Week 24 Highlights

1 June 2011

Tempers fray in Come Dine with Me. Not really, it's Camelot.

24 is the number of carats representing pure gold, the number of major and minor keys in Western tonal music, and the number of points on a backgammon board.

24 is considered unlucky in Cantonese, represents homosexuality in Brazil, and is slang for a pack of beer in Canada. This is turning into an HSBC advert...

24 is also the number of frames per second used in filming. Every one of the 14,515,200 frames* on Channel 4 in week 24 will be a genuine work of art. I've seen it all already. Even the live stuff. Here's a taster:

 

Saturday, 11/06/2011
9pm
Camelot
New dramatisation of the Arthurian legend starring Eva Green, Joseph Fiennes, Jamie Campbell Bower and Tamsin Egerton. For one transmission only, the first two episodes of the series will air as one feature-length episode.

 

Sunday, 12/06/2011
8pm
Definitely, Maybe
Network Premiere of the romantic comedy directed by Adam Brooks. Ryan Reynolds plays Will Hayes, an advertising executive whose marriage is on the cusp of ending in divorce. But before it does, his 10-year-old daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin; star of Little Miss Sunshine) asks her father to explain how he met her mother. Instead of giving her a straight answer, Reynolds recounts his relationships with three women over the previous 16 years, changing their names and then inviting Maya to guess which woman he married.

 

Monday, 13/06/2011
8pm
The Thief Catchers: Dispatches
For generations criminal justice policy has been predicated on the belief that chasing criminals and locking them up is key to reducing crime. The truth is that for years the police have been repeatedly arresting the same relatively small group of criminals who continue to commit robbery, burglary, theft and other crimes that affect us. The majority of this group are drug addicts and for them prison is no deterrent. In fact many use their repeated spells in custody as a way of briefly stabilising their chaotic lives before re-emerging to continue offending. With exclusive access over six months to an innovative Offender Management scheme in Bristol, Dispatches follows the progress of three persistent criminals who all say they want to change.

 

Tuesday, 14/09/2011
11:05pm
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields
Jon Snow presents a forensic investigation into the final weeks of the quarter-century-long civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the secessionist rebels, the Tamil Tigers; featuring devastating new video evidence of war crimes - some of the most horrific footage Channel 4 has ever broadcast. Captured on mobile phones, both by Tamils under attack and government soldiers as war trophies, the disturbing footage shows: the extra-judicial executions of prisoners; the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps; and dead female Tamil fighters who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered.

 

Wednesday, 15/06/2011
8pm
Embarrassing Bodies: Live from the Clinic
Dr Christian Jessen and Dr Dawn Harper are live on Channel 4 to discuss medical concerns with viewers at home. This time the doctors are joined by a specialist in men's health. Alongside the live cases there are reviews and consumer tests on over-the-counter medicines and insight into popular procedures - this time it's IVF.

 

Thursday, 16/06/2011
10pm
The Sex Researchers
Perverts or pioneers? An eye-popping history of the men and women behind modern sex research: the scientists who, for more than 100 years, have been peeking beneath the sheets, trying to uncover our deepest secrets. The boffins themselves range from courageous to deeply eccentric and their methods visionary, kinky and sometimes bizarre. But their findings have transformed the way we think of sex, and have changed our lives.

 

Friday, 17/06/2011
8pm
Come Dine with Me
A brand new series of Come Dine with Me kicks off an evening of new Friday night entertainment on 4. In Harrogate tonight, four amateur cooks compete for the coveted £1,000 prize. Emma Revis is faced with three of the most eccentric people she has ever met. Work-shy millionaire's son Matthew Hetherington stuns his guests by throwing their coats at his hired help to put away; camp, balding letting agent Tim King reveals he more than compensates for the lack of hair on his head by having one of the hairiest backs the world has ever seen; while eco-warrior and nomad Alison Brierly challenges everyone's palates by serving pheasant road kill...

 

Friday, 17/06/2011
9pm
8 Out of 10 Cats
8 Out of 10 Cats returns for its 11th series, and joining Jimmy Carr and Sean Lock is new team captain Jon Richardson. Together they thrash out the hot topics of the week by examining surveys, opinion polls and statistics; from the silly to the serious, from celebrity gossip to world politics.

 

Friday, 17/06/2011
9:30pm
The King Of...
Claudia Winkleman, host of the feisty new Channel 4 comedy talk show series The King Of... takes a witty, informative and passionate look at our favourite things. From musicals to newsreaders, supermodels to household pets, artists to takeaways - she shines a light on the passions and peculiarities of her celebrity guests.

 

Friday, 17/06/2011
10pm
Alan Carr: Chatty Man
Award-winning funny man and loveable chat show host Alan Carr returns for a sixth series, now in a new Friday night spot. Tonight Alan is joined by guests Jennifer Lopez, who chats and performs her latest single; Jonathan Ross, who talks about his new show Penn and Teller Fool Us; and Heavyweight boxing champion David Haye.

 

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

 

*Yes, I did work it out. I am that sad.