New York: America’s Busiest City
9pm, BBC2
Over three nights, this programme invites a team comprising historian Dan Snow, presenter and Paralympian Ade Adepitan, journalist Anita Rani and car bloke Ant Anstead to get under the skin of New York, to see how it works. Tonight, they broadcast from Grand Central Station. As they discover, all across the city, the real business isn’t on show, but going on under the surface. Not the event TV they no doubt hoped for, but not boring either. John Robinson
Inside the White House
9pm, Channel 5
In no other building in history have a greater profusion of consequential decisions been taken. For this reason, the White House has been filmed and written about to the extent that it’s barely less familiar than our own front rooms. Still, any intimate exploration has the power to fascinate. This two-parter is a history of the building, and a history of the US as seen from it, including interviews with various recent tenants. Andrew Mueller
All Together Now – The Great Orchestra Challenge
9pm, BBC4
Five amateur orchestras, including the London Gay Symphony Orchestra, compete in this new contest-cum-reality show: for some a good laugh, for others vitally therapeutic. “You’re not letting the sound come from the bottom – which is where all great sound comes from,” advises conductor/judge Paul Daniel during this Great British Parp-Off, which, like the best of these things, is delightful, funny and very human. Ali Catterall
Home from Home
10pm, BBC2
After saving for years, Neil (Johnny Vegas) and Fiona (Joanna Page) are thrilled with their new holiday home in the Lake District. However, there’s just one problem: Sloaney neighbours Robert (Adam James) and Penny (Emilia Fox) are there to make them look rather uncouth, with their talk of boarding school and organic chicken. The class difference soon becomes the only gag on offer, in what is a predictable new comedy with an anachronistic feel. Hannah J Davies
Wolf Creek
10pm, Fox
This spinoff from the Aussie slasher franchise doesn’t waste any time. Sticking to the campfire carnage formula of the first film, we’re into the gratuitously explosive violence from the get-go as unhinged redneck Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) bumps into an American family on an outback holiday. However, this maximalist opening is something of a red herring – the story centres on the family’s daughter Eve, who eludes Taylor’s baleful attentions. For the time being … Phil Harrison
The Day the 60s Died
10.15pm, PBS America
A poignant doc, produced last year to mark 40 years since the end of the Vietnam war, exploring young people’s response to the conflict. In particular, the focus is Kent State University, where protests were infamously and fatally disrupted by National Guardsmen in 1970. Interviews with witnesses and students build a picture of a strong but ultimately unsuccessful youth-led resistance, the likes of which have barely been seen since. HJD
Disabled Daredevils
11.05pm, Channel 4
A group of adults with disabilities come together for a week of extreme sports, from cliff-diving and waterskiing to a final adrenaline-drenched parachute jump. As easy as it is to mock reality docs when they create arbitrary deadlines or “journeys”, the lack of a concrete concept here does create a subdued feel. As a vehicle for learning how people practically come to terms with life-changing conditions, however, it’s valuable. Jack Seale
Live sport
Test Cricket: South Africa v New Zealand 8.55am, Sky Sports 1. Coverage of the fourth day of the second Test, which takes place at SuperSport Park in Centurion.
One-Day International Cricket: England v Pakistan 1.30pm, Sky Sports 2. The third game of the series from Trent Bridge.
Tennis: The US Open 3.30pm, Eurosport 1. Coverage of the second day at Flushing Meadows in New York.
Film choice
Orphan (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2009) 1.35am, Film4
A troubled couple (Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard) decide that the answer to their problems is to adopt a third child, but the apparently sweet Russian orphan Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) turns out to be a murderous little devil who could well be sister to The Omen’s Damien. A superior horror story that’s full of cuckoo-in-the-nest nastiness, leading to a gobsmacking conclusion.
