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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Ali Catterall, Jack Seale, Graeme Virtue and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: Chris Packham looks at crossing the line over climate activism

Chris Packham and climate activists demonstrate in Parliament Square, London
Chris Packham and climate activists demonstrate in Parliament Square, London. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Chris Packham: Is It Time to Break the Law?

9pm, Channel 4

“I’ve always been terrified of prisons, but it would send a message, the whole Mandela thing,” naturalist Chris Packham recently told the Guardian. In this documentary he asks if it is ethically reasonable to break the law to protest against government climate crisis policies. Swedish ecologist Andreas Malm is among the radical environmentalists with whom he speaks. Hollie Richardson

Geordie Hospital

8pm, Channel 4

More life-saving surgery and assorted daily miracles performed by the NHS in the north-east of England. This week, a leg is saved with a metal frame, a patient’s brain is temporarily “switched off” and, as the hospital roasts on the hottest day of the year, Pauline, the housekeeper, has a cool hack to lower the temperature. Ali Catterall

Celebrity Race Across the World

9pm, BBC One

Postponed from last week, here is the start of the first celebrity version of the well-loved adventure show. Melanie Blatt, Harry Judd, Alex Beresford and Billy Monger are the four contestants dragging their optimistic family members on a 10,000km race from Marrakech to Tromsø. HR

Never Mind the Buzzcocks

9pm, Sky Max

It doesn’t try for the same edge as the old BBC version, but this Greg Davies reboot of the music quiz is pottering on nicely through a third season, the host’s autocue usually loaded with strong gags. Guesting this week are Paloma Faith, Benji Webbe and Judi Love. Jack Seale

Domina

9pm, Sky Atlantic

“Women shouldn’t go to war,” muses lofty statesman Gaius, unaware that his ambitious wife, Livia, and slave-girl mistress, Gemina, are set on a collision course. Although it shies away from epic battle scenes, this racy tale of Roman succession rarely stints on sex and swearing. Graeme Virtue

Sex Rated

10pm, E4

Gird your loins. Nothing is off limits in Rylan and “shagony aunt” Ruby Rare’s new show about kinky singletons who join their exes to debrief their sex lives. First, a musician who claims his magic hands work wonders, and a part-time witch whose sex life is going through a dry spell. HR

Film choice

Family secret … Awkwafina, centre, as Billi, in The Farewell, directed by Lulu Wang.
Family secret … Awkwafina, centre, as Billi, in The Farewell, directed by Lulu Wang. Photograph: Album/Alamy

The Farewell (Lulu Wang, 2019), 9pm, Film4

“Based on an actual lie”, Lulu Wang’s exceptional drama tells the true story of her Chinese grandmother. Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao) has stage four lung cancer but the family decide not to tell her it’s terminal (this is legal in China). Awkwafina plays her New York-based granddaughter Billi, who plays along reluctantly with the deception at a cousin’s hastily arranged wedding. The occasion is a pretext to bring the wider family together to see Nai Nai for the last time and, amid the feasting and stifled tears, a Chinese expat culture clash plays out, stress-testing deeply held ideas of family, death and marriage. Simon Wardell

Live sport

International One-Day Cricket: England v Ireland, noon, Sky Sports Main Event The first match of the three-game series at Headingley.

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