Epidemic: When Britain Fought Aids
10pm, Channel 4
To be gay in the 1980s wasn’t just to watch your friends die. It was also to be blamed as the cause of their deaths. This film is a look back to a public-health catastrophe, but it’s also a reminder of how pivotal the crisis was in leading us away from ignorance and bigotry. Alongside memorials to the dead, there’s also stirring testimony from survivors including the remarkable Jonathan Blake, AKA “London One”, which was his Aids diagnosis number. Phil Harrison
The Life Swap Adventure
8pm, BBC2
Final episode of the enjoyable series following rut-stuck Brits as they trade places with overseas counterparts. This week sees a Devon taxi driver seeking an eco-friendlier livelihood swap with a Norwegian sheep-farming novice reeling from an unfortunate allergy. Can herding sheep among the icy crags of Norway’s scant arable land really prove an interchangeable task with circumnavigating B-roads beside the river Dart? Mark Gibbings-Jones
Secrets of China’s Forbidden City
8pm, Channel 4
Accessing a conservation project within the corridors and roof spaces of Beijing’s 600-year-old palace complex allows this doc to perform research on both tiny details and the entire site. Scrapings of paint reveal that Europe was a trading partner with China several centuries ago; a large-scale model and an earthquake simulator demonstrate how the buildings were designed to withstand natural disaster. Jack Seale
Poldark
9pm, BBC1
Eleanor is worried about Poldark’s movements as he sets off for France to mount a rescue bid for Dwight and there’s no shortage of men who want to come aboard the ship. Back home, she is dishing out relationship advice to Morwenna and George is plotting to get one over on Ross in the political arena. Sadly, it’s an action-packed episode with no time for Poldark and the boys to hang around, which means there’s a distinct lack of male nipple-flashing going on this week. Hannah Verdier
The Handmaid’s Tale
9pm, Channel 4
In an era when much is made of TV drama having the time to tell rich, multilayered stories, what many shows actually deliver is long, meandering tales. In contrast, The Handmaid’s Tale knows exactly what it’s about and there’s never a wasted moment. Tonight’s elegant flashback episode is a case in point, as we see June/Offred’s attempts to flee Gilead largely from the perspective of her husband, Luke. Chilling and mesmerising. Jonathan Wright
Ross Kemp: Extreme World
9pm, Sky1
When the schedules feature so little current affairs programming, it seems odd that a show fronted by a former soap star can return for a sixth series. In this episode, Kemp visits Texas, the white-supremacist groups therein, and the black militias organising themselves in response. All concerned give every impression of enjoying the attention; Kemp’s signature gormless sensationalism furthers our understanding of them not one whit. Andrew Mueller
Wild New Zealand
10pm, Nat Geo Wild
Feature-length doc about New Zealand’s acrobatic dolphin community of bottlenoses, duskies and commons, beautifully shot against a backdrop of erupting volcanoes and bubbling acid lakes. Amid the stunning photography and fascinating facts – each dolphin has a unique whistle, enabling young ones to find their mums, even in a teeming superpod – is a real eco-shocker: there are just some 200 Fiordland bottlenose dolphins left. Ali Catterall
Film choice
Gravity, (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013), 7.10pm, ITV2
You won’t find aliens in Alfonso Cuarón’s riveting space thriller, but Sandra Bullock’s Ryan Stone is as dauntless a heroine as Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. Their orbiting spacecraft wrecked by flying debris, the task for Stone and fellow astronaut Kowalski (George Clooney) is simply to get home alive. It’s an utterly thrilling, gut-wrenchingly suspenseful ride. Paul Howlett
The Wrestler, (Darren Aronofsky, 2008), 11.10pm, TCM
Mickey Rourke’s wild years of self-destruction and professional boxing make him a mirror image of over-the-hill wrestler Randy “the Ram” Robinson. Scarred, broken and told by the doc he has to give up the rough stuff, he seeks a new start with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and Marisa Tomei’s stripper – but the only place he’s in control is in the ring. Paul Howlett
To the Wonder, (Terrence Malick, 2012), 1.45am, Film4
After the years of ruminative cinematic exploration in which aeons appeared to separate his films, Malick has picked up the pace, with this arriving just a couple of years after The Tree of Life. It’s an enigmatic study of a seemingly doomed love affair, with Ben Affleck’s steady-Eddy engineer falling wildly for Olga Kurylenko’s free-spirited Marina on the Mont Saint-Michel. Paul Howlett
Live sport
Test Cricket: England v South Africa Coverage of the fourth day’s play in the first Test, which takes place at Lord’s. 10am, Sky Sports 2
Formula 1: The Austrian Grand Prix The ninth round of the season at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. 12.30pm, Sky Sports F1
Athletics: London Anniversary Games Gabby Logan presents continued coverage from the London Stadium. 1.15pm, BBC1
