With yet another week of rain on the cards, you could well end up being housebound, so, in order to keep you entertained, here are our recommendations for something groovy to watch every single day next week!

Monday

The Trouble With Girls: Jailbirds, 9:00pm, BBC2

Teenaged girls and young women in Britain today are behaving worse than ever before. Figures show that girls under the age of 18 are committing nearly 40 per cent more crimes than they were in 2002/03 and are beginning to catch up with boys in their levels of violence and theft. Binge-drinking is at an all-time high and Britain continues to have the highest teen pregnancy figures in Western Europe.

This two-part observational documentary series tells the stories of several girls from across the country, focusing on the real people behind some of the statistics.
Filmed over six months, tonight’s film follows the lives of 20-year-old Shona from Doncaster and 17-year-old Abbie from York – two young women who are finding it difficult to stay clear of the criminal justice system. Both have been arrested dozens of times and imprisoned three times.

Filming begins as Shona comes to the end of her probation period and as Abbie moves into a hostel, following her release from a Young Offenders’ Institution for Girls.

The young women want to “go straight” and sort their lives out. However, it’s not as easy as either hopes. Abbie’s drinking and partying lifestyle means that, within days of her release, she has breached her electronic tag order and is missing appointments with her Youth Offending Team. Meanwhile, Shona is soon shoplifting again.

Tuesday

True Stories: Grizzly Man, 10:00pm, More4

Werner Herzog’s Sundance-winning documentary tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, a controversial self-styled animal rights activist who lived among the wild grizzly bears in Katmai national park, Alaska.

For 13 seasons, he managed to live in proximity to them, but in 2003 he and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were both killed and partly eaten by a mature bear that, it is believed, was a ’stranger’ to Tim.

Herzog’s film is assembled using Treadwell’s film footage from these years interspersed with the thoughts of friends, family and animal experts. A fascinating portrait appears of the failed actor and recovering alcoholic who, for his own reasons, swore ‘…to protect these bears with my last breath.’
He and Huguenard are the only people to have been killed by bears in Katmai park.

Wednesday

Jonestown Cult, 9:00pm, Discovery Channel

This feature-length US film attempts to answer the question as to why so many people fell under the spell of People’s Temple leader, Jim Jones, to the extent that around 900 of them took poison and died in Guyana in 1978.

With interviews from former cult members, we’ll hear how explain how many people were attracted by Christian or socialist rhetoric, and why those same people then kept quiet when they witnessed violence and intimidation.

We’ll also hear testimony as to why intelligent Americans fell for faith healing, psychic reading and “revolutionary suicide”.

Thursday

10 Items or Less, 10:00pm, FX

The UK premiere of a brand new part-scripted part improvised comedy, 10 Items or Less is exclusively on FX.

Leslie Pool (John Lehr) is a struggling businessman who returns home to Ohio from New York to inherit the family grocery store. Greens & Grains is run by an odd, eccentric bunch who don’t quite get Leslie’s management style.

But it’s going to take more than Leslie’s brand of business thinking to beat off the threat of the hypermarket.

Friday

You’re Nicked, 8:00pm, Five

In this first of six new programmes in this series, Natalie Pinkham finds out the true stories behind dramatic crimes caught on camera.

Middlesbrough police chase a suspected drug dealer down a motorway while officers try to contain a street riot in Nottingham. Natalie takes to the skies with the Network Rail helicopter to catch railway vandals and a Mini Metro makes a futile bid to escape the law.

Saturday
Summer of Sam, 10:00pm, ITV4

This fact based drama from Spike Lee is set during 1977, when New York was being terrorised by David Berkowitz, the serial killer dubbed “Son of Sam”.

The fear is brought vividly to life by the fantastic acting, gruesome scenes and the soundtrack adds brilliantly to the atmospherics of this film. Here’s the trailer…

Sunday

Revelations: Talking to the Dead, 7:00pm, Channel 4

Revelations gains unprecedented access to a Spiritualist Church in East London to provide an intimate portrait of people whose worlds have been transformed by a belief in life beyond the grave.

This poignant film about grief and loss lifts the lid on a belief system which many are quick to ridicule, meeting mediums and members of the congregation and exploring the different paths that have led them to the church.

Each member of the congregation has a different story but all take comfort in their visits to the church. Is their religion a fool’s paradise or do Spiritualists perhaps have access to a world which most of us prefer not to contemplate: the world of the afterlife?

One of more than 400 Spiritualist churches across the UK, this East London church has been around for 80 years. The services are lead not by priests, but by visiting mediums who are invited to give demonstrations of their ability to make contact with the dead.

For Spiritualists, the descriptions and messages that the mediums deliver amount to scientific proof of the existence of a Spirit World that can and does communicate from beyond the grave. For Spiritualists, death is just the start of a new phase.

That’s it for this week’s Primetime Picks. Have a great week and we’ll see you same time, same place next week.