First Cut: Junk Mail Britain

Channel 4, 7.35pm

Some ideas seem so simple and obvious — once someone has come along and thought of them. Studs Terkel interviewed people about their jobs and produced a masterpiece, Working. Earlier this year, the film-maker Sue Bourne talked to people who lived on her street, guessing — quite rightly — that each one would have a remarkable story to tell. Here, Mark Craig collects the junk mail that comes through the letterbox and meets the people who send them out — the estate agent, the pizza shop owner, the organic-food distributor, the Jehovah’s Witness, and so on. In doing so, he discovers a shared humanity lurking behind those despised leaflets.

The American Future: A History

BBC Two, 9pm

The consummate storyteller is back. “I want to explore the haunting of the present by the past,” says Simon Schama. “I want to follow America deep into the conflicts of its history to understand what’s at stake right now.” And so he begins this superlative series by tracing the history of the American belief in plenty through the 19th and 20th centuries, driven by the optimistic and invincible idea that mass production and mass consumption could carry on for ever. But the land of plenty is running dry — of water as well as oil — and this coming election is the moment of truth when the US must finally confront its limits. Cogently argued, deeply informed, expressed with eloquence and illustrated with astounding footage, this is television at its best.

Little Britain USA

BBC One, 9.30pm

David Walliams and Matt Lucas have imported many of their most popular pantomime creations from the British show and added a few extra US characters — mostly gleaned from their observations of small-town America. The producer Simon Fuller assured the pair they’d be a hit in the US, telling Matt Lucas: “You could be even funnier than David Beckham.” And so far, so good.

Alan Carr’s Celebrity Ding-Dong

Channel 4, 10pm

There is something immensely likeable about Alan Carr. He has been described in the past as the spiritual heir of Frankie Howerd, but he’s more like the love child of Kenneth Williams and Bernie Winters. He’s never been cruel. He’s not cutting edge. He seems far too pleasant and level-headed to be impressed by celebrity. Despite all that, he is returning to host a new series of this hideous show that pits celebrities against ordinary folk. But one day he will find a vehicle that does justice to his observational gifts and his innate decency.

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