Week 11 highlights

29 February 2012

Here are the best programmes on Channel 4 for week 11, Saturday 10th - Friday 16th March.

If your birthday falls in week 11, this year will be a very exciting one for you. True, you will get horribly dumped, lose your job, be evicted from your home and be shunned by your friends, but you will absolutely LOVE the new series of Embarrassing Bodies. And you'll win £5 on a scratchcard in October.

Destiny sees Gok Wan taking a beginners' carpentry class in Streatham.

 

Saturday 10/03/2012
9pm
The Bank Job 8/10
George Lamb hosts the finale, as the five best players from across the series return for one last job live from the vault. But there's one big twist still to come as the cash they win across the show is split, leaving the final two players with a monumental decision to either share the spoils or trick their opponent into giving them the lot. Two special celebrity editions of The Bank Job follow later this week beginning on Friday.

 

Sunday, 11/03/2012
8pm
Searching for Shakespeare's House: A Time Team Special
Tony Robinson and the Time Team cameras join archaeologists as they dig the site of William Shakespeare's house, New Place, in Stratford on Avon. There's little of it above ground now, but records show it was Tudor Stratford's biggest private home, with up to 20 rooms. However, in 1702, New Place was demolished to make way for a grand Georgian pile. But, with the site now accessible, the archaeologists aim to show for the first time not only where Shakespeare really did live with his family but also how grand his house was.

 

Sunday, 11/03/2012
9pm
Homeland 4/12: Semper I
Part four of the compelling US thriller starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis. Since doing the television interview and becoming a media sensation, Brody's attitude appears to have changed to such an extent that questions are being asked in high places about his mental stability. Time is running out for Carrie's four-week surveillance warrant on Brody - and she still has no hard evidence that he's working for al-Qaeda.

 

Monday, 12/03/2012
8pm
China: Triumph and Turmoil 1/3
China's astonishing growth means that within as little as five years it could become the largest economy in the world, heralding a seismic shift of financial and political power from West to East. What will this mean to us? In this new series Niall Ferguson travels through this vast country to ask how a fifth of humanity can live under a Communist system of government with a capitalist economy when according to all the laws of history he knows it should fall apart.

 

Monday, 12/03/2012
10pm
Call Girls
As Britain experiences the worst recession since the war, over a million women are out of work. Drastic times call for drastic measures. This programme uncovers at least one British industry that's burgeoning - phone sex - meeting the women who are paid to talk dirty. Gone are the clichés of bored housewives earning pin money. Instead, getting in on the act, are young, single, married, older, and educated women.

 

Tuesday 13/03/2012
12:30pm
Cheltenham Festival
The wait is over for racing fans: the coliseum in the Cotswolds once again hosts the Cheltenham Festival, including the prestigious Gold Cup on Friday. There are five races each day, and around 250,000 spectators will visit Cheltenham over the four days. All four champions are back to defend their crowns; first up is Hurricane Fly in the Champion Hurdle. The week's coverage also includes the Festival Morning Line and Highlights programmes.

 

Tuesday 13/03/2012
9pm
Big Fat Gypsy Weddings 5/6
This episode, Reputation Is Everything, explores how honour and reputation are sacred for many Gypsies and travellers, and how the consequences of losing face can be devastating for all the family. After causing a scandal by spending time alone with her boyfriend, Irish traveller Rosanne is rushed up the aisle to save her reputation. And Mikey celebrates Gay Pride, explaining what it is like coming out as a gay in his community.

 

Tuesday 13/03/2012
10pm
Shameless 11/11
In the final episode of the series the situation underground is perilous for the trapped five and the pressure builds as truths, lies and confessions abound. Frank's adult life has come full circle, rat run to rat run; Jamie worries Karen may uncover the truth about Gloria; and Ruby wants to be accepted as a Maguire. When Shane's plan is uncovered a search party is swiftly formed, but time isn't on their side and decisions have to be made whether to involve the authorities.

 

Wednesday 14/03/2012
10:55pm
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished
Last year Channel 4 broadcast Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, a critically-acclaimed investigation into the events of the last few weeks of the decades-long war between the government of Sri Lanka and the rebel forces of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). It featured devastating video evidence of atrocities committed on both sides. This powerful follow-up film, presented by Jon Snow, reveals damning new video evidence as well as contemporaneous documents, eye-witness accounts, photographic stills and videos relating to how exactly events unfolded during the final days of the civil war.

 

Thursday, 15/03/2012
9pm
Mary's Bottom Line 1/3
Britain once had one of the most successful textile and clothing manufacturing industries in the world. Yet as recently as the 1990s it opened the floodgates to cheap foreign clothing imports with disastrous consequences - including the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. But Mary Portas believes there is a window of opportunity to restore some life to British manufacturing. So she's heading to Middleton, Greater Manchester, to set up a new production line for British-made knickers. Will she be able to pull off her first ever foray into manufacturing, or will it simply be a brief encounter?

 

Thursday, 15/03/2012
10pm
Our Man in... Tenerife
In this edition the consulate in Barcelona deals with the victims of a street robbery. Tenerife consul Maria Leng helps Liverpudlian military veteran Steven get home to the UK. Vice consul Helen supports the only British woman in prison on Tenerife. And, back in Barcelona, homeless ex-salesman Nigel and his beach buddy Des need help after sharing a bottle of vodka and two cartons of wine.

 

Friday, 16/03/2012
8:30pm
New Girl 11/24: Jess and Julia
Nick tells Julia how much he enjoys spending time with her, but when she responds by saying that she doesn't want to put a label on their relationship he is anxious and disappointed. Jess enlists Julia to help her get out of paying for a traffic ticket, but feels annoyed when Julia isn't very friendly towards her. And Schmidt is baffled as to why his bath towel is always damp.

 

Friday, 16/03/2012
10pm
Rude Tube 2012
George Lamb hosts the first of two special shows with an all-star celebrity team who aim to pull off the ultimate heist, in the name of their favourite charities. Four famous faces take on the vault packed with hundreds of thousands of pounds of real money. Once inside they go head-to-head to answer questions on the buzzer and against the clock. But only one of them can leave with the cash, so who will crack under the pressure and who will get rich and get out?

 

For highlights of programmes on More4, E4, Film4 and 4Music, please visit the Listings section of the site (available to registered users only).