My Life in Verse

BBC Two, 9pm

The mellifluous and telegenic singer/songwriter Cerys Matthews goes back to her Celtic roots. She begins with Dylan Thomas’s stream of babbling words in Wales, moves to the Dublin of W.B. Yeats and ends with the words of that great humanitarian Robbie Burns who, beyond the whisky and haggis, connected with people’s need to connect with other people. During this sincere and thoughtful programme, she discusses their love of language and the relationship between words and song; she talks about how the poets grappled with the concept of national identity, how they kept culture alive when it was under threat and helped to sustain its customs, language and traditions. And how — above all — these poets didn’t just fly the flag for their country, but dared to question and challenge its values. It’s a far cry from her appearance in I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!

Airforce Afghanistan

Five, 8pm

The logistics of warfare never cease to astound. This straightforward documentary series looks at life at the vast Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan, home to 10,000 soldiers of different nationalities and £1 billion-worth of Nato military hardware. Compared to life beyond the wire, it offers luxury of sorts — one soldier calls it “a summer camp”. Instead of tents and sleeping bags, there are simple rooms with lockers, beds and air conditioning. It offers pizza huts, hamburger joints and even a Thai massage parlour. Once a week on Saturday, local Afghans arrive and set up a market inside the camp. But the war is ever present just beyond the wire, and everyone is always on constant alert. It may resemble a summer camp, but it’s one that is vulnerable to attack at any moment.

Outnumbered

BBC One, 9.30pm

Ah, you lucky things. This is another chance to see the opening episode from the last series of Outnumbered, about the travails of a middle-class couple with three children struggling to do their best and failing miserably. Sharply observed and brilliantly cast, it is accurate, warm-hearted, understated and free of a horrible laughter track. But what makes it so special, above and beyond all those other estimable qualities, is the astonishing acting of the three children. They are the most natural comic performances from children that I have ever seen on television. Sitcoms are usually a form of hell on earth, in which the viewer feels as though he or she is being torn apart by a pack of brain-dead hyenas. This is a glorious, life-enhancing exception.

8 Out of 10 Cats/Friday Night with Jonathan Ross

Channel 4, 10pm; BBC One, 10.35pm

The quizmaster Jimmy Carr and team captains Sean Lock and Jason Manford are joined by Jeremy Clarkson and David Walliams for another round of the topical panel show. When they are done, turn straight over for Jonathan Ross, who will be joined on the couch by the Hollywood actor Jack Black and The Times restaurant critic Giles Coren, who with Sue Perkins, will be discussing the return of their time-travelling food series Supersizers. And if that’s not enough excitement for one night, the mighty Take That will be performing live in the studio.

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