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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Phil Harrison, Ali Catterall, Jack Seale, Graeme Virtue and Stuart Heritage

TV tonight: a stirring look at the first ever Pride march in 1972

Celebrating five decades of Pride, including the Gay Pride March in London 1991.
Celebrating five decades of Pride, including the Gay Pride March in London 1991. Photograph: Gardner/Shutterstock

Freedom: 50 Years of Pride

8pm, Saturday, Channel 4

“The police formed a cordon around us,” remembers one attendee. “As if they were worried we were going to escape and molest passers-by.” It’s hard to overstate the courage that going on the first ever Pride march in 1972 must have taken: there were almost as many (aggressively abusive) cops as marchers. This stirring, moving documentary tracks five decades of occasionally faltering but essentially implacable progress. Via the increasing militancy of the late 70s, the outrage surrounding Thatcher’s Section 28 and the mainstreamed, commercialised (but, crucially, diversified) celebrations of recent years, it’s a story of not just a subculture but a whole society coming to terms with itself. Phil Harrison

Mick Jagger: My Life As a Rolling Stone

9.30pm, BBC Two

“All the mythology is repeated,” says Mick Jagger, “until it becomes true.” As the BBC launches its season on 60 years of the Rolling Stones with documentaries celebrating each band member, this is Jagger’s chance to set the record straight. He’s an affable interviewee – and priceless footage of young “Mike” Jagger suggests a kid who worked hard at his apparent carelessness. PH

Lost Treasures of Rome

7pm, Channel 4

How was Rome able to conquer such an enormous chunk of the ancient world? In this series an international team of latter-day Indiana Joneses dig for answers: hauling a long-lost battleship from the seabed off the Sicilian coast; rooting around inside a
forgotten Italian temple; and discovering the site of a decisive victory in Tunisia. Ali Catterall

Who Killed the KLF?

9pm, Sky Documentaries

Few bands have chosen a more renegade path than the KLF. From their burning of a million pounds to the symbolic machine-gunning of music industry bigwigs at the 1992 Brit awards, they’ve delighted in existential self-sabotage. Chris Atkins’s documentary uses archive footage – and previously unheard recordings of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty discussing their motivations – to make sense of a career like no other. PH

Inspector Montalbano

9pm, BBC Four

Fans of the Sicily-set detective drama, and they are legion, finally have a new episode to enjoy after a long time subsisting on repeats – but it’s the last one, for the foreseeable at least. The director of an amateur dramatics society has been fatally stabbed, apparently without a drop of blood being spilled. Jack Seale

Alex Scott: The Future of Women’s Football

10.20pm, BBC One

As the Euros kick off this week, women’s football has never been more popular. But is such rapid growth sustainable? Former England right-back Scott examines the challenges facing her sport, from snide social media to ensuring all players get the support they deserve. Graeme Virtue

Film choice

King Richard, 7.15am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere

Jon Bernthal, Will Smith, Demi Singleton and Saniyya Sidney in King Richard.
Jon Bernthal, Will Smith, Demi Singleton and Saniyya Sidney in King Richard.
Photograph: Warner Bros./Chiabella James/Allstar

King Richard’s reputation will forever be undermined by the events of this year’s Oscars. After all, Will Smith won a best actor trophy for his role in this film, only to spend much of his acceptance speech apologising for assaulting Chris Rock live onstage moments earlier. This is a shame, because King Richard deserves far better than that. A biopic of Richard Williams, the father and coach of tennis champions Venus and Serena, it’s a bright-burning character portrait of a man who will do whatever it takes to give his daughters the best possible chance in life. It has heart by the bucketload, and this is how it should be remembered. Stuart Heritage


Rocketman, 9.30pm, Channel 4

Dexter Fletcher’s Elton John biopic is everything Bohemian Rhapsody should have been. Rather than a drab, filmed Wikipedia page as dictated by the artist, this is a kaleidoscopic rush. We see Elton John’s life with all its ups and downs, but we also get giddy flights of fantasy. Like the subject himself, the film is a complicated mix – at once obsessed with myth-making and averse to sentimentalism – but Taron Egerton is such a force of nature you accept everything. The standard by which all future music biopics should be measured. SH

Live sport

International Rugby Union: New Zealand v Ireland, 7.30am, Sky Sports Main Event Coverage of the first of three Tests at Eden Park. Followed by Australia v England at 10.15am, South Africa v Wales at 4pm and Argentina v Scotland at 7.30pm.

Test Cricket: England v India, 9.45am, Sky Sports Cricket Day two of the rearranged fifth and final Test in the series at Edgbaston.Continues tomorrow at 9.45am on Sky Sports Main Event.

Tennis: Wimbledon 2022, 11am, BBC Two Day six, in which the third-round matches in the men’s and women’s draws take place. Coverage continues on BBC One at 12.20pm.

Cycling: Tour De France, 11am, Eurosport 1 Stage two of this year’s race, from Roskilde to Nyborg in Denmark. Highlights on ITV4 at 7pm.

Golf: Irish Open, 1pm, Sky Sports Golf Day three from Mount Juliette in Kilkenny. Concludes tomorrow.


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