Welcome to our Primetime Picks of what we reckon is worth tuning into this coming week!

Oh and don’t forget, there’s no episode of Lost tonight. It’s not on until next Sunday… don’t know how I’m going to cope without my Lost-Sunday-Fix but I suppose I’ll just have to…

Monday

Our first choice on Monday is Dispatches: Pakistan’s Taliban Generation at 8:00pm on Channel 4.

Award-winning Pakistani journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy investigates how the war on terror is creating a generation of child terrorists in her homeland – children prepared to kill both inside and outside Pakistan.

Sharmeen investigates how the Taliban are recruiting increasingly younger fighters to their campaign. She meets a 14-year-old boy in her home city of Karachi who is desperate to become a suicide bomber.

She then follows the elite unit of the anti-terror police squad – who warn that the Taliban are hiding out in the city’s sprawling slums and recruiting children from small madrassas in deprived neighbourhoods.

Sharmeen also interviews a Taliban commander responsible for child recruitment, who reveals that children as young as five are now being used by the Taliban.

Then straight after Dispatches is another Channel 4 offering from the Cutting Edge team; Watch Out! Bailiffs About at 9:00pm.

The bailiffs in Barney Snow’s Cutting Edge film see a lot of lives gone wrong, and when they arrive to repossess a car for a finance company, they add that extra ‘kick you when you’re down’ aspect.

“That’s failure knocking at your door,” reflects one debtor in the film. The film features bailiffs Danny and Chris, who work for Integrity Ethical Ltd, – which I can only assume is a joke name of some sort, given the work they do – talk of “toe-rags” and how they miss Mrs Thatcher.

I’m sure it will be unbiased and non-judgemental – as Cutting Edge films tend to be – but I’m afraid I have my own opinions of bailiffs…

Tuesday

This new series of three episodes takes a fascinating look behind the walls and locked doors of the prison Holloway. Episode one is on tonight at 9:00pm on ITV1.

With unprecedented access, this brand new three part series follows the lives of the prisoners, prison officers, from Governor down, and medical staff, who make up this complex, noisy and disturbed community – in order to reveal the truth behind Holloway Prison.

“Roof over the head, three square meals a day, gym, swimming pool, you can get your hair and nails done.” Says Chloe, a regular inmate.

“It’s the same old routine every time. You come to jail, come down here do the detox and when you get released you go back out and you do the same old thing again, and then you end up coming back in again, it’s just boring now, I don’t want to do it anymore.” Nicola

Holloway prison, in North London, holds up to 500 female inmates and is the largest women’s prison in Europe. Incarcerated behind heavy security is a complete cross section of criminals, from petty villains and drug-addicted prostitutes to swindling fraudsters and high profile murderers. Many are seasoned re-offenders schooled in the ways of prison life.

These three compelling films show staff facing this challenge, made all the more difficult by an intake of increasingly violent young offenders.

Unfortunately, Horizon: Who do you want your Child to be? is on at the same time on BBC2 but it looks like a very interesting show so it’s worth recording at least!

In it, David Baddiel, father of two, sets out to answer one of the greatest questions a parent can ask: how best to educate your child.

Taking in the latest scientific research, David uncovers some unconventional approaches: from the parent hot-hosing his child to record-breaking feats of maths, to a school that pays hard cash for good grades.

David witnesses a ground-breaking experiment that suggests a child’s destiny can be predicted at four, and hears the three little words that can ruin a child’s chance of success for good.

He also uncovers the neurological basis for why teenagers can be stroppy and explosive and has his own brain tinkered with to experience what it is like to struggle at school.

Through it all, David’s quest remains true: to maximise his child’s potential for success and happiness.

Wednesday

Our first suggestion for tellyboxation on Wednesday is, Extraordinary People: The World’s Oldest Conjoined Twins on Five at 9:00pm.

Tonight’s is the first of twelve episodes in this new documentary series which explores remarkable stories of human experience from all over the world.

At the age of 57, Ronnie and Donnie Galyon are the oldest conjoined twins in the world. This film follows the brothers as they attempt to fulfil a lifelong dream of watching their favourite American football team play.

And right after that documentary is another; Serial Killer: An Interview with Arthur Shawcross which is also on Five at 10:00pm.

