Pick of the day: The Pride of Britain Awards
8pm, ITV1
Carol Vorderman and Ashley Banjo celebrate the 25th annual ceremony from London’s Grosvenor House Hotel to honour unsung heroes (Sir Alan Bates, the sub-postmaster who took on the Post Office, was among those celebrated in 2023). A large sprinkling of politicians, sports stars, royalty and other celebrities are in attendance at the ceremony.
Smart Meters: Are They Really Worth It?
8pm, Channel 5
New gas and electricity meters promise to save customers time, money and energy, but cameras reveal not all is what it seems when it comes to these smart meters. With more and more horror stories of inaccurate bills and an invasion of privacy, we’re promised “an investigation into things the energy companies and the Government don’t want you to know”.
A House Through Time: Two Cities at War
9pm, BBC Two
It’s now 1936 for the diverse residents of the London and Berlin apartment blocks as presenter David Olusoga continues to weave individual lives into the fabric of history. It’s the year of the Berlin Olympics and one new resident, academic Paul Dittel, has returned to Germany to join the SS, the elite political soldiers of the Nazi Party. Meanwhile, in London, life continues relatively normally for the residents of Montagu Mansions – but as war breaks out, Italian resident Claudio Foglia, the head waiter at the Savoy, is declared an enemy alien.
The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee
9pm, Sky Arts
“Too tall and too foreign-looking” was Rank Films’s opinion of actor Lee as he struggled in the 50s to capture the leading roles that would only become his once he started wearing a cape and biting necks as the screen’s quintessential Count Dracula. This feature-length documentary has Peter Serafinowicz voicing Lee’s distinctive tones as a puppet of the actor recounts his life story. With an aristocratic but rackety family upbringing and an eventful war record, Lee’s postwar acting career was petering out until Hammer Films cast him as Dracula. Directors John Landis and Joe Dante are among the contributors here.
All Creatures Great and Small
9pm, Channel 5
As the current series comes to a close this evening, all is not quite right with James (Nicholas Ralph). He is acting strangely and being uncharacteristically forthright (calling Mrs Pumphrey’s Tricki Woo “a big spoilt pudding of a dog”, for example). As his health takes a turn for the worse, Siegfried and Tristan head off to geld a pony. When their car breaks down and they are forced to walk back to Skeldale House, they renegotiate their relationship – with amusing consequences.
Everyone Else Burns
10pm, Channel 4
When the lease agreement for the church falls through, the Order of the Divine Rod finds itself without a place of worship. David (Simon Bird) quickly solves the problem – by volunteering his family home to be the new church, but without asking his wife Fiona (Kate O’Flynn). But in a house crammed to the rafters with congregants, daughter Rachel fights to get her parents’ approval of her relationship with Jeb, while Fiona discovers the half-eaten pie which temptress Maude (Sian Clifford) had cooked for David.