TV Times top picks for tonight
What’s on telly tonight? Here the TV Times team of expert reviewers highlight the best shows on Friday 17th August
Britain by Bike, 8pm, Channel 5
With a squirt of oil to the bikes (and possibly their joints) father and son Larry and George Lamb continue their six-part tour of the country, heading to the Scilly Isles, which is about as far south as you can go in the UK. The isles’ mild climate makes it ideal for cycling and the pair zip from the capital, St Mary’s, to Bryher, the smallest island of the archipelago. Next day it’s a visit to Tresco Abbey Gardens for George, while Larry helps deliver the mail with one of the UK’s last cycling posties. Rating: ***
Extraordinary Rituals, 9pm, BBC2
Rituals, whether personal or involving huge gatherings, glue communities together. Simon Reeve narrates this three-part documentary looking at some of the most spectacular and bizarre ritual ceremonies from around the world, with episode one focusing on rites of passage. These include the ‘crocodile man’ ceremony of Papua New Guinea, in which young men are cut repeatedly until their scarred skin resembles a crocodile’s, and a ritual performed in the Brazilian rainforest, where newborn babies have their ears pierced and their skin dyed. From the makers of the BBC’s Human Planet, it’s another eye-popping justification for that new hi-def TV. Rating: ****
Disenchantment, Netflix
He’s covered the present with The Simpsons, the future with Futurama, and now, for his first new series in nearly 20 years, Matt Groening goes back into the past. It’s the story of hard-drinking medieval Princess Bean and best friends Elfo, an elf, and Luci, a demon. Groening describes it as being Monty Python-esque, so expect surreal laughs. Rating: ****
More previews tomorrow
