TV tonight: Grayson Perry’s controversial new exhibition about Englishness

Colourful characters feature as Grayson Perry’s Full English begins. Plus: Lord Sugar and Marie Antoinette (not together). Here’s what to watch this evening

Grayson Perry’s Full English

9pm, Channel 4

In this nuanced series, Perry and Kirk, his man-with-a-van friend, drive around England to collect items for an exhibition on what it means to be English today. Starting in the south, they meet Jeremy patrolling the Channel in Dover who says he is “defending” the country from “people who shouldn’t be coming here”. Perry then heads to the West Country to meet Greywolf (also known as Philip), the founder of the British Druid Order. Hollie Richardson

Dragons’ Den

8pm, BBC One

Strutting into the den this week: sequin-clad Ashlee wants £50k for her discowear brand Sparklebutt (“Designed to be worn by anyone with a butt!”), while eco-cleaning social enterprise founder Amelia preludes her pitch by calling Peter Jones “handsome”. HR

‘Handsome you say?’ … will Peter Jones be sweet-talked into investing?
‘Handsome you say?’ … will Peter Jones be sweet-talked into investing? Photograph: Grab/BBC

Alex Jones: Making Babies

8pm, W

Alex Jones is engaged and lovable in her role as an assistant at King’s Fertility clinic in London. This week, she receives a lesson in checking and choosing sperm (“This bottom one looks like he’s given up on life”). Touching moments follow when she meets the patients, including Des, who is giving a sample and hoping for some “swimmers”. Hannah Verdier

The Apprentice

9pm, BBC One

There is bartering in Brighton and haggling in Hove, as the candidates compete to secure nine items with seaside significance. The team that acquires the most at the lowest price wins, but then it is back to the boardroom, where the rules are less clear and Lord Alan’s moods are as changeable as the coastal weather. Ellen E Jones

Marie Antoinette

9.05pm, BBC Two

After a slow start, this easy-on-the-eye period drama has got juicier and gutsier. Horrified after being told that mourning the king’s death can last up to a year, the bored teen queen takes matters into her own hands and throws a lavish party. Yes please! HR

In the Footsteps of Killers

10pm, Channel 4

Another cold case as the TV hunger for true-crime tales shows no signs of abating. This time, Emilia Fox, criminologist David Wilson and former detective Dr Graham Hill are examining the murder of Deborah Wood, who disappeared after a night out in Leeds in 1996. Phil Harrison

Film choice

Committed performance(s) … Aubrey Plaza in Black Bear
Committed performance(s) … Aubrey Plaza in Black Bear. Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

Black Bear (Lawrence Michael Levine, 2020) Prime Video

A teasing air of mystery pervades Levine’s off-centre drama, a tale of two halves exploring the creative process. Aubrey Plaza could fill a showreel with her committed performance(s) as Allison, a film-maker (or is she an actor?) intending to write her next movie at the lakeside log cabin owned by Christopher Abbott’s musician, Gabe, and his pregnant partner, Blair (Sarah Gadon) – a couple whose unhappiness is brought to the boil by her presence. After that noirish opening, the second part features the same three actors in the same location but as different characters. The film-shoot plot is often comic, but becomes increasingly fraught and emotional. Simon Wardell

Contributors

Hollie Richardson, Hannah Verdier, Ellen E Jones, Phil Harrison and Simon Wardell

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