Telly Today: Reformation, music veterans and Barbie

October 3, 2017

Telly highlights for Tuesday October 3rd with ATV Today Editor Doug Lambert.

Reformation, Europe’s Holy War, BBC Two, 9pm

In this one-hour documentary for BBC Two, historian David Starkey reveals how the Protestant Reformation unleashed fundamentalist beliefs, terror and holy war across Europe in a way that is all too familiar to us today. “There was the same literalism,” he says, “the same passionate intensity, the same apocalyptic violence as now.”

Timed to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the doors of All Saint’s Church in Wittenberg, this programme will chart the spread of Luther’s ideas across Europe and into Britain. David Starkey will explain how and why Luther’s simple act of defiance would gain such momentum, and will explore the consequences of his actions – both on the Christian faith, and on society at large.

Later… with Jools Holland, BBC Two, 11.15pm

Joining Jools for this week’s musical merry-go-round are Brooklyn’s The National, who made their debut on the show back in 2005 and have just scored their first number one album with their seventh collection Sleep Well Beast, with songs like Day I Die and The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness, that find the band tackling oncoming middle age and the state of the world with their customary inventive melancholy.

Morrissey appeared on Later’s first series back in 1992 and returns for the sixth time with songs like Spent the Day in Bed from Low in High School, his eleventh studio album and his first in three years. The album was produced by Joe Chiccarelli, who has worked with everyone from Frank Zappa to Beck.Queens of the Stone Age recently scored a number one UK album with their swaggering seventh studio album Villains, and frontman Josh Homme is in crooning mode to offer a unique performance of the closing track, Villains of Circumstance, accompanied by a string quartet and bandmate Dean Fertita.

Alongside these veterans, prepare to meet 19-year-old American pop R&B singer Khalid and his breakout anthem Young Dumb and Broke from his debut album American Teen. Then make way for the returning Jessie Ware and songs from her third album Glasshouse, which adds a confessional, noir-ish feel to her 80s-influenced soul stylings on songs like Midnight and Selfish Love.

Last but not least, please welcome the inventive keeper of classic country’s flame, Marty Stuart, who started out as a 13-year-old with bluegrass legend Lester Flatt and is touring the UK to promote his album Way out West with his band The Fabulous Superlatives. They are performing acoustically in the high lonesome tradition of close harmony.

Cilla, ITV, UTV, STV, 9pm

Fans of the much missed television personality, and of course singer, Cilla Black will be delighted that ITV has decided to repeat the drama looking back at the Liverpool lasses early years making her way into show business.

Sheridan Smith takes the lead role in Jeff Pope’s three-part drama charting Cilla Black’s rise to fame in the 1960s. As the series opens, Priscilla White is a Liverpool typist with dreams of escaping the office and becoming a singer. It looks like her chance has come when she meets songwriter Bobby Willis, who claims to be in the music industry – so she’s less than impressed to later discover his flash car is hired and he actually works in a bakery.

Despite this inauspicious start, Cilla agrees to let him manage her, but will their arrangement still stand after her friends, a local band by the name of the Beatles, help her land an audition with genuine impresario Brian Epstein? Aneurin Barnard, Ed Stoppard and John Henshaw also star.

Loose Women, ITV, UTV, STV, 12.30pm

Ruth Langsford, Coleen Nolan, Janet Street-Porter and Nadia Sawalha chat about the issues that have everyone talking today and are joined by actor and musician Martin Kemp.

Mary Portas on Barbie: The most famous doll in the world, Channel 4, 9.15pm

Retail expert Mary Portas explores why Barbie has maintained such an iconic status over almost 60 years. In California, Barbie manufacturer Mattel open the doors to their HQ, giving Mary privileged access behind the scenes to find out what makes Barbie tick.

Mary also has a date with the real life Ken. In Houston, Texas, at the National Barbie Collectors’ Convention, Mary meets grown-ups who can’t seem to grow out of playing with Barbie. In the UK, Mary investigates whether Barbie really is to blame for low body image or lack of job aspiration in young girls. With calls for an ever increasing gender-neutral world, Mary asks her son Horatio whether boys really should play with ‘boys toys’ and girls with ‘girls toys’?

And with Barbie sales have recently dipped, can the doll stay relevant going forward?

My Floating Home, More4, 10pm

In this ‘another chance to see’ offering Mark Evans meets Dwayne and Janet, who have a dream to design and build an experimental oversized houseboat, so they can take their home with them anywhere on the vast network of UK canals. Never having lived on the water before – nor even driven a boat – taking the plunge with building their own floating home from scratch is a huge challenge.

Also, water-loving couple Lydia and Wout live on an old steamship and have decided it’s time to modernise and join a small community of floating homes on a canal south of Amsterdam. Will they be able to get their spectacular home, with its wraparound deck, to its mooring?

The Last Hours of Jimi Hendrix , Channel 5, 10pm

The documentary series continues as Dr Jason Payne-James investigates the events leading up to the premature deaths of celebrities with the aid of the autopsy report. Jimi Hendrix was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century and the highest paid performer at Woodstock. But at the height of his fame, he was found dead in his London flat on 18th September 1970.

One of the greatest guitarists of all time, Jimi Hendrix‘s pioneering sound combined a consummate technique with feedback and distortion, and his wild performances were legendary, from playing guitar with his teeth to setting his instrument on fire live on stage.

In a career that effectively spanned a mere four years, he acquired a reputation as one of the great musical innovators of the 20^th century. He left behind a wealth of recorded material and spawned generations of vain imitators. For years after his death, his recordings continued to sell in their millions.

In August 1969, Hendrix was at the height of his fame and received the largest appearance fee at Woodstock. A year later, in September 1970, his shocked fans learned that the 27-year-old rock god had been found dead in his London flat, apparently choked on his own vomit. But the coroner returned an open verdict, citing insufficient evidence.

Almost 50 years on, conspiracy theories involving suicide and murder still abound. Can Dr Jason Payne-James shed new light on what caused the death of one of the few rock stars truly meriting the description ‘iconic’?

A Yorkshire Vet Special, Channel 5, 8pm

The Yorkshire Vet Special returns to the observational documentary series which follows everyday life at Skeldale Veterinary Centre, James Herriot’s former practice in Thirsk. Katy needs advice from Peter and Julian when a lamb is born with five legs.

Percy the peacock pays a visit to a council estate. Julian gets up close and personal with a burly young bullock with a damaged eye.

Rodney Carrington: Here Comes the Truth, Netflix, from today

Comedian Rodney Carrington brings a slew of hilariously uncensored jokes to his debut Netflix Original Stand-up comedy special, Rodney Carrington: Here Comes the Truth.

Filmed in front of a packed audience at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a guitar-wielding Carrington treats the audience with his comical lyric skills, while speaking his truth about divorce, dating younger women and his rationale on how to heal the world.

Z Nation – Warren’s Dream, Pick TV, 10pm

What’s worse than a zombie apocalypse? A post-apocalypse zombie world with mutating zombies. That’s the premise for the new fourth series of undead mayhem, with teasers promising the end of Z World and fans on tenterhooks over who survived the Mount Casey showdown.

With Addy, The Man, Lucy and 5K over a cliff ’s edge, Murphy and Roberta shot by the same bullet and 10K undead, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll be back to fight another zombie horde. A Z Nation Comic- Con panel confirmed that the show will pick up two years after the Everybody Dies in the End episode, while new two new faces will make regular appearances in season four.