Week 25 highlights 2012

6 June 2012

Let Our Dad Die: Channel 4 Dispatches

 

Here are the most goose-pimple-inducing programmes on Channel 4 for week 24, Saturday 16th - Friday 22nd June.

Note to all journalists: The spelling of Jhon Cosgrove's name in the Come Dine with Me is not a typo. However much we might wish it were (and, Dear Lord, we wish it) this is actually the spelling of Jhon's name. Hrooay!

 

Saturday 16/06/2012
9pm
The Million Pound Drop Live 2/10
The Million Pound Drop Live continues. With Davina McCall at the helm, new pairs of players will be taking on the Drop in an attempt to win big. And, once again, there will be some celebrity duos playing live in the hope of bagging some serious cash for their chosen charities. Viewers at home can also play with a virtual million pounds.

 

Sunday, 17/06/2012
9pm
My Sister's Keeper
The network premiere of Nick Cassavetes' drama, based on the novel by Jodi Picoult. Eleven-year-old Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine) and her family tell, in flashbacks, the story of her older sister Kate's (Sofia Vassilieva) diagnosis of leukaemia and her mother Sara's (Cameron Diaz) and father Brian's (Jason Patric) decision to conceive a genetically engineered daughter for the express purpose of donating body parts to Kate. When Kate desperately needs a kidney, Anna decides that she doesn't want to donate hers and goes to the lengths of hiring a lawyer in her quest for medical emancipation from her family.

 

Monday, 18/06/2012
8pm
Let Our Dad Die: Channel 4 Dispatches
Seven years ago Tony Nicklinson had a catastrophic stroke, which has left him utterly paralysed. He has what is known as 'locked in syndrome' and cannot move, talk, feed himself or perform even the most basic function without help. Tony wants to die, but he cannot kill himself without help, and anyone who helped him would be committing murder. On the eve of a historic and controversial legal bid to demand the right to be killed, he tells his story, comes face to face with his critics, and hears from the Greek doctor who saved his life seven years ago.

 

Monday, 18/06/2012
8:30pm
Gok Cooks Chinese 5/6
Gok Wan fires up his wok to showcase his other great passion in life: Chinese cooking. Gok goes back to basics creating delicious dishes usually served as street food in China, starting with lamb and cucumber kebabs and the ultimate one-pot wonder - Tender Beef Noodle Soup. And Gok heads to Brixton to meet Auntie Li, a dumpling demon who brings real Beijing street food to south London.

 

Tuesday 19/06/2012
8pm
Embarrassing Bodies: Live from the Clinic 6/8
Dr Christian Jessen and Dr Dawn Harper are joined by leading bariatric surgeon Mr Shaw Somers to provide live consultations to as many viewers as possible via Skype. After having a revolutionary cochlear implant, will 46 year-old Suzanne be able to hear her children for the first time? Dr Christian infects two students with head lice and busts the myths about this common parasite. And Mr Somers offers some weight-related advice.

 

Wednesday 20/06/2012
9pm
24 Hours in A&E 6/14
The RTS award-winning series continues, offering a dramatic and revelatory insight into love, life and loss on the frontline of the NHS. A powerful and cautionary episode follows the work of King's College Hospital's A&E department on the night that singing superstar Whitney Houston died aged 47 as King's fills up with young people who were having fun with their friends when disaster struck.

 

Wednesday 20/06/2012
10pm
A Short History of Everything Else 2/4
Griff Rhys Jones hosts this brand new comedy panel show using archive TV clips to challenge players to give A Short History of Everything Else. Each week Griff is joined by regular team captains Marcus Brigstocke (Argumental) and Charlie Baker (Never Mind the Buzzcocks) who, along with this week's guests Julian Clary and Susan Calman, try to prove that they remember more about 'everything else' than the other team, adding their own irreverent interpretations along the way.

 

Thursday, 21/06/2012
8pm
Country House Rescue 2/6
Back for a new, fourth series, this time with entrepreneur Simon Davis at the helm, the owners of six stately British homes seek help in securing the future of their unique properties for generations to come. In this edition Simon comes to the aid of Jeannie Wilkins, owner of grade II listed manor house Chapel Cleeve in Somerset. 63-year-old Jeannie lives on her own in this 15 bedroom house and survives on £100 per week. Can Simon find radical solutions that will help Jeannie continue to live in her beloved home, and will she be willing to share the house with others?

 

Thursday, 21/06/2012
9pm
The House the 50s Built 3/4
This series celebrates the science behind the inventions and innovations that transformed the way we used to live, and catapulted the country into the modernity of 1950s Britain. Professor Brendan Walker sets out to discover the ingenuity and life-changing technology behind the inventions that took launched post-war Britain into the future. In this edition Brendan focuses on the bedroom, which played host to one of the biggest changes of the 20th century: the birth of the teenager. Five key inventions turned the bedroom into a place where a child could become a teenager.

 

Friday, 22/06/2012
7:30pm
Come Dine with Me
The dinner party contest comes from Hampshire, where motor-mouth mum of four Selena Bartlett, punk rock band member and vegan Jhon Cosgrove, retired boat lover Anson Lane and chatty hairdresser Terese Scott battle it out. With tensions high and £1000 up for grabs, will it be tears of joy or anger as the winner is announced?