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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Anna Pickard

Why go out?

It's all the big questions, today. That bloke - is he fit to remain an MP, let alone the leader of a party? Can any career reinvent itself after such unimaginable scandal? Is there any dignity or self-respect left if winning a popularity contest is the only way of improving your livelihood? And having luscious locks and a marvellous pair of funbags - is it really the best way to get ahead in politics, sorry, television?

With everyone blathering merrily about George Galloway, Barrymore and all the other contestants of Celebrity Big Brother, you'd be forgiven for thinking that there was nowt else on whatsoever.

You would be wrong, of course, wrong, wrong wrong. As evidenced by these picks of tonight's TV, taken from this week's Guide...

Judge John Deed 8.30pm, BBC1 So impeccably liberal he could replace Charles Kennedy tomorrow, the good judge returns for another series of winding up the political class. His latest case involves a macabre, racist killing in a prison, which Deed soon turns into an excuse to demonstrate the advantages of non-adversarial investigation, as opposed to two barristers slugging it out. So far so expected, but the personal life developments are more surprising. With Marc Thompson back from South Africa, Jo Mills is distant and distracted. The result is quite possibly the first episode without JJ getting his end away.
Jonathan Wright

CS Lewis: Beyond Narnia 9pm, BBC2 Timely documentary about the author of The Chronicles Of Narnia and his famously late conversion to Christianity. Lewis was heavily criticised by chum JRR Tolkien for writing a book about a load of talking animals, a frosty-knickered witch and some precocious kids. But he paid him no mind and the Narnia books became his legacy to millions of children and adults all over the world. Not to mention the excuse for yet another multifilm franchise. Fascinating chap.
John Robinson

My Name Is Earl 10pm, C4 With the coolest TV moustache since Magnum, this is the role that laidback former pro-skater Jason Lee has been waiting for. His Earl's a low-level criminal running around with doofus brother Ethan Suplee, until he wins the lottery, gets hit by a car, loses his ticket and decides to change his karmic fate by making up for every bad thing he's done. Detailed, with great dude humour and spot-on support from Jaime Pressly and Nadine Velazquez, this loser's a winner.
Richard Vine

The Passing Show: The Life And Music Of Ronnie Lane 9pm, BBC4 Ronnie Lane was the bass player in the Small Faces and the Faces, one of the most loved men in rock'n'roll, and one of the most cursed. Unscrupulous managers ensured that the Small Faces never made a penny despite having a string of hits, while the Faces were just getting to stadium level when Rod Stewart decided to leave the former friends he saw as his backing band with nothing. So Lane moved to the country and fulfilled a fantasy of being a gypsy farmer before multiple sclerosis got the better of him. Lane was not only a brilliant, earthy songwriter — the Faces' Ooh La La was his signature tune — he was also hugely inspiring through being so positive in the face of poverty and pain.
Will Hodgkinson

Saw (James Wan, 2004) 10pm, Sky Movies 2 James Wan's financially successful thriller works around a central premise so grisly and disturbing it's able to let most of the plot's inherent silliness pass by unnoticed during viewing. Two men awake to find themselves chained up in a room with a bloody corpse, a gun and a saw for company. They are victims of the Jigsaw Killer, a mysterious figure who devises nasty ways for his targets to kill each other or themselves as he watches with glee. Flashbacks offer plenty of red herrings as to who exactly is behind this and the clock ticks away as the protagonists try to think of an escape plan that doesn't involve them cutting their own legs off.
Phelim O'Neill

At The Height Of Summer (Tran Anh Hung, 2000) 12.20am, BBC4 As the title suggests, it's too hot to do much in this Vietnamese family drama. It's a sensual treat, set in an unnaturally bright and lush domestic world. Three sisters and a brother are at the centre of what drama there is. The brother and youngest sister are twins, but act like lovers. The older two sisters both have problems with their partners, but all of them are maintaining facades.
Steve Rose

_______________________

Although you'd be forgiven for watching a little bit of Celebrity Big Brother as well. But only a little.

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