American History’s Biggest Fibs With Lucy Worsley
9pm, BBC Four
Is it unfair to single out the US’s history as a concoction of stories and untruths manipulated by whoever was in power at the time? Quite possibly, but Lucy Worsley’s latest series, which analyses three of America’s greatest national stories, makes for mesmerising TV as she unravels the skeins of truth, half-truth and lies behind, respectively, the American revolution, the civil war and the cold war. She begins by asking: how much of the nation’s founding story is based on fact? Mike Bradley
The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds
8pm, Channel 4
The documentary strand that surveils moppets at play in a panopticon nursery continues. If the new intake bonded over tech learning last week, they now have to cope with some extrovert new faces in the mix, which causes some fractious rivalries even before a two-storey climbing wall appears in their garden. Graeme Virtue
The Directors
8pm, Sky Arts
“Stanley Kubrick was to film what Einstein was to physics,” says one contributor in the first of a new series of superbly assembled profiles. As we retrace the career of the director, a giant of contemporary cinema famous for A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey, it’s fascinating to learn how he advanced the tricks of his trade. MB
Hospital
9pm, BBC Two
Looking beyond funding troubles and bed shortages, the series tells the stories of individual patients being treated at Liverpool’s Walton Centre, the UK’s only dedicated spine, brain and pain-management centre, where Sophie, 22, awaits a vital operation on her spine and brain-injured Tom really doesn’t want to go to rehab. MB
Hunted
9pm, Channel 4
This gameshow continues to feel like a faintly dystopian exercise in using entertainment to remind us how little freedom and privacy society allows us. Fortunately, it’s fiendishly entertaining, too. This week, reformed criminal Nick and friend Paul are surrounded and Jess and Emma turn on the charm in Scotland. Phil Harrison
Better Things
10pm, BBC Two
Pamela Adlon’s wicked dramedy about women and daughters offers a riskily uneventful second episode. However, it easily compensates for a stark lack of plot by introducing a gloriously on-form Celia Imrie as single mum Sam’s own mother, who’s both a guilt-inducing irritant and an essential ally.Jack Seale
Film choice
Croupier 1.10am, Film4
Another dark underworld thriller from Mike Hodges, director of the original Get Carter. Poker-faced Clive Owen is would-be novelist Jack, earning a living as a croupier in a London casino, Gina McKee is his dissatisfied girlfriend and Alex Kingston the punter who leads him into a dodgy deal. The clever, complex script is by Paul Mayersberg. Paul Howlett
Today’s best live sport
PGA Tour golf: The Desert Classic 4.30pm, Sky Sports Golf. Day one of the tournament held in California.
Basketball: Washington Wizards v New York Knicks 8pm, Sky Sports Main Event. The NBA’s annual London game held at the O2.
ODI cricket: Australia v India 2am, BT Sport 1. The Melbourne Cricket Ground hosts the last of three one-dayers.
