Yippee! It’s a long weekend and most of us are having some lovely sunshine, but, with the weather due to deteriorate next week, we might be forced indoors and what better way to pass the time than watching some great telly? Here’s what we recommend you take a look at on TV this week…

Bank Holiday Monday

Everest ER, 7:30pm, BBC1

This documentary series starts at Everest’s Base Camp, and follows the work of the doctors who operate at the highest hospital in the world.

They gear up to deal with a constant stream of life-threatening emergencies as hundreds of climbers enter “the death zone” and it’s only a matter of time before Everest claims its first casualties.

Churchill’s Darkest Decision, 9:20pm, Channel 4

This is the story of Winston Churchill’s decision to sink a fleet of French battleships in the summer of 1940.

Intended to prevent French battleships from coming under German control – and therefore making Hitler’s threat to invade Britain more achievable – the action led to the deaths of 1,300 French sailors.

This film features interviews with French survivors of that attack and a British war veteran who opened fire on his former allies, as well as contributions from Churchill’s biographer.

Tuesday

Abdication: A Very British Coup, 8:00pm, BBC4

This fascinating documentary sheds new light on one of the greatest tumults to have rocked the British monarchy; the abdication of King Edward VIII.

Using previously secret documents as well as diaries and letters, this film shows how a popular monarch – whose modern ideas ‘unsettled’ the establishment – chose his love for Wallis Simpson over the throne.

The Great British Foreign Holiday, 9:00pm, BBC4

Mark Benton’s been abroad; he knows all about it and says, “The British are an island race – abroad is really abroad, not just across the border but actually over the horizon.

“It’s far away – outlandish, exotic and scary. Frankly, we’re terrified of it.”

This amusing documentary discusses Brits, foreign travel and all points in between; how we got there, what we did there and how we got back.

Here’s a clip from the show…

Wednesday

Embarrassing Bodies, 8:00pm, Channel 4

Doctors Christian Jessen and Pixie McKenna yet again put on display some of the nation’s most ‘awkward’ medical complaints.

Among the patients in this episode are a newlywed who doesn’t enjoy sex, a man whose armpit is rotting and a musician with dental problems.

The docs also investigate sweat and bad breath with the help of Cambridge residents.

9/11: The Falling Man, 9:00pm, Discovery Channel

This documentary is about one of the most unforgettable images from 9/11; a close-up photograph of a man falling after he’d jumped from the burning World Trade Center. The programme follows the trail which the image started and begins with the photographer who shot the picture and takes in the opinions of citizens who didn’t think it should ever have been published.

Editors who did publish it, but subsequently banned the picture, also contribute to the film, as do the journalists who tried to uncover the falling man’s identity.

Here’s a clip from the programme but be warned, it contains distressing images.

Thursday

Hotel Rwanda, 9:00pm, Film4

This emotive film documents how, ten years ago, some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the country of Rwanda. In an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, the events went on almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In just three months, one million people were brutally murdered and in the face of these unspeakable actions, inspired by his love for his family, an ordinary man summons extraordinary courage to save the lives of over a thousand helpless refugees by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages.

Here’s the film’s original trailer…

Tourettes: I Swear I Can’t Help It, 9:00pm, BBC1

This documentary takes a close-up look at Tourettes Syndrome and features footage of what happened when a woman from Citizens Advice talked to a group of sufferers about claiming benefits.

She powers on through a barrage of expletives and exclamations such as “Pakistanis and Iraqis!” as well as, “I’ve got gay porn in my house! I haven’t really!”

In the documentary, we also catch up with John Davidson who was first filmed at age 15 for the 1989 documentary ‘John’s Not Mad’, and Greg Storey, who was just 8 when he appeared in the 2002 follow-up.

Both have learnt to cope and now lead relatively normal lives, though John yearns for a wife, a family and the normality of “just one tic-free day”.

Friday

My Extreme Makeover Misery: Tonight, 8:00pm, ITV1

Fiona Foster meets with women who’ve had multiple cosmetic surgeries but are left counting the sometimes horrendous cost after suffering psychological and physical problems, including leaking breast implants and agonisingly painful teeth.

Big Brother’s Big Quiz, 10:00pm, E4

To celebrate Big Brother’s 10th series, Davina McCall hosts a very special one-off comedy quiz show in which she and her guests celebrate all things Big Brother.

Big Brother’s Big Quiz finds team captains Jason Manford, Jamelia, Jack Whitehall and Bob Mortimer hooking up with some of the more memorable of housemates who’ll face questions about tasks, tantrums, relationships, life after Big Brother and much more.

Saturday

Planes, Trains and Automobiles, 9:00pm, Film4

Given the presence of both Steve Martin and John Candy, one would expect this John Hughes comedy to be funny, and it certainly is. Martin plays an uptight businessman who’s trying to get home from New York for the holidays. However, one thing after another gets in his way, and most of it is caused by Candy’s character who’s a boorish but well-meaning dork who takes a liking to him.

Together they travel all over the place, but no matter how hard Martin tries to shake him, he can’t. It’s a real oldie-but-goodie this film and makes for gentle comedy. Here’s the film’s trailer

Red Eye, 10:00pm, BBC1

This being a Saturday, it wouldn’t really be complete without a good thriller, and this is a good thriller…

After attending the funeral of her grandmother in Dallas, the Lux Atlantic Hotel manager Lisa is waiting for a flight to Miami. Due to the bad weather and consequent flight delays, she meets the seemingly charming Jack Rippner in the airport bar who’s also waiting for the same flight.

They end up sitting together on the plane where Jack reveals that he wants Lisa to change the room in the Lux of an important American politician to facilitate a terrorist assassination. If she doesn’t do it, she’s told her father will be killed by a hit man so Lisa has to decide what to do with the menacing man at her side constantly…

Here’s the film’s trailer

Sunday

Benidorm, 9:00pm, ITV1

Our favourite holidaymakers are back in this one hour special that promises thrills, drama, action and, of course, award-winning comedy. Will Mel survive? Will Mick be left stranded in a Benidorm jail? Will Janice run off with Jack? Will The Oracle ever reach dry land? And just how will Madge cope?

Set in the all inclusive Solana resort – and with an award-winning cast – the first two series of Benidorm proved a huge hit for ITV1 with the show being nominated for a British Comedy Award and winning The National TV Award for Best Comedy on TV last year.

I can’t wait!

Katie Price: The Jordan Years, 9:00pm, BBC3

In 2001, filmmaker Richard Macer filmed the first of three documentaries about glamour model Jordan.

Back then, she was Britain’s most notorious ‘laddette’, a tabloid darling and an embarrassment to everyone but herself. By the end of the third film in 2003, Jordan had become a very different person…

Macer revisits the 200 hours of footage that he shot of Jordan and talks to the people who helped make her famous. He also asks if Jordan’s really a good role model for girls in Britain…

I’m going to go with ‘no’!

Well, that’s it for this week’s Primetime Picks. Have a wonderful rest of the Bank Holiday weekend and we’ll see you here next week.