This film ‘examines’ notorious serial killer Arthur Shawcross. Featuring personal testimony from the evil killer, the programme explores the possible reasons behind Shawcross’s heinous crimes.

Is he an evil man who enjoys killing for his own pleasure, or is he the victim of brain damage and childhood abuse?

Thursday

The third of six of Natalie Cassidy’s Real Britain is on BBC3 at 8:00pm in which – as the title may have given you a clue – Natalie Cassidy presents a series of films about young Britons inspired by subjects close to her own heart.

This time she is investigating our last sexual taboos. Otto, a young man with Down’s Syndrome, searches for love. Tessa, Niki and Andy are all twenty-somethings who are asexual. Can they find love without sex?

And an absolute must-see is the final installment of Red Riding on Channel 4 at 9:00pm.

This time, it’s 1983 and nine years on since the last disappearance of a child from the area, another Morley child has gone missing on her way home from school.

Detective Chief Superintendent Maurice Jobson is forced to remember the very similar disappearance of Clare Kemplay, who was found dead in 1974, and the subsequent imprisonment of local boy Michael Myshkin.

Washed-up local solicitor John Piggott becomes convinced of Myshkin’s innocence and begins to fight on his behalf, unwittingly providing a catalyst for Jobson to start to right some wrongs.

Friday

A documentary from the Tonight stable, this one is entitled Tough Love and is on ITV1 at 8:00pm.

It asks the question, is tough love the right approach when dealing with troublesome teenagers?

Fiona Foster interviews novelist Julie Myerson and her husband Jonathan about their decision to throw their son out of the house for using drugs and publish a book giving their side of the story.

Then we have the ever brilliant Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA, 9:00pm on Channel 4.

This week, Gordon’s ‘rescue mission’ is Handlebar, another ailing restaurant and ‘lounge’ in Mount Sinai, New York, which is stuck in a time-warp.

As always, he inflicts his sharp tongue on the kitchen staff but with Handlebar’s 1980s-style crumbling decor, and a head chef lacking in enthusiasm, can Gordon force owners Bill and Carolyn LeRoy to come to their senses, or is the restaurant doomed?

Saturday

Legends: Roy Orbison is on BBC4 at 7:00pm and is a one-off documentary to mark the 20th anniversary of his death.

The documentary celebrates the extraordinary talent of Roy Orbison as well as his relationship with his most loyal fans, British musicians and the British public.

With a combination of interviews and archive footage, it charts Orbison’s career in Britain, from the sell-out tour with the Beatles that rocketed him to super-stardom to the collaboration with life-long friend George Harrison on the Travelling Wilburys in the 1980s.

And at 9:00pm on the Discovery Channel, a fascinating film entitled, Undercover: Double Life – Operation Pisces, investigates and examines the risks run by undercover agents.

In this episode, we take a look at the ‘double life’ led by Louis Diaz who, in 1986, posed as a money launderer to get closer to Colombian cocaine dealers, in the DEA’s largest covert effort to date.

Sunday

Spin-off detective Lewis is back for a new series tonight on ITV1 at 9:00pm. This first episode is entitled, Allegory of Love which sees Lewis and Hathaway investigating the murder of a young and beautiful Eastern European woman.

The manner of her death seems to come straight from the pages of a popular fantasy novel written by Oxford tutor Dorian Crane but is this the work of a crazed fan, or is there something even more sinister going on?

It soon becomes evident that those close to Crane are in mortal danger, and Lewis and Hathaway begin to suspect that actions in a world of fantasy can have very real consequences.

Sticking with the theme of sleuths, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency on BBC1 at 9:00pm offers up the episode, ‘Poison’.

This drama series is based on Alexander McCall Smith’s novels and tonight, Mma Ramotswe finds herself in the middle of a dangerous case of ivory smuggling and a feuding family when she’s asked to investigate the unusual behaviour of Rra Lisindi, owner of Lisindi’s curio shop, and the case of a possible poisoner.

Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi is entrusted with the task of solving Tlokweng Hospital’s spate of mysteriously regular deaths.

It’s worth watching if only to find out how they pronounce half these words!

Have a great week of telly watching and we’ll see you same time, same place, next week!