Join Claudia Winkleman, Davina McCall and Gary Lineker for a bumper feast of entertainment raising money for Sport Relief 2018 (Friday 23, BBC1, 7pm). There’s a very special edition of Strictly Come Dancing, Helen Skelton and Spencer Matthews are among the stars mixing it up in Celebrity Boxing, while music comes from Kylie Minogue to start a marathon evening’s viewing.
He was the towering genius of modern art, whose ingenuity gave us the greatest paintings and sculptures of the 20th century. The final decade of Pablo Picasso’s life is explored in compelling detail in the fascinating documentary Picasso’s Last Stand (Saturday 24, BBC2, 9pm), looking back at both his wondrous works and dizzying private life. RAF At 100 With Ewan and Colin McGregor (Sunday 25, BBC1, 8pm) is a stirring celebration of the Royal Air Force and its heroic personnel, from the service’s origins in the First World War to the present day.
Actor Ewan McGregor is our guide, in the company of his former RAF pilot brother Colin, and among those also appearing is inspirational centenarian Mary Ellis, who flew Spitfires during the Second World War. In The Queen: Her Commonwealth Story (Monday 26, BBC1, 9pm), presenter George Alagiah looks back over the relationship of Her Majesty with the family of nations over which she reigns. The story begins in the tour Elizabeth II took in her Coronation year of 1953, and the globe-hopping itinerary takes us from Tonga to India, Australia, Ghana and South Africa.
Where should our sympathies lie when a family is wrenched apart by the break-up of a marriage? That’s the question posed by the emotive new drama series Come Home (Tuesday 27, BBC1, 9pm), written by the brilliant Danny Brocklehurst (Clocking Off) and starring Paula Malcolmson as Marie, a wife and mother who leaves husband Greg (Christopher Eccleston) reeling when she walks out on him and their children. Indian Summer School (Wednesday 28, Channel 4, 9pm) presents a provocative experiment. Five British boys from tough backgrounds have failed their GSCEs. Now they get a second chance – joining the boarders at the renowned Doon School in India. The quintet have six months to change their lives if they can adjust to an unfamiliar, old-fashioned regime.
It’s the last hurrah for Episodes (Friday 30, BBC2, 10pm) as the sitcom begins its fifth and final season. But there’s still so much to be decided before we bid farewell to the Brits struggling to survive Hollywood, with Beverly (Tamsin Greig) and Sean (Stephen Mangan) and their no-longer- A-list pal Matt (Matt Le Blanc). Expect scores to be settled and egos obliterated before the season is out.
Postponed from Christmas but worth the wait, Ordeal by Innocence (Easter Sunday, BBC1, 9pm) is a lavish costume-drama adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic detective mystery. Anna Chancellor stars – for a brief while – as the glamorous murder victim, and look out for the charismatic Bill Nighy alongside Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson.
