marylsommers

marylsommers

Unreported World
7.30pm, Channel 4

Unreported World provides a snapshot of life in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi. With a population of 20 million and high unemployment, the city has been engulfed in ethnic and political killings ? gangland violence claimed 1,300 lives last year. Within this maelstrom, which the state seems largely powerless to quell, individuals are working to try to help the victims; people like Saleem Mohammad, who risks his life driving an ambulance (which is often targeted by gangs) and Nasrullah Khan, a police officer who sleeps most nights at his office as he has suffered numerous attacks.

Monty Don's Italian Gardens
9pm, BBC2

The man with gardening's grandest name (Bob Flowerdew aside) begins a new four-part series tonight, in which he travels around Italy, looking at its finest florals. Don uses public transport to flit between destinations, covering ground from Naples to Tuscany to the Lakes, digging into a passion he has had since a visit to Venice 20 years ago. Like a long, lovely holiday; sadly, one that someone else is having.

Opera Italia
7.30pm, BBC4

British-Italian conductor Antonio Pappano unravels the vast and complex legacy of the 19th-century composer Giuseppe Verdi, tracing his life and works from his birthplace of Le Roncole, his early life in Busetto, triumphs at La Scala, and his inadvertent role as provider of the soundtrack to Italy's tumultuous struggle for unification in the 1860s. Pappano also brings his own musical expertise to bear, discussing some of Verdi's best-known works, rehearsing La Traviata at the Royal Opera House and travelling to Naples to conduct an open-air performance of Va, Pensiero ? the famous slaves' chorus from Nabucco.

Robert Plant: By Myself
9pm, BBC4

"Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove . . ." Written out, it's not the most exciting of propositions. But as sung by Robert Plant over the years, Black Dog is one of the most powerful statements of intent in rock. Here, in the first of three Plant shows tonight, the ever-affable former Led Zep frontman is on charming form, tracing a journey through music that's taken him from the deserts of Africa to the hills of Tennessee, and a grilling on The One Show . . .

Paul O'Grady Live; The Graham Norton Show
9pm, ITV1; 10.35pm, BBC1

It's Friday, apparently it's time to chat: both Paul O'Grady and Graham Norton are returning with their versions of the time-honoured guests/comfy chair/cheeky questions format. O'Grady's got Charlotte Church, Rupert Everett and John Cleese; Norton has David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Josh Groban. Still, if you want some slightly more highbrow questions, there's always the Mastermind final, with specialist subjects including William Wilberforce, Frankie Howerd, David Byrne and paintings in the National Gallery.

The Defenders
10pm, FX

It's episode two, and The Defenders is settling into a slick yet folksy groove: the dramatic equivalent of a carton of "half-and-half", with Belushi the milk and O'Connell the cream. Tonight, Nick takes on the case of a single mom accused of a hit-and-run, with his estranged wife taking in the client's equally saccharine nine-year-old (much less rounded characters than a pair of sugar-free candy canes). Meanwhile, Pete attempts to argue the legal toss in a grand larceny case, and stripper-turned-lawyer Lisa Tyler quietly solves everything under their endlessly bantering noses.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/apr/15/tonights-tv-highlights

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