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What is on TV tonight? Sick Note, Keeping Faith and Spina Bifida & Me
The Week rounds up the best picks for this evening’s television
In tonight’s Horizon, actress Ruth Madeley, who was born with spina bifida, finds out more about the condition, which prevents the spine from developing properly in the womb. She witnesses pioneering foetal surgery and speaks to her own mother about the impact of her diagnosis, in Spina Bifida & Me on BBC Two at 9pm.
On BBC Two at 8pm is Inventing the Impossible: The Big Life Fix, in which a team of inventors come up with practical solutions for people in need. Tonight they try to help a severely disabled man return to his favourite hobby of snowboarding.
Catch the second series of Sick Note at 10pm on Sky One. Harry Potter star Rupert Grint stars as an affable loser who ends up faking a terminal cancer diagnosis. In tonight’s episode his online gaming friend tries to blackmail him. Stay tuned for an appearance from Lindsay Lohan later in the series.
The Week
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Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Welsh thriller Keeping Faith continues on BBC One at 9pm, when protagonist Faith Howells, played by Eve Myles, is suspected of murdering her own husband.
Tonight’s best film recommendation is Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) at 9pm on Film4. Tom Cruise returns as Impossible Missions Force (IMF) agent Ethan Hunt with the usual high-speed car chases and shadowy assassins. Matt Zoller Seitz at RogerEbert.com describes it as a “glorious film” that “knows exactly what it wants to be and makes damn sure that Tom Cruise never stops running”.
Wednesday 25 July: Prison, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Full Metal Jacket
Bafta-winning filmmaker Paddy Wivell goes inside HMP Durham for the first of a two-part documentary series, Prison, tonight at 9pm on 4Seven. He speaks to the inmates and staff, exploring the issues of mental health and the drug epidemic behind bars in what The Daily Telegraph calls a “blistering, bleak first episode”.
On BBC One at 9pm, Boy George traces his past in Who Do You Think You Are? The singer uncovers grim details about his grandmother, who was put into a children’s home after being found on the streets of Dublin when she was a little girl.
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On BBC Two, Picnic at Hanging Rock continues at 9pm. Adapted from Joan Lindsay's 1967 mystery novel, three students and a teacher vanish during a school picnic in 1900. In tonight’s episode, one of the girls returns but claims to remember nothing about where she has been.
Meanwhile, on ITV, a new four-part series follows four women with extraordinary intelligence trying to track down a serial killer in the mid-1950s. Rachael Stirling, Julie Graham, Crystal Balint and Chanelle Peloso star in The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco at 9pm.
Tonight’s best film recommendation is Full Metal Jacket (1987) at 10pm on ITV4. New recruits are called up for service in the Vietnam War and face brutal training from a foul-mouthed drill sergeant, played by the late R Lee Ermey. Director Stanley Kubrick once again proves “his genius as a cinematic storyteller”, says Slant magazine.
Tuesday 24 July: Gangland, Our Girl and Andrew Marr's History of the World
Andrew Marr has taken on the ambitious task of examining 70,000 years of history in an eight-part documentary series. The first episode of Andrew Marr's History of the World can be seen at 8pm on BBC Four tonight, when the journalist will be considering how everyday life in ancient Egypt compares with our own.
A second series of Channel 5’s Gangland begins at 10pm. The documentary looks at the lives of young people in some of London’s toughest neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile, BBC One’s fourth series of Our Girl, starring Michelle Keegan as Lance Corporal Georgie Lane, comes to an end tonight. There is action aplenty as the team mount a rescue mission.
For something more heatwarming, tune in to ITV at 8pm. Alan Titchmarsh and his team transform the garden of a 90-year-old lady suffering with macular degeneration in a new series of Love Your Garden.
Tonight’s best film recommendation is The Football Factory (2004), at 11.05pm on Channel 5, starring Danny Dyer as a Chelsea fan beginning to question his violent lifestyle. “Scratching beneath the initially unnerving surface, you'll discover a film that's less concerned with football violence and more intrigued by the destructive nature of male bonding, the male ego and male discontentment,” says Empire magazine.
Monday 23 July: The Fake Murder That Fooled the World and How to Get Rich Quick
(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Tonight’s Panorama explores the bizarre fake murder of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko. A famous critic of the country’s president Vladimir Putin, Babchenko was declared murdered in Ukraine in May, only to appear alive at a press conference the following day. In The Fake Murder That Fooled the World, on BBC One at 8.30pm, Jonah Fisher finds out why his death was staged.
At the same time on Channel 4, millionaire Dave Fishwick offers some money-making tips in How to Get Rich Quick. Tonight, he advises a council worker who sets up a market food stall with her mother and sisters.
Meanwhile, on BBC Four at 10pm, Insha'Allah Democracy - Storyville offers an insight into the political volatility of Pakistan ahead of the country’s elections this week. Filmaker Mo Naqvi, a Shia Muslim born in Canada, uses footage from moments of his own past in Pakistan to add colour to the documentary.
Tonight’s best film recommendation is The Bourne Legacy at 9pm on E4. The only Bourne film missing Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, it exceeded pre-release expectations, with Jeremy Renner starring in the spy thriller sequel. “A nifty model of rapid storytelling,” says The Daily Telegraph.
