Steve Coogan stars as Jimmy Savile in new BBC drama The Reckoning, amateur sport features on Secrets from the Sidelines, David Tennant takes the lead role in Litvinenko, and The Crash Detectives return . . .
Pick of the Day
The Reckoning, 9.00pm, BBC One
This four-part factual drama examines the chilling crimes of the once-loved but now much-despised Jimmy Savile, starring Steve Coogan in the lead role and featuring testimony from his survivors.
In the early 1960s, Savile became famous as a DJ in the dance halls of Leeds and Manchester, and was able to exploit this position.
In an effort to legitimise his reputation, he also took advantage of his celebrity status to pursue a voluntary role at his local hospital Leeds General Infirmary.
Savile's popularity led the BBC to ask him to host their new TV show Top of the Pops.
Don't Miss
Secrets from the Sidelines, 9.35pm, RTÉ One
Streaming on RTÉ Player
This week’s episode of the Secrets from . . . strand goes behind the scenes of amateur Irish sport.
It captures the words shouted from the sideline, features some of the rows, the frustrations, the celebrations and the bitter tears of defeat as teams battle it out.
Featuring contributions from the likes of former Saint Pat’s and Ireland manager Brian Kerr, Olympic boxing silver medallist Kenneth Egan and sports psychologist Aoife Quinn.
Love in the Country, 9.30pm, RTÉ2
Streaming on RTÉ Player
As the new dating show continues, Alanagh Loftus's three suitors arrive at the farm.
They're hoping to impress her and her mammy during a weekend of clay pigeon shooting, quad-biking and go-karting - but can any of them keep up with Alanagh?
Meanwhile, Rob Murphy welcomes his potential dates to West Cork. And while they may have brought the glamour to Castletownbere, Rob decides to first put them to work on the farm.
Union with David Olusoga, 9.00pm, BBC Two
In the second episode of the series looking back on the history of the United Kingdom, the historian David Olusoga explores how a new British identity was forged in the face of multiple threats and almost constant war with France after the Act of Union in 1707.
He reveals the part the Drummond family played in the 1745 Jacobite rebellion, and how by the 1780s the tobacco lords of Glasgow were making fortunes from the overseas plantations that relied on the labout of enslaved Africans.
Across the Irish Sea, the French Revolution in 1789 inspired some to try to unite Protestants and Catholics and overthrow British rule in Ireland.
Andy Warhol's America, 9.00pm, BBC Four
A look at the artist's response to the Civil Rights movement and the assassination of John F Kennedy, as well as other major historical events happening in America during the 1960s.
Plus, stories about Warhol setting up the Silver Factory and managing the Velvet Underground, and also how he faced his own personal nightmare - he was shot by a Factory associate.
New or Returning Shows
Litvinenko, 9.00pm, Virgin Media One
Here’s a chance to see this ITV drama series, starring David Tennant, from late last year.
In November 2006, DI Brent Hyatt and DS Jim Dawson head to University College Hospital in London to interview Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who claims he’s been poisoned.
His wife Marina tells the detectives that doctors are sceptical of his story, though his deteriorating physical condition is clear for everyone to see.
Litvinenko provides a meticulous account of who he believes to have killed him and also the man responsible for ordering his murder, none other than Vladimir Putin.
The Sky at Night: Question Time Special, 10.00pm, BBC Four
A special question-and-answer edition of the programme, recorded at the University of Exeter as part of the British Science Association's Science Festival.
Presented by Dallas Campbell, with panellists including Chris Lintott, Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Pete Lawrence and Claire Davies.
The Crash Detectives, 7.00pm, BBC Two
Return of the programme going behind the scenes with Gwent Police's dedicated forensic collision investigators
Season four opens with an incident where a man is found dead on a dark mountain road, but there's no sign of a vehicle.
With just fragments of debris for clues, the pressure is on to track down the driver that's fled the scene.
New to Stream
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, Sky Store
Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Wing Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby star in the latest from the much-loved action thriller franchise.
Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: to track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands.
With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan's past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins.
Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission - not even the lives of those he cares about most.
MC Grammar Rap Tales, Sky Kids & NOW
Each episode of this new animated series tells a contemporary version of a classic fairy tale as The Grammar Gang morph into fairy tale characters with a modern twis.
For example there’s the likes of Jack and the Beat-stalk and Goldi-rocks as they sing and rap tales in the vibrant MC Grammar universe.
