Real Stories With Ranvir Singh
7.30pm, ITV
Tearjerking tales of brave people enduring things and selfless people helping others is the remit of this documentary show. Tonight offers both, as Julie Neville – wife of former Manchester United and Everton star Phil, the pair both charity campaigners – talks about how their daughter Isabella was left with cerebral palsy after a stroke. We also meet Owen Howkins, comforted in dealing with the rare Schwartz-Jampel syndrome by a three-legged dog, Haatchi. John Robinson
Full Steam Ahead
8pm, BBC2
Chooo-chooo! This evocative series ploughs on through the schedules in a cloud of steam. This week, historian hosts Alex Langlands, Ruth Goodman and Ollie Reed-lookalike Peter Ginn learn about the coming of electricity via the telegram; plus, a rattling good journey on the Flying Scotsman, where Langlands discovers how waiters in the 1930s were trained to carry plates of food along its rocking first-class carriages by doing so blindfolded. Ali Catterall
The Supervet: Bionic Specials
8pm, Channel 4
A new series of the programme that invites both bewilderment and awe at the extraordinary lengths and expense that we humans will go to in order to protect the health of our pets. Tonight’s episode sees Noel Fitzpatrick fitting a dog with a custom-built implant to replace part of its skull that was lost in an operation to remove a brain tumour – then using a 3D printer to construct a replacement elbow for a limping terrier. Andrew Mueller
The 80s With Dominic Sandbrook
9pm, BBC2
In the second of a three-part documentary series loaded with nostalgia and a retro soundtrack featuring bands such as Blancmange and the Human League, Dominic Sandbrook reaches the mid-1980s. From video nasties to the Falklands, rising consumerism to Aids, the historian delves into an increasingly changing nation. At times, the sheer breadth of information on offer makes for a broad-strokes approach, but it’s a mildly compelling retrospective, nonetheless. Hannah J Davies
999: What’s Your Emergency
9pm Channel 4
Issues of race weigh heavily this week, as PC Greaves in Crewe calls for back-up when two suspects accuse him of abuse and racism. PC Niaz Waddington of the Cheshire police and his colleagues have their work cut out, too, with racially aggravated incidents having doubled in the past five years. Elsewhere, paramedic Becki is called out in Warrington to deal with the case of a Latvian woman who has been mugged and assaulted. Ben Arnold
The Americans
9pm, ITV Encore
A subdued yet wholly intriguing conclusion to season four of this excellent series about Soviet agents embedded in 1980s America. As ever, Elizabeth and Philip are never more than yards from deadly danger, not least from their own daughter Paige, who is getting amorous with the son of the FBI agent who lives inconveniently across the road. Meanwhile, with their own mission possibly compromised, the couple face the prospect of being spirited to Russia. David Stubbs
Children Of Giant
9pm, PBS America
One of the final triumphs of the studio model that the “New Hollywood” of Easy Rider would come to dismantle, the 1956 western Giant lived up to its title: a sprawling tale of gender and race in 1900s Texas, it featured three of the biggest stars of the era in Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean. This doc does a solid job of explaining its creation and legacy, but suffers from the staid telling of much PBS fare. Gwilym Mumford
Film choice
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen, 2008) 2.05am, Film4
Those beams of warm Catalan sun seemed to reinvigorate Woody Allen’s creative energies after dull London clunkers such as Match Point and Cassandra’s Dream. This has beautiful young Americans Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall swept off their feet by Javier Bardem’s seductive Barcelona artist. All goes well until the arrival of his fiery ex-wife (Penélope Cruz). A hot, funny and sexy culture clash. Paul Howlett
Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1961) Thursday, 12.30am, TCM
James Mason took the dodgy Humbert Humbert role after David Niven, Rex Harrison and Noël Coward turned it down, no doubt blanching at the challenge of the arrogant paedophile from Nabokov’s witty, wicked novel. Mason comes over as stuffy, though a somewhat more sympathetic character than in the book, while Sue Lyons scoffs her way through as the knowing nymphet. It lacks Nabokov’s acidity and is hamstrung by being filmed in England – clearly miles from its indelible American midwest setting. PH
Olympic choice
When the mod with a bicycle Sir Bradley Wiggins isn’t making polo tops for Fred Perry, he’s winning things – including seven Olympic medals. Today he leads the GB men’s team’s pursuit for back-to-back gold (9.23pm, BBC1). Elsewhere, Katherine Grainger bids for a place on the women’s double sculls podium with new partner Vicky Thornley (2.04pm, BBC1) and later there’s the gymnastics women’s individual all-around final (8pm, BBC4). Amy Walker
