Friday 9pm, BBC Two “A weird little town I’ve become strangely fond of,” says Margolyes as she completes her latest Australian tour in the Outback outpost of Broken Hill. Touring this remote former mining community on her mobility scooter, the actress wants to discover whether Broken Hill has found a new identity. It’s where the epic 1994 movie The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert was filmed, the presenter staying in the hotel that features in the film about three drag queens touring Oz.
A less savoury depiction of the town was the 1971 cult thriller Wake In Fright . So, which movie portrays the real Broken Hill? 7.30pm, BBC One The documentary strand returns with a film about Katy and Emma from Brynaman on the edge of the Bannau Brycheiniog (also known as Brecon Beacons).
The sisters want to arrange an all-star charity football match between Wales and England. They have to find a venue, enlist celebs and famous faces to play and find two big name managers. Oh, and they know nothing about football.
8pm, BBC Two Monty Don gives his tips for filling gaps in the summer borders, with an array of plants that will extend the season, and take the garden into the autumn and beyond. Rachel de Thame, meanwhile, explores a garden in Devon which has been transformed from a pig farm into a colourful paradise, and Frances Tophill discovers the surprising medicinal and homeopathic properties of garden plants. 8pm, BBC Four Edith Bowman presents this evening’s proceedings as conductor Robert Ames and the London Contemporary Orchestra perform film and TV soundtracks.
Featuring scores from All Quiet On The Western Front , Poor Things and Everything Everywhere All At Once . 9pm, ITV1 Cameras focus on the Grand National , and the million-pound prize pot which draws a field of 34 riders and horses for a shot at glory at Aintree racecourse. Can Trainers Championship contenders Dan Skelton and Willie Mullins overcome last year’s winner, the Lucinda Russell-trained horse, Corach Rambler? Or will it turn out to be a fairy tale David vs Goliath victory for amateur jockey Gina Andrew? 9pm, Channel 5 The case of a packed summer holiday flight from Heathrow to Valencia in Spain which descended into chaos.
Toxic smoke filled the cabin and cockpit, and its 175 passengers struggled to breathe. Fearing a deadly fire could quickly engulf the aircraft, the pilots had only a few minutes to get the plane safely on the ground and avoid a catastrophe. Meanwhile, in case that hasn’t put you off flying for life.
.. 9pm, More4 A new Swedish thriller based on the novel by Kristina Ohlsson.
A plane is hijacked while travelling between Stockholm and San Francisco. An investigator for the ministry of justice discovers a link between a police officer, now in disgrace, and the co-pilot. Ana Gil de Melo Nascimento and Liv Mjönes star.
Saturday 5.15pm, BBC One If you think The X Factor produces identikit manufactured pop groups, just wait until you witness the industrial-sized process in South Korea as hitmakers strive to produce K-pop bands that are globally popular. This new reality series follows the experience of five British lads – Reese Carter, James Sharp, Olly Quinn, Dexter Greenwood and Blaise Noon – who’ve been sent to Seoul to become the next big thing, having won through UK-wide auditions (which thankfully we’re spared).
They get to live together between their singing and dancing lessons – Olly struggling with the latter. 7pm, Channel 4 The last of these stories of valour from the Second World War begins in the Philippines, where women were instrumental in liberating the country from Japanese control. Elsewhere, three brave female war correspondents defied the Allied commanders to report directly from the front line.
7.30pm, Channel 5 An episode of Michael Portillo’s Long Weekends in which he visited the now hotly trendy Italian island (thanks in part to series two of The White Lotus ) and its ancient capital, Palermo. Portillo dines with a duchess, investigates links to the Mafia, witnesses the transformation of a 19th-century palazzo, hits the beach to cook up a secret seafood speciality and toasts a Hollywood legend.
9pm, ITV1 This quick-fire take on Police Academy from the Green Wing writers might have fallen a bit flat , but it’s good to see ITV reaching out beyond its usual comedy safety zone. The series concludes with a double-bill in which Julie (Sarah Parish) closes in on the infiltrator and becomes the frontrunner for Cunningham’s job, but Melanie (Rebecca Humphries) has a plan to discredit her. 9.
10pm, BBC Two Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts, Kimberley Walsh and the late Sarah Harding were thrown together during the 2002 ITV reality series Popstars: The Rivals – and went on to become the biggest-selling girl band of the 21st century so far. Here’s a selection of some of their biggest hits from the BBC archives. 10pm, Sky Arts A mostly music documentary about the versatile Australian, recorded in audience-free venues in London and Brighton.
There are insightful asides, such as Nick Cave admitting to taking the government’s advice to retrain during the pandemic (he decided to learn how to be a ceramicist). But central to Andrew Dominik’s intimate film is Cave’s creative bond with the gifted musician Warren Ellis . 10.
20pm, BBC One Too soon for some, not soon enough for others – it’s the return of Premier League football and its attendant Saturday-night BBC highlights package. The games include newly promoted Ipswich Town vs a post-Jürgen Klopp Liverpool at Portman Road and Arsenal vs Wolves at the Emirates. Sunday 9pm, Channel 4 Dame Judi Dench and Jay Blades , we are told, became good friends after Dench appeared on The Repair Shop .
They certainly seem to enjoy each other’s company in this joint trip down memory lane, in which they introduce each other to places important to them. For Blades this is his “manor” of Hackney in east London – Dench visits Blades’s old youth club and gamely sells fruit and veg from a stall at Ridley Road market. Then it’s off to the Old Vic theatre, where an ingenue Dench played Ophelia, and her former family home in Stratford-upon-Avon.
2pm/5.30pm, BBC Two All the action from Lord’s, with both the women’s final (starting at 2.15pm) and men’s final (at 6pm) of the 100-ball cricketing competition.
Isa Guha presents. 7pm, Sky Documentaries An unusually candid profile of Faye Dunaway, the Hollywood star of such era-defining movies as Bonnie and Clyde . Dunaway opens up to director Laurent Bouzereau (a friend of her son Liam Dunaway O’Neill) about her bipolar disorder and discusses her reputation for being “difficult” to work with – so much so that Bette Davis openly refused to work with her again.
8pm, ITV1 Miles Jupp and Nicola Stephenson are among the guest stars in this mystery drama, in which anglers flock to the village of Solomon Gorge in hope of catching a giant fish that is said to lurk in the depths of the lake. Their peace is ruined, however, when hundreds of sporting enthusiasts descend on the area for the Psycho Mud Run – a fatal (and murderous, natch) electrocution ensuing. 8pm, BBC Four Recorded last night at the Royal Albert Hall, Sir Antonio Pappano (in his first Prom in five years) conducts his London Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus and the Tiffin Boys’ Choir as they perform Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem”.
Benjamin Britten on Camera (at 10.30pm) looks at the broadcasting legacy of the composer, with input from Sir David Attenborough among others. 8pm, Channel 4 It may be a free advert for the cruise ship Icon of the Seas and its operating company, but this documentary is not without interest.
The statistics alone are mind-boggling – the ship is a quarter of a mile long, with 20 decks, its own water park and a staggering 2,600 crew from 80 different countries. Built in Finland for $2bn (£1.56bn), its construction and maiden voyage (a seven-day cruise around the Caribbean) are documented here.
8.30pm, BBC One Well they haven’t exactly had to come very far, but our nation’s athletes have returned from Paris and Emma Willis and Vernon Kay host a night of entertainment and music, filmed at Manchester’s AO Arena, to welcome them back. There are performances by Rag‘n’Bone Man , Clean Bandit, Jess Glynne, Myles Smith, James, and Pete Tong, among others.
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