Joanna Lumley’s Danube
9pm, ITV1
Joanna Lumley’s travelogues don’t tend to be heavy on sociopolitical analysis but she’s good company all the same. In this new series, she is travelling down the Danube River. It begins with a beer-brewing nun and an enjoyable trip to the Wachau wine valley, before she meets up with 2014 Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst for a tour of Vienna. Phil Harrison
Alison Hammond’s Big Weekend
8.30pm, BBC One
Hammond is proving to be well suited to these long-form interviews, which are deceptively lighthearted but not afraid to touch on more serious issues. Jimmy Carr is her companion this time, talking about his tax issues, his relationship with his mother and his memories of the late, great Sean Lock. PH
Hidden Treasures of the National Trust
For Tudor-era operator Thomas Sackville, it was knowing “the right thing to say to the right person at the right time” that enabled him to buy the sprawling Knole House in Kent. Here’s a romp around Knole today – which also houses a lifesize nude statue of 18th-century ballet dancer Giovanna Zanerini. Ali Catterall
Hacks
9pm, Sky Max
The greatest frenemy double act on TV continues to walk the line between love and hate as the fourth season reaches its penultimate episode. Deborah and Ava’s talkshow hangs in the balance, but does that mean the pair will set their differences aside and work together? Don’t bet on it. PH
Austin
If you can persuade Billie Piper to cameo in a low-key comedy, you make the most of your day shooting with her – so she reappears in this season finale. Autistic Australian-in-Britain Austin (Michael Theo) has run away, prompting his dad Julian (Ben Miller) to find him – and meet Austin’s fave celebrity. Jack Seale
Open House: The Great Sex Experiment
Three is the magic number: more from the raunchy social experiment that encourages participants to dip a toe into polyamory. Jonny and Sarah from Wales have had their collective head turned by French model Marie, while Essex couple Claude and Amy join the fun. Graeme Virtue
Film choice
The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders, 2024), 9.10am, 6.10pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
Chris Sanders’s delightful family animation attains Wall-E levels of poignancy in its tale of a shipwrecked robot that learns how to feel. Washed up on a remote island populated only by animals, service unit Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) finds it has no one to serve. That is until it falls on to a goose’s nest, killing all its occupants apart from runt of the litter Brightbill (Kit Connor) – who imprints on Roz as his mother. Assisted by Pedro Pascal’s cynical fox Fink, the ever helpful machine reprogrammes itself to rear the gosling well enough so he can migrate with the other geese. The Disney-style anthropomorphising is a bit overdone, but it’s a film full of warmth and wit. Simon Wardell
Under pressure, undeterred
For 204 years, the Guardian has pursued independent journalism with purpose, rigour and resolve. But now, in 2025, we face new kinds of challenges, of a type largely unimaginable in the past.
The economic foundations of the news industry have been dismantled by powerful technology platforms. Over the past two decades, thousands of newspapers around the world have closed or shrunk beyond recognition. In their place, social media networks have flooded public discourse with misinformation.
At the same time, journalists are under growing political pressure. From exclusion and censorship to harassment and violence, those who seek to hold power to account are being silenced. Authoritarian and anti-democratic leaders are working to weaken press freedom and take control of the information space.
This is not a distant threat. It is happening now. And it strikes at the heart of truth, accountability and democracy.
Now more than ever, the need for a free and independent press is critical. In the coming weeks, we are reminding readers around the world what is at stake. Protecting the Guardian’s future can only happen with the support of readers like you in Pakistan. To help safeguard our independence, we are aiming to reach 50,000 new supporters, and we are asking you to be one of them.
