Glastonbury 2017
From 5.30pm, BBC2 & BBC4
Saturday at Worthy Farm offers a bumper crop for music lovers. BBC2 boasts a selection of afternoon highlights including Run the Jewels (featuring Jeremy Corbyn), Craig David, Katy Perry and, later, Foo Fighters’ headline set. Over on eclectic finger-clickin’ BBC4, there are sets by the National, Father John Misty and Toots and the Maytals. Plus, a Wimbledon-free diary means the Beeb’s digital diaspora is devoted entirely to even more Glastonbury goodness. Mark Gibbings-Jones
Doctor Who
6.45pm, BBC1
An at times frustratingly low-key penultimate episode that doesn’t do much more than serve as the finale’s first act: the gang are aboard a gigantic spaceship marooned near a black hole, prompting timey-wimey stuff that steers a bit too close to previous Steven Moffat triumphs. So does the closing reveal, but it’s an exciting twist and the episode’s slow, grey menace before that – with Pearl Mackie ably taking the lead – is an unexpected variation of the series’ tone. Jack Seale
Pitch Battle
7.30pm, BBC1
Mel Giedroyc hosts the choral contest, as teams compete with their “showstopper” performance and then battle directly with their “riff-off”. The singing and arrangements can be impressive, as stately gentlewomen from the home counties size up nippier R&B groups. Certainly the head-to-heads are taken in good part, but this is far from a level playing field. It is, for example, a big ask for the larger ensembles to co-ordinate groovy, marketable dance routines. John Robinson
The Autistic Gardener
7pm, Channel 4
Once, Ig and Jo’s lush, suburban Bristol garden was the family’s focal point, an ideal place for their daughters to ride their bikes up and down. However, with the birth of a son with Down’s syndrome bringing new challenges, their garden has become a weed-strewn wilderness, teeming with “brambles as thick as your arm”. Alan Gardner finds inspiration high above the Hollywood hills: will the “power of geometry” do the trick? Lovely stuff. Ali Catterall
Britain’s Great Gay Buildings
8pm, Channel 4
Stephen Fry presents a potted history of the evolution of British attitudes towards homosexuality, told through authored studies of significant buildings. Some, such as the club Heaven as recalled by Richard Coles, were havens. Others, like the Old Bailey, where Simon Callow considers Oscar Wilde, epitomised victimisation. All have an extraordinary story to tell. A deft execution of a simple, brilliant idea, and terrific popular history. Andrew Mueller
Pop, Pride and Prejudice
9pm, More 4
The history of LGBT people in pop is oddly contradictory: until the mid 80s, they’d been simultaneously marginalised yet utterly central. Such is the progress that’s been made recently that it’s now hard to believe the coyness surrounding the sexuality of, for example, Boy George and Freddie Mercury. Via pioneers such as Dusty Springfield, Frankie and George Michael, this film explores the process by which pop came out. Phil Harrison
Breakthrough
9pm, National Geographic
Drone technology is the focus of Breakthrough this week, touching on military applications in the second world war – the radio-controlled Fritz X combat drone – and the unmanned spy drones which emerged in the 90s, through to modern ubiquity and also potentially nefarious uses. While some day, they might
drop off our groceries, some analysts believe it’s also only a matter of time before a drone is used for a terrorist attack. Ben Arnold
Film choice
Julieta, (Pedro Almodóvar, 2016), 3.35am, Sky Cinema Premiere
Photograph: Allstar/Pathe Productions
The marvellous Almodóvar presents a beautiful, complex and achingly sad drama. Based on three Alice Munro stories, it has Emma Suárez as the beautiful, middle-aged Madrilenian Julieta, who learns of the whereabouts of her long-estranged daughter Antía. Abandoning plans to move to Portugal with her boyfriend, she instead begins a journal-cum-explanation, delving painfully into her past (where she’s played by Adriana Ugarte) in a gripping study of parenthood, memory and guilt. Paul Howlett
Casino Royale, (Martin Campbell, 2006), 9pm, ITV
The new but distinctly retro James Bond era kicked off with this crunchy, gripping tale of how Bond earned his “00” prefix. Daniel Craig, taking a turn as the super-smart secret service agent, brings a brutal physicality – and Jason Bourne-informed self-doubt – to the role, while Mads Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre is a villain to savour and Eva Green a frozen-vodka-cool Vesper Lynd. There’s a wry sense of humour, too; as when Bond becomes the babe, emerging from the sea in his natty blue bathers. Paul Howlett
Escape From Alcatraz, (Don Siegel, 1979), 9pm, TCM
This last Siegel-Eastwood collaboration is the true-ish story of convict Frank Morris, who either escaped from the infamous prison island in 1960 or died attempting to. A tough and efficient movie, the final escape is no gung-ho leap over the top but a laborious, single-minded chipping away at seemingly impenetrable walls. Patrick McGoohan’s harsh prison warden broods impressively. Paul Howlett
Goodbye First Love, (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2011), 1am, BBC2
There’s a distinct hint of Eric Rohmer’s romances about this tender, youthfully optimistic love story. Hansen-Løve’s semi-autobiographical tale has 15-year-old Camille (Lola Créton) spending a last, lingering summer in the Ardèche with her older boyfriend Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky), who is about to take off on a south American tour. Years later they meet up, and Camille looks back with hindsight at her heartbreak and subsequent growth. Paul Howlett
Live sport
Rugby Union: New Zealand v British & Irish Lions Can Warren Gatland’s team prevail in Auckland? 7.30am, Sky Sports 1
Tennis: Queen’s The Wimbledon warm-up reaches the Men’s semi-final stage. 1.15pm, BBC1
European U-21s Championship Football: Italy v Germany A first look at the players who will be breaking English hearts five years hence. 7.40pm, Sky Sports 1
