Thu 25 Jul 2024

 

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What’s on TV tonight: Olympian Linford Christie looks back on a gilded career

Also, Sky Arts profiles film director Steven Spielberg and Nick Hewer traces the rise and fall of the high street on Channel 5

Pick of the day: Linford

8.30pm, BBC One

Speed merchant Linford Christie looks back on his impressive athletics career, from the highs of winning successive golds at the Olympics, World Championships, European Championships and Commonwealth Games to the lows of failing a drugs test after coming out of retirement for one last race. Features interviews with Christie, as well as fellow athletes Sally Gunnell, Jonathan Edwards, Darren Campbell and Katherine Merry.

The High Street Shops We Loved and Lost

8pm, Channel 5

“No one should underestimate the cultural importance of pick’n’mix in this country,” claims Eamonn Holmes, extolling the virtues of Woolies. Channel 5 excels at this type of nostalgia-rush show with this one celebrating shop brands, including Wimpy (a smattering still exist), Topshop, Tammy Girl, Our Price, Blockbuster and BHS. Plus, a tribute to one of the most missed shops of all, Woolworths, and in particular its much-loved sweets section. Nick Hewer traces its rise, while former Woolies shop assistant Cheryl Baker (Bucks Fizz) reveals secrets from the other side of the counter.

Tom Kerridge Cooks Britain

8.30pm, ITV1

The chirpy chef heads to Scotland, to the Isle of Mull. He also visits the UK’s largest mussel farm in Inverlussa, then prepares the molluscs cooked in beer. His journey later heads south to Arbroath, home to some of the biggest soft fruit farms in the country. He eventually puts himself to the test against seasonal workers who can pick strawberries absurdly quickly.

SPIELBERG - From "Jaws" and "E.T." to "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan," Steven Spielberg is arguably the greatest living director in the film business. In this exclusive HBO documentary, Spielberg steps out from behind the camera to open up about his directorial influences and motivations, while sharing little-known stories behind some of his most iconic films. Produced and directed by Susan Lacy, the film was culled from more than 30 hours of interviews with Spielberg, along with personal photos, home movies, behind-the-scenes footage and an impressive array of interviews, including J.J. Abrams, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Francis Ford Coppola, Daniel Day-Lewis, Brian de Palma, Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Dreyfuss, Sally Field, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Oprah Winfrey and many others.
Film director Steven Spielberg (Photo: Sky)

Spielberg

9pm, Sky Arts

Directed and produced by documentarian Susan Lacy, this feature-length documentary examines the Jaws director’s filmography in depth, revealing how his experiences fed his work and changed it over time. The film also includes insights from members of Steven Spielberg’s family, as well as friends and colleagues, and behind-the-scenes footage from many of his milestone films. The finest, of course, being ET. Be good…

Doom Scroll: Andrew Tate and the Dark Side of the Internet

9pm, Sky Documentaries

This should prove taxing for the ubiquitous Andrew Tate. The self-professed misogynist’s meteoric rise to infamy has provoked global uproar but the controversial figure is also a terrifying symptom of the increasingly fractured world in which we live, propelled by the social media platforms beneath our fingertips. This two-hour film highlights the dark influence of social media and how their carefully crafted algorithms are shaping our world today. With exclusive insight, the documentary lifts the lid on how some of the architects of the algorithms push extreme, hateful and misogynistic content for profit.

Suspect

9pm and 9.30pm, Channel 4

Anne-Marie Duff’s armed shrink tries to save sex worker Sapphire (Celine Buckens) from Dominic Cooper’s “methodical” psychotic but it’s not going terribly well in this last episode. An impressive cast – Eddie Marsan, Tamsin Greig, Ben Miller – has been largely wasted in this cliched (“The police know where I am, they’ll be here any minute”) and rather empty/sick crime drama. At least Duff and Cooper are trying their best.

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