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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Jonathan Wright, Phil Harrison, Ali Catterall, Hannah Verdier, Graeme Virtue, Andrew Mueller, Hannah J Davies, Paul Howlett

Sunday's best TV: Wild West: America's Great Frontier; Victoria

Cowboys round up mustangs in the BBC’s new Wild West doc.
Cowboys round up mustangs in the BBC’s new Wild West doc. Photograph: Jeanne Provost/BBC NHU

Wild West: America’s Great Frontier
8pm, BBC2

It’s vista television time, as Auntie explores the great American wilderness. In the first of three episodes, that means visits to places where rain rarely falls: the deserts of Nevada, the cactus-dotted landscapes of Arizona, and California’s heat-blasted Mojave. Along the way, we learn how creatures such as mustangs and desert tortoises have become adapted to environments where getting enough food and water to survive is a constant issue. Jonathan Wright

Sir Chris Hoy: 200mph At Le Mans
9pm, BBC2

Competing in the Le Mans
24-hour race was one of Chris Hoy’s childhood dreams. And since he’s struggled with the empty hours opened up by his retirement from cycling, giving it a go seemed only logical. This film tracks his entry into motorsport, but the racing itself is less interesting than the insight into Hoy’s self-absorbed restlessness; presumably a characteristic he shares with other sporting high-achievers. Phil Harrison

Victoria
9pm, ITV

The heavily pregnant Victoria strives for a bit of autonomy in the final episode. “Look!” she beams as their carriage clip-clops through the throng, “How happy people are to see us!” Which obviously doesn’t include some proto-Farage, who rushes her coach to free her from the “German tyrant”. Or, indeed, the man from the Young England Society who shoots at the royal couple. Can the script shoehorn in a “We are not amused”? It surely can. Ali Catterall

Celebrity Island With Bear Grylls
9pm, Channel 4

Things you never thought you’d see happen, even in your weirdest reality TV dreams: Karen Danczuk is chasing down a crocodile. Yes, it’s the final episode of the Stand Up To Cancer fundraising show, and the celebrity inhabitants are getting desperate. After a relaxed day off, the hungry mob are on the verge of eating each other, so Danczuk leads a hunting party in the hope of catching a croc. Will they survive or perish for a good cause? Hannah Verdier

Trump vs Clinton Live: US Presidential Debate
1.35am, Channel 4

After Donald Trump’s sub-prime performance at the first debate – where he bloviated, sniffled and later muttered darkly about his microphone – the Republican nominee will be hoping to appear stronger in round two. Whether tonight’s lectern-free town-hall format, with the candidates fielding questions from floating voters in St Louis, will play to his unique oratorical strengths remains to be seen. Graeme Virtue

Hitler: The Rise And Fall
9pm, More4

Adolf Hitler embodies a warning from history that cannot be overlooked, but this is far from the first series analysing his rise to leave one wondering if there is much left to be said. It’s the standard assemblage of solemn experts, silly reconstructions, portentous voiceover, familiar archive footage and pompous soundtrack. This second episode chronicles the Nazis’ emergence as a genuine political force in early 1930s Germany. Andrew Mueller

Robbie Coltrane’s Critical Evidence
10pm, CI

Having been on the other side of the (fictional) justice fence of late as a popular entertainer accused of sexual assault in National Treasure, Robbie Coltrane’s now firmly back on the right side of the law with this new series on crime-scene forensics. This first episode sees him explore a 2002 murder in Cambridgeshire, where a tiny scrap of paper proved a crucial piece of the puzzle. Primetime true crime TV at its best. Hannah J Davies

Film choice

Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo join forces in Begin Again.
Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo join forces in Begin Again. Photograph: Allstar/The Weinstein Company

Begin Again
(John Carney, 2013) 10pm, BBC2
Carney follows up his heartwarming tale of busking folk, Once, with an altogether bigger act here. Jilted singer-songwriter Greta (Keira Knightley) teams up with sacked record company executive Dan (Mark Ruffalo) who has a crazy idea: to record a whole demo album on the streets of New York, which provides big-city ambient accompaniment to her canon. Against the odds, the pair exert a rather endearing charm. Paul Howlett

Django
(Sergio Corbucci, 1966) 10.55pm, Movies4Men
Introducing the cool gunslinger who loosely inspired Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Corbucci’s spaghetti western is played more for laughs than Leone’s Dollars films, with ice-blue-eyed Franco Nero as the coffin-dragging hero. His many enemies learn its contents at their peril, all to the sound of Luis Enríque Bacalov’s dance-of-the-rattlesnakes soundtrack. PH

Wonder Boys
(Curtis Hanson, 2000) 11.40pm, BBC2
Michael Douglas is a dope-smoking, hopelessly confused college professor who just can’t produce that elusive second bestseller. What’s more, his young wife left him, he’s got his lover, the dean (Frances McDormand) pregnant, and he has to deal with a gifted but suicidal student (Tobey Maguire) and a rogue literary agent (Robert Downey Jr). It’s a wickedly funny slice of academia. PH

Today’s best live sport

Formula 1: The Japanese Grand Prix 5.30am, Sky Sports 1. Action from the 17th round of the season (start-time 6am).

Golf: European Tour 12.30pm, Sky Sports 4. The final day of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship held across St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns courses.

Football World Cup Qualifier: Wales v Georgia 4.30pm, Sky Sports 1. Group D action (kick-off 5pm).

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