Thames Shipwrecks: A Race Against Time

BBC Two, 8pm

Conducting marine archaeology in the middle of the River Thames sounds like Time Team trying to do a dig on the M25 at rush hour, but that is exactly what this two-part documentary is due to show us. Over the centuries the access routes to what was the world's greatest trading port have acquired numerous wrecks of every kind of boat. We will see attempts to recover seven of these, from HMS Aisha, a Navy launch which had joined in the Dunkirk evacuation and patrolled the river during the Second World War, to HMS London, a 17th-century warship that was involved in the return of Charles II to England in 1660. Frank Pope and Tessa Dunlop present this race against time.

Mutual Friends

BBC One, 9pm; showing in Scotland on Friday

Like internal EU frontier posts, the borderline between TV comedy and drama has long been unmanned. After reshooting the pilot, the BBC decided this ensemble show about a group of fortysomething chums is more drama than comedy. Marc Warren plays Martin, an unassuming solicitor whose best friend, Carl, has just thrown himself under a train. Martin is devastated at the funeral when his wife (Keeley Hawes) coolly tells him that she had slept with Carl twice. Martin's life falls apart, but the japes begin when his perpetually adolescent chum Patrick (Alexander Armstrong) roars up in his E-Type Jag, a cross between a knight in shining armour and an irresponsible parasite. Funny? Well, yes, it is in parts, and should get funnier as it settles.

The Secret Millionaire

Channel 4, 9pm

Tonight's Fairy Godfather is Carl Hopkins, a promotions guru who spends ten days in Easington, Co Durham, the former pit village where Billy Elliot was filmed. Despite unemployment, soaring juvenile crime and rampant drug abuse, he finds a warm, welcoming community, struggling to keep a sense of identity, and a wide range of projects deserving his help. Hopkins seems a decent chap and he learns a lot from his stay, but is this the most patronising format ever?

The Last Word Monologues

BBC One, 10.35pm

In Hugo Blick's first monologue last night, Sheila Hancock's sweet old lady willingly faced death, but tonight we plunge into sadder, murkier ponds. In Six Days One June Rhys Ifans plays a lonely Welsh farmer, filmed in several spots around his decrepit estate, reflecting on a brief emotional connection with a Maori sheep-shearer who came to do seasonal work. In a life still blighted by his sick, domineering mother he wears his disappointment like a shabby old anorak. But he sometimes makes bread contaminated with ergot, an hallucinogenic fungus, and it does funny things to you.

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010