!
A team of archaeologists find themselves in mortal danger when they uncover a medieval mystery, in this new drama series starring Julie Graham, Hugh Bonneville, Adrian Lester and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. During an excavation of 14th-century medieval soldiers and Saracen coinage in Somerset, brilliant archaeologist Professor Gillian Magwilde, aided by forensic expert Dr Ben Ergha, eager new intern Viv Davis and the erudite but disreputable Professor Gregory Parton, discovers that the soldiers were members of the Knights Templar.
SIR RANULPH FIENNES EIGER CHALLENGE
ITV 4 Thursday 10 July 8:00PM
Sir Ranulph Fiennes is a great British legend who has spent most of his life doing the kind of thing that most normal people would consider an extremely bad idea. He has trekked solo to both the South and North Poles, circumnavigated the globe the hard way and hacked off his frostbitten fingers. Himself. With a hacksaw.
Despite having a heart attack up Everest, a fear of heights and the “issue” with his fingertips, this March he attempted to climb the North Face of the Eiger, one of the toughest climbs known to man, in aid for the Marie Curie foundation. Towering 1,800m (5,900 ft) above the valley below, it is known as one of the six great north faces of the Alps. Earning itself the nickname ‘Murder-face’, over 50 climbers have lost their lives attempting to climb to the peak.
LAB RATS
BBC 2 Thursday 10th July 9:30pm Alert Me!
Lab Rats is a new BBC Two studio comedy, starring Chris Addison from The Thick of It. Somewhere in St Dunstan’s University sits the Arnolfini Research Laboratory – a lab for hire, meant for flashy projects which will bring the college kudos and money. Unfortunately, the Arnolfini is staffed by what are known in scientific circles as ‘idiots’.
Lab Rats is a big, daft, cartoony sitcom, filmed before a studio audience. Although set in a laboratory, it is less about science and more an excuse for stupid jokes, endearingly chaotic characters and fast-paced, farcical plots. One week might find the lab rats unexpectedly creating giant, corridor-filling snails, the next week they could be wondering how they’ve offended Joan Armatrading.
CROCODILE DUNDEE
E4 Saturday 12 July 9pm
Mick ‘Crocodile’ Dundee (Paul Hogan) takes New York in Peter Faiman’s Oscar-nominated comedy. This classic aussie movie stands the test of time. “That’s not a knife… THIS is a knife” is still one of the best movie lines ever. Always worth watching and still as funny as the day it came out.
7/7: THE ANGELS OF EDGWARE ROAD
Channel 4 Sunday 13 July 7pm
The Angels of Edgware Road is the second of two documentary films commemorating the third anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings. It tells the heroic and uplifting stories of the passengers and passers-by who stayed behind risking injury and death trying to save the lives of complete strangers. Six people were killed in the bombing at Edgware Road and 163 others were injured. Had it not been for the prompt actions of the ‘Angels of Edgware Road’ more of those injured would have lost their lives.
Pick of the Week: Monday 7th July
Mon. 7th July - Sun. 13th July
BONEKICKERS
BBC 1 Tuesday 8th July 9pm Alert Me!
A team of archaeologists find themselves in mortal danger when they uncover a medieval mystery, in this new drama series starring Julie Graham, Hugh Bonneville, Adrian Lester and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. During an excavation of 14th-century medieval soldiers and Saracen coinage in Somerset, brilliant archaeologist Professor Gillian Magwilde, aided by forensic expert Dr Ben Ergha, eager new intern Viv Davis and the erudite but disreputable Professor Gregory Parton, discovers that the soldiers were members of the Knights Templar.
SIR RANULPH FIENNES EIGER CHALLENGE
ITV 4 Thursday 10 July 8:00PM
Sir Ranulph Fiennes is a great British legend who has spent most of his life doing the kind of thing that most normal people would consider an extremely bad idea. He has trekked solo to both the South and North Poles, circumnavigated the globe the hard way and hacked off his frostbitten fingers. Himself. With a hacksaw.
Despite having a heart attack up Everest, a fear of heights and the “issue” with his fingertips, this March he attempted to climb the North Face of the Eiger, one of the toughest climbs known to man, in aid for the Marie Curie foundation. Towering 1,800m (5,900 ft) above the valley below, it is known as one of the six great north faces of the Alps. Earning itself the nickname ‘Murder-face’, over 50 climbers have lost their lives attempting to climb to the peak.
LAB RATS
BBC 2 Thursday 10th July 9:30pm Alert Me!
Lab Rats is a new BBC Two studio comedy, starring Chris Addison from The Thick of It. Somewhere in St Dunstan’s University sits the Arnolfini Research Laboratory – a lab for hire, meant for flashy projects which will bring the college kudos and money. Unfortunately, the Arnolfini is staffed by what are known in scientific circles as ‘idiots’.
Lab Rats is a big, daft, cartoony sitcom, filmed before a studio audience. Although set in a laboratory, it is less about science and more an excuse for stupid jokes, endearingly chaotic characters and fast-paced, farcical plots. One week might find the lab rats unexpectedly creating giant, corridor-filling snails, the next week they could be wondering how they’ve offended Joan Armatrading.
CROCODILE DUNDEE
E4 Saturday 12 July 9pm
Mick ‘Crocodile’ Dundee (Paul Hogan) takes New York in Peter Faiman’s Oscar-nominated comedy. This classic aussie movie stands the test of time. “That’s not a knife… THIS is a knife” is still one of the best movie lines ever. Always worth watching and still as funny as the day it came out.
7/7: THE ANGELS OF EDGWARE ROAD
Channel 4 Sunday 13 July 7pm
The Angels of Edgware Road is the second of two documentary films commemorating the third anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings. It tells the heroic and uplifting stories of the passengers and passers-by who stayed behind risking injury and death trying to save the lives of complete strangers. Six people were killed in the bombing at Edgware Road and 163 others were injured. Had it not been for the prompt actions of the ‘Angels of Edgware Road’ more of those injured would have lost their lives.
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