Britain’s top chefs, using the best ingredients from their area, continue to compete to concoct the perfect four-course menu to mark the Queen’s 80th birthday. Former royal reporter Jennie Bond is the host. A panel judges their efforts but the viewers will get to vote for the winner in a grand final without, sadly, being able to taste the food. Mind you, for us, the real fun is watching the chefs belittle each other’s efforts. Tonight Daily Express writer Antony Worrall Thompson and Galton Blackiston prepare their desserts. Antony whips up a baked egg custard with summer fruits, while Galton makes treacle sponge with custard. Will the Queen cast her vote? NB: NOT IN SCOTLAND
DRAMA: The Street
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09:00PM
BBC1
This powerful and emotionally draining series continues to scale great heights. But in one way it is reminiscent of the hospital drama Casualty. No matter how it begins, you just know something is going to go horribly wrong. Every episode concentrates on a different house in the northern street. Tonight the spotlight falls on respected teacher Brian Peterson and his wife Ann, played by Neil Dudgeon and Lindsey Coulson. They seem happy until Brian falls under suspicion of exposing himself while jogging through the park one night. Then, horrifyingly and very quickly, their lives start to unravel and Brian finds out who his friends really are. There are some heartwarming scenes with Jim Broadbent playing retired foreman Stan and Timothy Spall as Eddie the sympathetic cab driver.
FILM: Sleepers
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10:00PM
Channel 4
A dark and memorable movie with a fantastic cast that includes Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt and Minnie Driver. It is adapted from a book by Lorenzo Carcaterra which may or may not have been based, depending on who you believe, on real events. De Niro gives a tremendous performance as Father Bobby, the Catholic priest who is a father figure to four inseparable friends growing up in Brooklyn, New York, in the Sixties. After they accidentally injure a man during a foolish prank, they are sent to a reform school where they are abused by wardens led by evil Sean Nokes (Kevin Bacon). Thirteen years later two of the boys, now adults, have a chance to take revenge. Get ready for the plot’s many twists and turns. Barry Levinson directs.
COMEDY DRAMA: Suburban Shootout
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11:00PM
Five
Do not believe the hype that this is Britain’s answer to Desperate Housewives. However, this well-written surreal comedy with dashes of slapstick could acquire a cult following if the jokes can be sustained. Be warned, though, there are moments of violence and the twin-set and pearls characters use off-colour language. Little Stempington seems an idyllic new home for policeman Jeremy (Ralph Ineson) and his wife Joyce (Amelia Bullmore). Ahead of them seems a life of fresh air and jam-making. There is no graffiti or teenagers in the arcades. But nothing is as it seems. The ladies who eagerly welcome Jeremy and Joyce into the community (Rachael Blake, Anna Chancellor and Emma Kennedy) belong to two rival gangs.
