TV: Justified
After being dropped by 5USA after its fourth season, the sixth and final outing for the hugely enjoyable modern western finally finds a home in the UK. Timothy Olyphant’s drawlin’, brawlin’, Stetson-sportin’ US marshal Raylan Givens has verbose criminal kingpin Boyd Crowder firmly in his sights, a showdown for which viewers have been gearing up for six years. Longtime fans will be sad to see the show end but glad it has been given the opportunity to wrap things up on its own terms. Newcomers, meanwhile, can get stuck in from the very beginning via Sky’s box-sets collection.
Sky On Demand
Audio: Cardboard With Rich Sommer
When he’s not sporting dubious mutton-chops as Mad Men’s Harry Crane, Rich Sommer can be found tossing dice and stacking Jenga blocks as host of this board games podcast. Cardboard’s opener sees Sommer discussing the finer points of gaming with Modern Family star Ty Burrell, and the pair’s easy badinage does a good job of masking the fact that a podcast about board games is a pretty daft idea.
Video: Shy Bairns Get Nowt: Inside Britain’s Busiest Food Bank
Around 900,000 people are believed to be regular users of food banks in the UK, a figure that stands as one of the biggest indictments of the government’s austerity programme. As part of its Rule Britannia series, Vice visits one food bank in Newcastle upon Tyne, meeting volunteers and those they serve. As you might expect, it’s a tough watch, but the cheerful, sympathetic nature of the volunteers leaves room for some optimism.
TV: First Dates
After struggling for viewers in its first two runs, Channel 4’s fly-on-the-wall series has triumphed in its third. And quite right, too: unlike so many shows of its ilk, First Dates doesn’t bombard you with gimmickry, instead winning you over with unflashy authenticity. Funny, charming and, unlike so much reality TV, it actually feels real. Ahead of this week’s finale, catch the most recent episodes on All 4.
Radio: Battle For The Airwaves
Presented by Nick Robinson – now back on reporting duties after his lung tumour operation – this 2013 Radio 4 series traces the often difficult history between politicians, and broadcasters, in particular the BBC. Featuring some terrific archive footage, such as Lord Reith sonorously reading out Jerusalem at the end of the 1926 general strike, it provides a potent reminder that, for all the claims of bias levelled at the corporation, Auntie has a proud history of raising the hackles of both the left and the right.
