Friday’s best TV

Rhinos are threatened by extinction — Unreported World considers the plight of rhinos threatened by extinction, and the women trying to save them. Photograph: Production Company/Quicksilver

Unreported World
7.35pm, Channel 4

Poaching threatens rhinos with extinction: the Chinese “medicine” market offers huge rewards for shooting one and hacking off its horn. In the Kruger national park in South Africa, orphaned rhinos are protected by the Black Mambas, an all-female militia. As more penniless men from their villages turn to poaching, and the struggle becomes a war, the Mambas stay resolute: “They underestimate us. Like, ‘Ah, these are women. They cannot do anything.’” Bravery and principle versus money and violence. Jack Seale

Lusitania: 18 Minutes That Changed World War One
8pm, Channel 5

The 18 minutes in question is the time it took the Lusitania – a luxurious transatlantic cruise ship – to sink to the bottom of the Atlantic after being torpedoed by a German U-boat off the Irish coast. This programme suffers from the notably uncrowded crowd scenes common to cut-price drama-documentaries, but the story outweighs all that. Alongside the human tragedy, the deaths of 128 of its citizens encouraged the US into the first world war. John Robinson

Britain’s Greatest Generation
9pm, BBC2

Second instalment of this four-parter commemorating the people who won the second world war, and rebuilt the UK in their image afterwards. Though the archive footage is absorbing, what really grips is new interviews with those who were alive at the time, almost all now in their 90s and older, and with a glorious gift for understatement (“It was a very demanding time,” recalls a Battle of Britain pilot). If the narration and soundtrack err towards the mawkish, it’s probably forgivable in this instance. Andrew Mueller

Man And Beast With Martin Clunes
9pm, ITV

Even in a nation filled with animal lovers, Martin Clunes’s affection for all creatures great and small is especially touching. In the first of a two-part series, Clunes attempts to explore how the millennia-old relationship between animals and humans has developed around the world. Here, Clunes travels to Nepal for a first-hand view of the deference afforded cattle in Hindu countries, and to south-east Asia to see how pigtail macaque monkeys make for loyal, if unpredictable, colleagues for coconut pickers. Mark Jones

Je T’aime: The Story of French Song With Petula Clark
9pm, BBC4

They are songs about “life and death and love and the street”, says Marc Almond, who knows a good chanson when he hears it. The former Soft Cell man and, latterly, superb interpreter of Jacques Brel, contributes to this homage magnifique to the lyrics-driven French song, featuring the likes of Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Serge Gainsbourg and Juliette Gréco, who, Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote, had “a million poems in her voice”. Probably the coolest programme of the week. Ali Catterall

Anzac Girls
9pm, More4

Episode three of the Australian mini-series dramatising the stories of nurses who supported the fight against the Ottoman empire during the first world war. In Egypt, Elsie (Laura Brent) is forced to choose between supporting her husband and aiding wartime efforts, and Alice (Georgia Flood) is unsure about whether typhoid-stricken Lieutenant Harry Moffitt (Dustin Clare) truly has feelings for her. Meanwhile on Lemnos, tragedy and an outbreak of trench foot leave Olive (Anna McGahan) feeling low. Hannah J Davies

A League of Their Own
9pm, Sky1

The sports panel show returns for its ninth series, a boon for those who feel that you can never get too much exposure to James Corden. Despite his new US-based job, Corden hosts proceedings as ever, while regulars Jamie Redknapp, Freddie Flintoff and Jack Whitehall are all present and occasionally correct for this opener. They are joined by Ryder Cup legend Ian Poulter and comedian Josh Widdicombe, while Sky Sports presenter Olivia Wayne (formerly Godfrey) adds a direly needed female presence to mitigate the bantz. David Stubbs