Billy Joel: And So It Goes explores his life and music, Dexys at the BBC features the various incarnations of Kevin Rowland's band, Griff Rhys Jones explores the southern states of the USA, and Peter Dinklage stars in The Thicket . . .
Pick of the Day
Billy Joel: And So It Goes, 9.00pm, Sky Documentaries
Streaming on NOW
Billy Joel always comes across as being a genuine kind of person – an ordinary guy with an extraordinary talent.
This two-part HBO documentary promises to be an expansive portrait of the life and music of Billy Joel, exploring the love, loss, and personal struggles that fuel his songwriting.
With unprecedented access to never-before-seen performances, home movies, and personal photographs, along with extensive, in-depth one-on-one interviews, the documentary intimately explores the life and work of Joel, whose music has endured across generations.
New or Returning Shows
Dexys at the BBC, 9.10pm, BBC Two
As the frontman and driving force behind Dexys Midnight Runners, Kevin Rowland (below) became one of the most enigmatic pop stars of the 1980s.
After a string of hits (and some superb albums, particularly Searching for the Young Soul Rebels), he defied all expectations and radically reinvited the band's look, sound and even its name, rebranding them Dexys.
Over the decades he’s followed his instincts both on and off stage while retaining a hardcore support amongst music fans. For many, Dexys is a way of life.
In this programme Rowland looks back on his career and introduces the best of the band's BBC performances, from the early days on Top of the Pops and Saturday Superstore, right up to 2024's triumphant appearance at Glastonbury
Griff's Great American South, 9.10pm, Channel 4
Comedian-turned-travel show presenter, Griff Rhys Jones packs his bags once more to explore the southern states of the USA.
In this first episode, Griff heads to Tennessee, where complex dam systems constructed in the 1930s created a hydropower system the envy of the world - but also helped to forge the atomic bomb.
He then moves on to Nashville, the capital city of country music, and a chance meeting with the line dance world champion.
Annika, 9.10pm, BBC One
The quirky crime drama, starring fourth wall-breaker Nicola Walker as DI Annika Strandhed, returns for a second run.
Fans with satellite channels may have already seen this season on Alibi.
The eponymous Annika is head of the Marine Homicide Unit tasked with solving puzzling crimes and unexplained murders that wash up in Scotland's waters.
In this opening episode, when a phone containing a brutal drowning recorded is handed in to MHU headquarters, the pressure is on for Annika and the team to track down the murderer.
New to Stream
The Thicket, Sky Cinema Premiere & NOW
This violent and oddball Western sees fierce bounty hunter Reginald Jones (Peter Dinklage) recruited by a desperate man to track down a ruthless killer known only as Cutthroat Bill (Juliette Lewis).
Jones rallies a band of unlikely heroes including a grave-digging ex-slave and a street-smart woman-for-hire to take on the deadly task.
Together they embark on a perilous quest to track down Cutthroat Bill that leads them into the deadly "no-man's-land" known as – you've guessed it -The Thicket.
Don’t Miss
Parkinson, 11.25pm, BBC Four
Quite a lot of these old Parky shows are fascinating – and this looks like one of them.
It’s an edition from 1975 in which Michael Parkinson is joined by Day of the Jackal author Frederick Forsyth (above), then veteran British broadcaster and DJ Pete Murray and – best of all - jazz pianist and winsome singer Blossom Dearie.
And, yes – that was her real name.
Saturday Cinema
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, 9.15pm, RTÉ One
This spy thriller sequel, starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Ferguson and Simon Pegg, is my favourite from the M:I franchise.
It’s just relentless and great fun.
The team of secret agents faces being shut down when the head of the CIA convinces the US Senate that it is too dangerous.
The operatives of the Impossible Mission Force become fugitives when they defy orders and plot to bring down a shadowy society of assassins.
Spectre, 8.30pm, UTV
Here’s the 2015 007 flick, starring Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw and Ralph Fiennes.
Worth watching just for the opening sequence. In fairness, it's probably about the best thing about the movie.
James Bond goes rogue after receiving a cryptic message that sets him on the trail of a secretive criminal network.
While his colleagues face a new threat closer to home, 007 embarks on a globetrotting journey in search of the elusive mastermind behind the syndicate.
007 then discovers that his target may have links to his own past and had involvement in previous events during some of Bond's most dangerous missions.
Cairo Conspiracy, 9.30pm, BBC Four
I’m curious about this, as it should offer a bit of an insight to a part of the world that isn’t familiar to us lot in the West.
Besides, the trailer really whets the appetite. It looks great.
It’s a 2022 political thriller from Egypt, starring Tawfeek Barhom, Fares Fares and Mohammad Bakri.
The son of a fisherman is offered the chance to study at the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the centre of power of Sunni Islam, but he becomes a pawn in the conflict between Egypt's religious and political elites.
In Arabic with English subtitles.
Family Flick
Charlotte's Web, 6.35pm, RTÉ One
Here's an engaging family drama, starring Dakota Fanning and featuring the voices of Julia Roberts, Dominic Scott Kay, Steve Buscemi and John Cleese, and based on the book of the same name.
Youngster Fern tries to persuade her father to keep the runt of a litter when a sow gives birth to piglets on the family farm.
While the little pig still looks destined for the chop, clever spider Charlotte hatches a plan to use her web-spinning talents to save him.
