SKIES ABOVE BRITAIN, BBC2, 9pm
IN this sporty summer where TV has been clogged with tennis, football and the Olympics, it’s understandable that the broadcasters don’t want to put out their best stuff – but must they resort to copying their own shows? By all means, throw on a repeat or two, but this new series seems like a lazy, and far less ambitious, copy of the recent BBC2 show, City In The Sky.
This is a five-part series about aviation activity in the crowded skies above Britain – “an invisible motorway network in the sky”.
The theme of tonight’s episode is danger, and we see how the airspace is controlled and monitored, with each air traffic controller personally responsible for 15 planes at any given moment.
We watch what happens when an unidentified aircraft strays into this carefully monitored space. Who is the “infringer?” Terrorism? A malfunctioning plane? A Typhoon jet is scrambled to find out and “issue a show of force” to the rogue plane.
We also watch the Search and Rescue helicopter at work in saving someone from the hills in bad weather.
MAN DOWN, C4, 10pm
THE bad news is that this is the last in the series. The good news is that the episode ends with a cliff hanger so all indications are that it’ll be returning for a fourth series.
Dan makes his final preparations as he gets ready to depart for a new life in America. Jo is in charge of hosting his farewell party and intended to use her appropriately named shop, Special Needs, as the venue but when it suddenly gets closed down she has to use the back of a removal van. So when it drives off without them, it seems the party is over, but Dan has a plan. There’s no way he’s leaving without a party.
Elsewhere, sly old Daddy tries to prevent Dan’s mum from seeing him off, but his evil schemes are finally disrupted, and Star Wars fans will need to have their eyes peeled to spot a weird cameo from Mark Hamill.
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