Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hannah Verdier, Ali Catterall, Andrew Mueller, Ben Arnold, Jonathan Wright, John Robinson and Paul Howlett

Thursday’s best TV: What Britain Buys; On Benefits: Life on the Dole; Justified

Mary Portas presents What Britain Buys.
Mary Portas presents What Britain Buys. Photograph: Sundog Pictures/Channel 4

What Britain Buys
8pm, Channel 4

Mary Portas has a knack for making consumer shows compelling and this week she looks at how the country is supposedly moving away from fast fashion and spending more money on experiences. Portas covers a wide range of shoppers, from the Mamils (middle-aged men in Lycra) to mobile-phone users, and asks whether people should dumb down their handsets to beat smartphone addiction. There’s also a look at how social media is affecting weddings. Hannah Verdier

On Benefits: Life on the Dole
8pm, Channel 5

Continuing the documentary series about Britons subsisting on benefits. People such as Lisa, who was jailed for cocaine-smuggling and has been unable to find employment since her release. And James, a dyslexic man living – or surviving – on £13,000 a year. Conversely, Jai has found little need for his benefit money since quitting his job and moving to the Scottish Highlands. Soon to be a popular trend, perhaps. Ali Catterall

Inside Birmingham Children’s Hospital
9pm, Channel 4

It is difficult to point a camera at a hospital without capturing drama – and next to impossible when the hospital is a children’s hospital. This is, then, inevitably but undeniably compelling fare, prompting admiration for staff, parents and patients alike. Tonight’s cases include a 12-year-old hit by a car, another 12-year-old who has fallen from a horse, and a nine-year-old facing down long odds against finding a suitable kidney donor. Andrew Mueller

Ramsay’s Hotel Hell
10pm, Channel 4

Gordon berates another raft of hapless hoteliers; this week, he will be barking his thoughts into the very souls of Jonathan and Lisa Krach. They are the owners of the Vienna Inn in Massachusetts, which, to be fair, has really rather decent notices on TripAdvisor so probably can’t be all bad. It’s Austrian-themed, jammed to the gunnels with crazy clutter and business is on the wane thanks to a bad reputation fostered by local folk. Ben Arnold

Justified
11pm, Spike

As the timeslot suggests, this Kentucky-set crime drama has never quite found a UK audience. A shame, because as this opener in its final series shows, it adeptly mixes noirish police procedural and contemporary western. We rejoin deputy US marshal Raylan Givens – Timothy Olyphant playing an Elmore Leonard character – trying to take down recurring baddie Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), a violent man who’s planning to make a bank withdrawal. Jonathan Wright

Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art
9pm, Sky Arts

An excellent film about the dramatic conceptual art of Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer and Walter De Maria. In the late 1960s and early 70s, galvanised by the war in Vietnam and a disdain for art as product, the contemporaries made dramatic work in the US desert, notably Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, Heizer’s Double Negative and De Maria’s Mile Long Drawing. It’s huge stuff but, as Heizer says, the right size for the times. John Robinson

Robert De Niro and Robin Williams in Awakenings.
Robert De Niro and Robin Williams in Awakenings. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Columbia

Film choice

Awakenings (Penny Marshall, 1990) 4.30pm, Movie Mix

An emotionally laden account of Dr Oliver Sacks’s L-Dopa cure for encephalitis victims, which reawakened people who had been suspended, comatose, for up to 30 years. Robin Williams is jittery and driven as the good doctor; Robert De Niro is a mass of twitches as the test-case patient who briefly dances with life. Well meant, but it looks rather like a showcase for two large egos. Paul Howlett

Today’s sport

Cycling: Tour de France Coverage of stage six of this year’s race from Arpajon-sur-Cère to Montauban. 2pm, ITV4

Football: Euro 2016 Germany play France in the second semi from the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille. 7.15pm, BBC1

Rugby League: Warrington Wolves v Salford Red Devils A Super League fixture from the Halliwell Jones Stadium. 7.30pm, Sky Sports 1

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.