It's the old Wednesday dilemma - half the standard working week down, half to go. It seems like time has passed so quickly - you've reached the middle of the week and what have you done?
All over the world, people have spent the first half of their week making decisions, changing lives, crushing dreams, building futures. Millions made, millions squandered - do you feel you've contributed? Do you feel like anything you've done has made any difference to ... Oh who cares. What's on telly?
The Ambassador's Last Stand 7pm, BBC2 Craig Murray was Britain's ambassador to Uzbekistan, until he fussed about the fact that Uzbekistan's government committed torture, and that British intelligence accepted information garnered as a result. The FCO forced him out of a job, into a nervous breakdown, and used his desertion of his wife for an Uzbeki woman as the basis for personal smears. Back in Britain, Murray retaliated by standing against his former boss, Jack Straw, in the last election. John Sweeney has form covering eccentric campaigns — he wrote an excellent book about Martin Bell's unseating of Neil Hamilton —and tells this story with wry understatement.
Andrew Mueller
Space Race 9pm, BBC2 "Kaputnik!" said one newspaper when the American navy's attempt to get a satellite into space failed — explosively. US humiliation, which began when Sputnik began beeping to the world below, was complete. For Wernher von Braun, however, this was a prime opportunity, as he got his own chance to launch a satellite. The docu-drama explores how both Braun and his Russian rival, Sergei Korolev, blindsided their respective intercontinental missile-obsessed governments in order to reach space. The right stuff, complete with bleakly hilarious cold-war public information footage: "The atomic bomb flash could burn you worse than a terrible sunburn."
Jonathan Wright
Lost 10pm, C4 Still with it? Sayid asks Sawyer some 24-style questions this week ("Why do you insist on calling Kate 'Freckles?'"), which gives him an excuse to go into flashback mode. Is he nicer than he seems? What's he lost in real life? So many questions.
Richard Vine
Spirited Away 8pm, Sky Cinema 1 (Hiyao Miyazaki, 2001) This astounding film is old-fashioned artistry shaming the fancy new computer technology. It seems all you need to make it work is an engaging, imaginative story coupled with stunning artwork. That's all. A young girl gets trapped working in a netherworld bathhouse while trying to save her parents, who have been turned into pigs. Plenty of excitement, danger and full of moments where you really have no idea what the hell you're looking at. Perfect.
Phelim O'Neill
Storyville: Sitting For Parliament 9.30pm, BBC4 After 30 years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland came to a tentative end, the political journalist Edmund Mallie decided that commissioning the artist Lorel Murphy to paint an ensemble portrait of the Irish parliament in session would best commemorate the peace process. Murphy's goal was to bring some dignity to the chamber, as opposed to what went previously, but inevitably the painting became a political process in itself. Each politician came to sit for him brought with them their own agendas: one woman complained of the lack of women in the front row; others argued on who should be given prominence. If there is a moral to the story, it's that art and politics — or rather, artists and politicians — don't mix.
Will Hodgkinson
Kath & Kim 10.30pm, Living TV Stay in for Australia's lower-class answer to Absolutely Fabulous. Kath and Kel are now back from their second bout of "connubials". They chose New Zealand as the setting and bungee jumped their way to the altar. Back in the burbs, the races arrive, giving the girls a chance to dress up in their finest. Kath gets to spit on Aussie export Rachel Griffiths (from Six Feet Under) guest starring as herself in the VIP tent. (Look out for lots more celebrity sightings this series.) Kim enters Epponnee Rae into "Bubs Idol", forgetting that she can't even talk yet.
Clare Birchall
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I would like to state for the record that I for one have done very important things so far this week. I could tell you - but then I'd have to kill you.
