Week 9 highlights

15 February 2012

Make Bradford British

 

Here are the best programmes on Channel 4 for week 9, Saturday 25th February - Friday 2nd March.

If your birthday takes place in week 9, you are a Pisces. Your element is Red Leicester, your ruling planet is Tatooine, your birthstone is a pebble, and your favourite ever Channel 4 programme is Classic Plant. This year, you will watch a lot of Channel 4, accidentally kill a pet, and grow a beard, regardless of gender.

Destiny sees Mary Portas posing as a backstreet dentist in Norfolk.

 

Saturday 25/02/2012
9:20pm
The Bank Job 4/10
George Lamb hosts the high-stakes game show. Live from a real bank in the heart of London, contestants aim to pull off the ultimate heist as they play a tense game of knowledge, luck and strategy. Four players are taken to a bank vault packed with hundreds of thousands of pounds, but only one can leave with a life-changing fortune. In a test of general knowledge, courage and nerve, who will get rich and get out?

 

Sunday, 26/02/2012
8pm
The Hotel 9/9
With the summer over, Channel 4 returns to The Grosvenor for a special final episode as manager Mark and the team tackle the biggest event in their first year at the hotel: Christmas. With all the guests due to descend at the same time, Mark is heavily reliant on Reservations Manager Alison to run a smooth check-in. But on the busiest arrivals day of the year, Alison phones in sick, leaving Mark to run things alone. The result: numerous guest complaints and Mark having to employ his 'famous' salesman skills to persuade them that the hotel entertainments package more than makes up for the less than perfect room allocation...

 

Sunday, 26/02/2012
9pm
Homeland 2/12: Grace
Part two of the compelling, award-winning US thriller starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis. Brody continues to struggle with life at home with his family; suffering from post-traumatic stress which manifests in violent nightmares. Shaken to the core, Brody resists media pressure to play the role of the returning war hero. Saul, who is still not convinced that Brody is working for al-Qaeda, manages to get Carrie four weeks' surveillance on the record so that she doesn't have to hide what she's doing any more. But as Carrie watches the footage of life in Brody's home she concludes he's still struggling with the fact that he's become a terrorist...

 

Monday, 27/02/2012
9pm
Coppers 8/8
The final episode of the series joins officers on the rural Pitlochry beat in Tayside. For many urban cops, quiet low-crime rural beats are a source of amusement: a place where the most serious crime is a bit of sheep bothering. But with over 1000 square miles to cover it's a challenge just to get to crime scenes, and back-up could be an hour away. In an area where everyone knows everyone else, police officers work the same way their predecessors did generations ago, through respect and quiet words. And while crime is low, the officers have to cover a long stretch of the A9 - as well as treacherous rural roads and remote countryside.

 

Monday, 27/02/2012
10pm
Proud and Prejudiced
Filmed over the course of a year, Proud and Prejudiced is the story of two of the most controversial men in Britain and how a dangerous local feud has become an alarming national drama. Tommy Robinson is the leader of the English Defence League, the biggest far-right street protest movement for a generation. Sayful Islam heads a small group of Muslim extremists who have become notorious for abusing British soldiers and burning poppies on Remembrance Day. Both men enjoy a cult-like status with loyal followers, both are specialists in making highly inflammatory speeches and defying the authorities, and both are from the same town: Luton.

 

 

Tuesday 28/02/2012
8pm
Supersize vs Superskinny 1/10
Dr Christian Jessen's feeding clinic opens its doors for a new series that features new strands highlighting the nation's dysfunctional relationship with food, as well as reports on eating disorders, morbid obesity and extreme eating habits. Dr Christian flies out to America's 'Fattest City' where 38% of the population is obese. He meets a woman who lost her foot due to obesity-related diabetes, and views coffins the size of hot tubs. And in the Feeding Clinic, Supersize and Superskinny go on a shocking diet swap.

 

Tuesday 28/02/2012
9pm
Big Fat Gypsy Weddings 3/6
As the eldest granddaughter of a family with both Romany gypsy and Irish traveller heritage 15-year-old Santana is expected to follow strict rules for girls. No longer at school, she spends a lot of her time cleaning the family chalet. Sixteen-year-old Cassa, however, bucks the trend of many traveller teens as she still goes to school. Is she motivated by the qualifications she could gain or just the opportunity to attend the prom in a giant Barbie-inspired prom dress?

 

Wednesday 29/02/2012
9pm
One Born Every Minute 9/14
This episode features two very different approaches to childbirth - while Olga Kozlova doesn't want her husband anywhere near her during labour, Vicki Thompson keeps her man close at hand. Olga chooses her mum as her birth partner, but as neither understand English they struggle to communicate with the midwives. Couple Vicki and Ben have used tattoos to celebrate their love, and commemorate their loss after an earlier miscarriage. Their main worry is that Ben might run out of space for additional tattoos if they have more children.

 

Wednesday 29/02/2012
10pm
10 O'Clock Live 4/10
The fourth show of the new live comedy and current affairs show hosted by David Mitchell, Jimmy Carr, Charlie Brooker and Lauren Laverne. Each week the hosts shine an uncomfortably bright light on the week's events bringing a witty, informative and wry take on the world of current affairs.

 

Thursday, 01/03/2012
9pm
Make Bradford British 1/2
This major two-part series explores what it means to be British. It brings together some of Bradford's residents - all British citizens, but from different races and backgrounds - to see if they can come up with a common notion of what it means to be British. In the series, eight people live together in a microcosm of multicultural society. After debating what being a British citizen means, they'll experience a side of life in Great Britain they've never seen before. From visiting a mosque for the first time, to experiencing a traditional dinner party, each person opens their eyes to another world that exists around them. Can eight people from different worlds but the same city really define what it means to be British in 2012?

 

Thursday, 01/03/2012
10pm
Our Man In... Ibiza
The Empire may be long gone, but around the world there are still 500 British consulates, there to help when Brits are in peril. In this new series British consulates have opened their doors to TV cameras for the first time, giving unique access to consulates in some of Spain's busiest resorts From the ex-pat paradise of the Costa Blanca to Barcelona, Tenerife, Mallorca, and the party island of Ibiza. Under pressure and under fire, consulate staff are the thin red, white and blue line that lies between Brits in trouble and Brits in even more trouble. The first episode visits the party island of Ibiza.

 

Friday, 02/02/2012
8:30pm
New Girl: The 23rd
Jess frets when Paul surprises her with a thoughtful and lavish Christmas gift, as she has only bought him a soft toy. It's clear that he's taking the relationship more seriously than she is. On 23 December, everyone goes to Schmidt's office party. As the only male in the office, Schmidt has been forced to dress up as a sexy Santa yet again - but he's about to hit his breaking point.

 

Friday, 02/02/2012
10pm
The Mad Bad Ad Show 3/6
The new comedy entertainment series, hosted by Mark Dolan, which brings together an original mix of challenges, comic banter and a bit of ad land insight. Team captains Micky Flanagan and Mark Watson are joined by guests Sean Lock and Miles Jupp and an ad industry insider to be quizzed about classic ads from the past, present and overseas. The captains are also challenged to shoot their own adverts with the studio audience voting for the best. In this third show the ads are themed around toys.

 

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