CRITICS’ CHOICE
The Millionaire’s Holiday Club
(BBC2, 9pm; not Scotland)
BBC2 joins the trend for programmes about how the rich live with a me-too series centred on a Chester-based tour operator and its wealthy clients. Part one introduces us to Jane, a hol-aholic early retiree seen on a Caribbean cruise with her husband; fruit farmer Mervyn, taking his annual one-week vacation in an exclusive Jamaican resort with his wife and daughter; and three of the firm’s staff on a “research trip” to the Seychelles.
By the standards of luxury-living TV, having just three storylines is decidedly miserly, but that wouldn’t matter too much if those strands developed and surprised. Disastrously, though, the subjects here are always the same: Jane tends to be partying or flirting whenever she appears, Mervyn is grumpily comical or comically grumpy, and the non-rich Chester trio invariably agree that they can’t believe how lucky they are.
John Dugdale
It’s all kicking off
Son Of A B**** (Walter Presents)
Suarez (Eucir De Souza) is a top Brazilian football referee who has been chosen to ref the final of Latin America’s equivalent of the Champions League. However, this embodiment of authority on the field is repeatedly humiliated off it as his private life implodes: early episodes of this All 4 on-demand release see him being kicked out by his wife, waging a custody battle with her and moving back to his mother’s flat. Brazilian TV and the national football obsession are spoofed in a fizzy sitcom with supporting characters who are among its strengths — Suarez’s linesmen, and his mum’s lover, are particularly good value.
It’s official
The Queen’s 90th Birthday — The National Service Of Thanksgiving (BBC1, 9.30am; BBC2, 7pm)
The Queen turned 90 back in April, but her official birthday is marked by a service at St Paul’s that kicks off a weekend of celebrations continuing with tomorrow’s Trooping the Colour. Huw Edwards and Kirsty Young anchor live coverage (highlights on BBC2 at 7pm) for a BBC that will be desperate to improve on its showing in the jubilee festivities four years ago, which also featured a St Paul’s service; heads will surely roll if the broadcast of Sunday’s street party in the Mall is as dire as the handling of the rained-on jubilee river pageant.
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Read all about it
Dicte — Crime Reporter (More 4, 9pm)
Iben Hjejle is the main draw in this Danish drama about an Aarhus-based journalist drawn into the crimes she investigates. As Dicte Svendsen, she displays the right mixture of toughness, recklessness and vulnerability and is a warm presence in the middle of an admittedly lurid case involving illicit surrogacy. Dyed-in-the-wool fans of heavy Scandinavian crime could find the show a bit summerweight, but there is plenty of newsroom intrigue alongside the occasional sexual liaisons, while Dicte’s backstory about the baby she put up for adoption as a teenager adds an emotional depth to the chases and sleuthing.
An inconvenient truth
MIA — Missing In Action (PBS America, 9pm)
Many viewers will be aware of the captured American airmen who were deemed “missing in action” in Vietnam, despite evidence that they were still alive. This stunning documentary reveals that this scandal merely continued a grim pattern of hostage-taking, lies and cover-ups: in northern Russia in 1918-19, and Korea, too, the enemy held on to American (and sometimes British) PoWs as bargaining chips, but their families were treated as nuisances by the authorities when they made inquiries. In the Second World War, it was an ally that seized the prisoners, with a possible 20,000 Americans transferred by the Soviets from German camps to theirs.
Must-see comedy
Limmy’s Show (Gold, 12.25am)
This sketch show was originally broadcast on BBC Scotland in 2010 and ran for three series, but this is the first time it has been given UK-wide exposure. The work of Brian Limond, who was commissioned on the basis of his online presence, it is the kind of comedy that could be described as slow-burning, underplayed, deadpan or, at times, deliberately obscure. When it turns up the comedic heat, though, it can be very funny indeed. It is a cult concern, but one that deserves as many followers as it can rustle up.
John Dugdale and Victoria Segal
Sport choice
Test Cricket England v Sri Lanka (Sky Sports 2, 10.30am)
Hockey (BT Sport 1, from 3.30pm)
Rugby Union (Sky Sports 3, 5.30pm) South Africa A v England Saxons
Radio pick of the day
A National Service Of Thanksgiving For The Queen’s 90th Birthday (R4 FM, 10.55am)
Live from St Paul’s Cathedral, with the Archbishop of Canterbury preaching and James Naughtie commentating, this broadcast launches the festive weekend. Friday Night Is Music Night (R2, 8pm), live from the Hackney Empire, celebrates the same milestone, with a line-up led by Sir Willard White. Lauren Laverne (6 Music, 10am), live on Southbank, launches this year’s Meltdown; and Dan Walker kicks off Euro 2016 (R5 Live, 6.30pm).
Paul Donovan
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You say
What brilliant coverage from ITV of the England vs Turkey match, mostly due to the comments from Ian Wright and Lee Dixon. What a wonderful pair of football commentators.
Jane Hodges
I have a limited knowledge about the game of football. I feel this qualifies me for the post of commentator as part of the Match of the Day team. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Steve Taylor
Why is sport (and especially football) given such prominence in BBC news coverage?
Justin Evans
Perhaps all the football pundits should sit an under- sevens’ Sats oral examination to assess their verbal skills. Sorry, Glen Hoddle, you’re not passing ‘cos you’ve not spoke good enough.
Chris Brooks
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FILM CHOICE
Source Code (2011)
C4, 12.10am
Duncan Jones’s futuristic action movie throws its hero (Jake Gyllenhaal) into a whirling, time-rewinding puzzle, but his humanity is always at the tale’s centre. This beneficial focus is one reason why the film won much better reviews than those given lately to the director’s loud new movie, Warcraft — The Beginning.
Love & Mercy (2014)
Sky Movies Premiere, 11.30am/5.45pm
Bill Pohlad’s biopic of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ musical leader, uses two actors to play its subject: Paul Dano embodies him in his 1960s prime and John Cusack plays the wreck he had become by the 1980s. This approach proves distracting, but the film is still a cut above most movies about rock-and-pop lives. It shows an intelligent interest in Wilson’s talent as well as in his personal troubles.
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Fantastic Four (2015)
Sky Movies Premiere, 3.45pm/8pm
None of the diverse superpowers possessed by this comic-book movie’s quartet (Jamie Bell, Michael B Jordan, Kate Mara and Miles Teller) is a defence against the film’s flaws. The script’s bright initial ideas are undone by a needlessly gloomy tone and a weak plot. Dir: Josh Trank
Valhalla Rising (2009)
BBC2, 12.05am
Telling of a warrior (Mads Mikkelsen) who joins a group of Christian Norsemen sailing into the unknown, Nicolas Winding Refn’s arty action movie is a mystical Viking saga by way of Apocalypse Now. If that sounds as if it might be your flagon of mead, you should definitely give it a look: pretentious though it is at times, it has great flair.