Pick of the day: Imagine: Stephen Frears – Director for Hire
10.40pm, BBC One
Despite decades of success across both film (Dangerous Liaisons and Philomena, to name but a few) and television, Stephen Frears subscribes to Billy Wilder’s maxim “the best director is the one you don’t see”. And on the subject of Wilder, Alan Yentob catches up with Frears in Vienna, where he’s making a movie with Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant about the tortured making of Wilder’s penultimate film, Fedora. Grant, with whom Frears also made A Very English Scandal, is among an illustrious list of contributors that speaks for itself: Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Judi Dench, Jack Black, Steve Coogan and Hanif Kureishi.
Jamie’s £1 Wonders
8pm, Channel 4
These aren’t the most delicious-looking dishes that Jamie Oliver has ever concocted so we’ll have to take his mantra (“maximum flavour, minimum cost”) on trust. This week’s hacks include using tinned mushroom soup as the sauce in his “decadent chicken and veg pie” and a top 10 of Jamie’s store cupboard must-haves. Helping out this week is Miguel Barclay, author of a series of books entitled One Pound Meals.
Taken Hostage
8.30pm, PBS America
The 1979 Iran hostage crisis was one of the defining moments of the 70s, a slap in the face for America from a country that had once been a staunch ally, and a major factor in President Jimmy Carter’s landslide loss to Republican rival Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election. This documentary charts the dramatic events that saw 52 Americans taken hostage and held prisoner for 444 days by militarised students supporting the Iranian revolution.
The Gold: The Inside Story
9pm, BBC One
BBC One’s dramatisation of the Brink’s-Mat Robbery, The Gold, finished last night – although it was so well done, it would be surprising if most people hadn’t binged on the whole series weeks ago. Anyone wondering about the accuracy of Hugh Bonneville’s portrayal of Detective Chief Superintendent Brian Boyce can meet the man himself in this documentary. Helping sift facts from dramatic licence about the heist, Boyce gives his first TV interview.
Unforgotten
9pm, ITV1
The pieces of the jigsaw are falling into place as the latest case for the cold case team continues. We know that Jay (impressive newcomer Rhys Yates) is the victim’s son, while that mysterious Polish taxi driver in Paris was her social worker. So why did he quit being Precious’s caseworker the day after she disappeared, Sunny (Sanjeev Bhaskar) asks as he interviews Karol (Max Rinehart) in the French capital? On the home front, no surprise that both Sunny and his boss Jess (Sinéad Keenan) have deteriorating personal lives.
24 Hours In Police Custody: The Honeytrap Murder
9pm, Channel 4
Two-part special following the case of a naked man found stabbed to death in Luton, which leads police to discover this may be one of a series of murders in which men are lured with the promise of sex so that they can be robbed. DI Dale Mepstead turns her attention to two men who are seen on CCTV accompanying the suspects into a flat. Will either of the women being held in custody reveal their identity?