THE LAST TOMB RAIDER
BBC Two, 9pm

Giovanni Belzoni was an early 19th-century circus strong man, explorer, adventurer and amateur Egyptologist. “He is of extraordinary muscular powers,” wrote Henry Salt, the British Consul in Egypt, “well skilled in mechanics, indefatigable and zealous in whatever he undertakes and — joining to all this — a very intelligent mind.” Belzoni discovered eight tombs in the Valley of the Kings. He found the tunnel into the Great Pyramid at Giza, unearthed the temple complex at Abu Simbel and filled the British Museum with treasures. Yet he has received little recognition for his pains thanks to the unscrupulous Salt, who stole all the credit. DC

UNREPORTED WORLD
Channel 4, 8pm

If Big Brother is the price that needs to be paid for a series as valuable as Unreported World, then it seems like a fair trade- off. This superb strand returns tonight with Sandra Jordan’s report on the murdered girls of Ciudad Juárez on the Mexican border, where more than 370 women have been killed. Five men from Juarez and one from Chihuahua appear to be responsible, but they are all influential people involved in the drugs cartel who have powerful political connections. The Mexican police are worse than incompetent: they have become accomplices to the killings.

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS
BBC One, 9pm

Edina and Patsy (Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley) are off for a weekend in the country. They breathe in the charms of the countryside — all that wood smoke, polish and privilege. They clamber on horses and fire guns in a vaguely skyward direction, while Clarissa Dickson-Wright makes a guest appearance as a gamekeeper. There are a couple of funny lines (“What’s that noise, darling — it’s driving me mad?” asks Edina. “It ’s silence,” replies Patsy) but the highlight of the episode is a compelling performance by a pheasant.

PoW
ITV1, 9pm

“We know,” the Kommandant tells the assembled prisoners, “that a British spy is hiding in this camp, masquerading as a prisoner of war. Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, the man must turn himself over for interrogation.” Dramatic pause. Imaginary roll of drums. Much gulping. “If no one steps forward, things will become more serious.” More drums. More silence. More gulping. The tension mounts. Suddenly, a man steps forward. “I am the spy!” he shouts. Then another. And a third. Soon, all the prisoners are claiming to be spies to the accompaniment of triumphant music. Hoorah for telly! Long live Spartacus! On to Berlin! DC

Multichannel choice

CHANGES: DAVID BOWIE AT 50
Performance, 8pm

“I’m very lucky to still be doing the one thing that gave me a reason for living when I was very young . . .” says David Bowie, standing atop the Empire State Building with Alan Yentob, “the very same things that I was doing when I was 16”. So begins Yentob’s engrossing 1997 profile, in which Bowie talks through his career, from Ziggy Stardust (said here to have been inspired by a failed American rocker, Vince Taylor, rather than Iggy Pop), through the druggy Thin White Duke years, his Let’s Dance pop excursion (“artistically and aesthetically my lowest point”) and the raucous Tin Machine. It is a portrait of a unique, prodigiously creative man. GS

LEOPARD RESCUE
National Geographic, 7.30pm

An extraordinary film about an extraordinary vet. In Namibia, Dr Ulf Tubbesing deals with any and all wild animals, from snakes and monkeys to big cats, that stray into town or on to nearby farmers’ land. But his favourite beast is the leopard — so much so that he has made it his personal quest to save a family of cats with the growth-stunting brain condition hydrocephalus. Which is all very well, with three cute kittens running around, but it does undermine the whole “survival of the fittest” law of the wild — and what happens when those cute kitties grow up?

DEAD LIKE ME
Sky One, 9pm and 10pm

Last week’s Hallowe’en-fest of Scare Tactics knocked Dead Like Me out of the schedule, so it’s back this week with a double dose. In both episodes, the reapers are feeling the effects of Cupid’s arrow — you’re never too dead, it seems, to fall in love.

STAR DATES: TIFFANY
E!, 10pm

Strictly for thirtysomethings who hold a warm place in their hearts for such Eighties stars as Gary Coleman and Leif Garrett, this “celebrity” dating series hooks up single former icons with two dates (on separate days, of course) to see if the sparks fly. Tonight, the slouch-socked, ra-ra-skirted teen pop idol Tiffany (remember I Think We’re Alone Now?) swaps posing for Playboy for surfing and getting squiffy on wine with a tall, dark accountant and a timid musician.

STAN TRACEY: THE GODFATHER OF BRITISH JAZZ/STAN TRACEY: JAZZ UNDER MILK WOOD
BBC Four, 9pm and 10.10pm

Two hours devoted to Britain’s greatest living jazz pianist, still playing the live circuit at the grand old age of 76. The first programme, which has been shown before, is an atmospheric profile, the second a premiere of the Stan Tracey Quartet’s performance at the 2001 Brecon Jazz Festival, based on Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood. GS

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