Monday January 17
Keeping Up with the Aristocrats
ITV, 9pm
Oh what a jolly lot they are, these aristocrats. Just like the rest of us, really, apart from the titles, historic homes and vast estates, and the need to “earn a crust” (upper only) in order to manage the upkeep. Which must be why so many are currently waking up to the publicity value of throwing their doors open and sharing the sumptuousness of their lives on screen, whether it be to give Sally Lindsay a posh bed for the night (C5, Saturdays) or, in this new series, following some seriously grand folk over the course of a single social season. It’s an ingenious idea which this frothy documentary pulls off with pizzazz. Tonight we meet Lord Ivar Mountbatten and his husband, James Coyle, as they collaborate with chef Jean-Christophe Novelli to create a pop-up restaurant at their home, Bridwell Park in Devon; the fabulously potty-mouthed Princess Olga Romanoff as she hunts for a new man; Alexandra and Rick Sitwell at Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire; and the rather endearing Lord Gerald Fitzalan-Howard and his wife, Emma, as they test out their latest money-making venture, a new vineyard producing English sparkling wine at their Carlton Towers estate in Yorkshire. Simon Callow narrates, with extra plum. GO
Tennis: Australian Open 2022
EuroSport/Amazon
Yes, there is actually a tennis tournament attached to the Novak Djokovic circus. The 110th Australian Open gets under way at Melbourne Park, with the Serb (at the time of writing) favourite to retain his singles title and to become the most successful men’s player in the history of the game. Currently, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer (who is out injured) are tied on 20 majors apiece. British hopes lie with Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans, while Andy Murray has been given a wild card. In the women’s singles, Naomi Osaka returns to defend her 2021 title, but the No 1 seed is home favourite Ashleigh Barty. British sensation and US Open champion Emma Raducanu is the 17th seed in a strong but enticingly open women’s draw.
Bradley & Barney Walsh: Breaking Dad
ITV, 8pm
The father-and son double act are back for more RV adventures, this time driving 3,000 miles from the Mediterranean up through Europe and into the Arctic Circle. Tonight, they speed along the Adriatic coast, sampling Croatian extreme sports along the way.
Driving Force
ITV4, 8pm
ITV picks up the second run of Judy Murray’s excellent series focused on female athletes and sportswomen. She kicks off with a delve into the career of football executive and former pro-player Eniola Aluko, following up tomorrow with a profile of Irish Olympic gold-medalist and world champion boxer, Katie Taylor. Repeated on ITV Tuesday and Wednesday, 10.45pm.
Geordie Hospital
Channel 4, 8pm
A new Newcastle-based hospital documentary series conveying a palpable sense of the vast range of treatments offered by hospitals and the effort that goes into the care of every patient. Tonight’s episode covers everything from a liver transplant and children’s heart operations to the key role of the chaplain’s welfare dog.
Kelvin’s Big Farming Adventure
BBC One, 9pm; NI, Tuesday, 8.30pm
Clearly “doing a Clarkson” is catching on. In this new series, actor, Strictly champion and lifelong townie (“first time I was ever in the countryside was on Emmerdale”) Kelvin Fletcher embarks on a career in sheep farming – with predictable consequences. It gets nowhere close to the bravura idiocy of Clarkson’s Farm but it shows entertainingly how tough farming can be.
Art on the BBC: Monet – The French Revolutionary
BBC Four, 9pm
Another trawl through the archives, focusing on almost 50 years of programmes about father of impressionism, Claude Monet. Katy Hessel makes a selection of clips both highly entertaining and enlightening, illuminating as much about changing tastes in art criticism as the artist.
La Fortuna
AMC, 9pm
Exclusively for BT customers, a Spanish adventure drama starring Stanley Tucci as a modern-day treasure hunter attempting the deep-sea salvage of a Spanish ship sunk by the British Navy off Portugal 200 years ago, supposedly with 20 tonnes of gold and silver aboard.
Young Winston (1972) ★★★★
Great! Movies Action, 3.25pm
Richard Attenborough’s meticulous biopic traces the early years of one of Britain’s most loved (and now most controversial) prime ministers. Based on Winston Churchill’s own memoirs, it begins with his stint as a war correspondent in Africa, skips back to his public schooldays, and leads up to his entry to Parliament and the start of his (meandering) path to the premiership. Simon Ward and Anne Bancroft star.
Captain Phillips (2013) ★★★★
ITV4, 9pm
British director Paul Greengrass (he of the Bourne franchise) has a rare gift for working with action-thriller material and making it cohesive, layered and complex. In this account of Somali pirates boarding an American cargo ship and kidnapping its captain (Tom Hanks), he remains at the top of his game. Hanks may be the big name but it’s the pirates who really impress, especially Barkhad Abdi in a Bafta-winning role.
Loving Vincent (2017) ★★★
Film4, 11.45pm
A beautifully textured tribute to Van Gogh in which each of the film’s 65,000 frames is oil-painted to look like the work of the celebrated artist. The visual effect is overwhelming, while the script is somewhat more down-to-earth, with the occasional feel of a biographical walk-through. It’s set a year after Van Gogh’s death, with friend Armand Roulin (Douglas Booth) trying to puzzle out the artist’s state of mind when he died.
