Gwilym Mumford, Julia Raeside, Jonathan Wright, Ali Catterall, Phelim O'Neill and Ben Arnold 

TV highlights 20/07/2012

Match Of The Day Live | Let It Shine | The Great British Story: A People's History | Mark Knopfler: A Life In Songs | Awake | The Angelos Epithemiou Show
  
  

Michael Wood in The Great British Story: A People's History
Michael Wood in The Great British Story: A People's History. Photograph: Maya Vision/BBC Photograph: Mv Crew/Maya Vision/BBC Photograph: Mv Crew/Maya Vision/BBC

Match Of The Day Live
3.45pm, BBC1

A quick fix for those struggling through football's brief "cold turkey" period, as Great Britain's hastily assembled Olympic sides prepare for the main event with friendlies at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium. First, the GB women face Sweden, whose third place finish at last year's World Cup ensured their Olympic qualification, while the evening game sees the Ryan Giggs-captained men's team take on a Brazil side desperate to add a first Olympic gold to their already stuffed trophy cabinet. Gwilym Mumford

Let It Shine
6pm, Disney

In this teen update of Cyrano de Bergerac, our young hero Cyrus DeBarge is told by his religious father that "rap is the devil's music" when he freestyles in church. So he enters a songwriting competition to win the love of pop star Roxie. No real cause and effect. Then a mix-up happens with the song being attributed to his friend and the friend doesn't deny it. So you can imagine how that affects their otherwise perfectly nice friendship. They've only got until the end of the movie to make up, win the girl AND the contest, and climax in a horrific, Auto-Tuned finale of toothy doom. Bleee. Julia Raeside

The Great British Story: A People's History
9pm, BBC2

Michael Wood's proudly provincial history of the United Kingdom returns from a brief hiatus to take the nation's story to the present day. We resume in the Tudor era, when the Reformation and Henry VIII's destruction of the monasteries swept away patterns of belief and ritual that had endured for centuries. The ascendancy of the new religion divided the country, leading, for example, to the Prayer Book Rebellion in Cornwall and Devon during the reign of Edward VI. But this wasn't just a time of religious strife; industry was on the rise. Jonathan Wright

Mark Knopfler: A Life In Songs
9.55pm, BBC4

Few bands have been so damned by association because of how certain sections of its fan base voted, than Dire Straits. (The headband didn't help either, let's face it.) Yet despite that, there has remained the feeling that un-starry, goofy-grinned frontman Mark Knopfler, particularly in his solo work, is generally a force for good. This documentary examines his career, taking in his early pub rock days, the MTV years, and his solo world tour. Ali Catterall

Awake
10pm, Sky Atlantic

We're into the end game now; this penultimate episode doesn't have time to hang around. For a change, the therapists in both of Michael's realities are in agreement that his guilt and paranoia have fooled his mind into thinking that Hawkins was behind his family's death. Inevitably, when these two agree on him being wrong, Michael knows he must be right. Moving his wife and son to safety, he goes about getting the proof he needs. Michael's never had to choose which world he'd want to live in. By the end of this episode it looks like that choice may be made for him. Phelim O'Neill

The Angelos Epithemiou Show
10.35pm, Channel 4

This week's guests on Angelos's demented chat show are ex-Towie vajazzler Amy Childs and rapper Professor Green, while Gabby Logan and Ulrika Jonsson are also permitted to bask in his reflected glory. Logan, appearing throughout the series as Angelos's love interest, even gets the offer of having "a little fiddle about". Try as you might, it's impossible not to crack under his persistence, and though the overly sincere music number is a thumping mismatch, it doesn't detract from what is in places a very fine show. Ben Arnold

 

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