Saturday

WWII’S GREAT ESCAPES: THE FREEDOM TRAILS, C4, 8pm
THIS series brings us some untold stories from the Second World War. In various great escapes across Europe, tens of thousands of prisoners made their way across enemy territory and back to freedom.

Often starved, weak and confused, they clung to pathways and escape routes which had been carved out by local freedom fighters, allowing them to flee across unknown terrain. In this new series we “retrace these routes which have since became legendary”.

Tonight, we’re in Slovenia, which was invaded by the Nazis in 1941, with Hitler crying, “make these lands German again!”.

The country, then part of Yugoslavia, had a Nazi labour camp where inmates were forced to work on roads and railways. It saw the “largest successful mass escape of allied prisoners during the Second World War and almost no-one knows about it”.

Presenter Monty Hall retraces the prisoners’ perilous journey through a mountainous land of bears and wolves, and meets the surviving veterans and partisans.

EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING, BBC1, 7pm
SURELY this is a misleading title? In this new series, the world’s best tribute acts perform and the audience can vote for their favourites. But the fact the series is only two episodes long suggests the producers could not find a decent number to participate. Perhaps they’re all busy in the pubs and clubs of Blackpool now that the illuminations have been switched on. That’s normally where we find tribute acts, is it not?

But let’s not be snobs: maybe they will indeed be “even better than the real thing”?.

Paddy McGuinness presents, and we see tribute acts performing as Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, George Michael, Little Mix and Bruno Mars.

No preview copy was available, but I wonder if this show, with professional tribute acts, will lack the charm and humour of the likes of Stars In Their Eyes where Joe Public got the chance to dress up and perform as their idols.

Sunday

ELECTRIC DREAMS, C4, 9pm
THIS is a new anthology series based on the short stories of Philip K Dick.

In the first episode, a new law has been passed which allows the authorities to use telepathy to gain “total access to a civilian’s thoughts”.

So-called “Teeps” have special powers permitting them to scan the minds of any troublemakers.

People protest with placards reading “Don’t Steal Our Minds,” and anarchists cry, “We’re all gonna be slaves to the teeps!”

When one protester is arrested, they don’t bring in a tough cop to interrogate him.

Instead, he is confronted with Honour, a young Teep who watches him and grabs all his thoughts, feelings and terrible secrets.

“You raped him pretty good,”

the cops sneer.

But the anarchists are fighting back. Some of them have started wearing mysterious hoods which offer protection against the Teeps.

Despite being a sci-fi image of the future, this drama looks like it’s set in a grubby, depressed world of the 1930s, showing us that themes of oppression and rebellion are timeless.

SPEED WITH GUY MARTIN, C4, 8pm
I WINCE when cars speed past me on the road. I don’t see anything glamorous in it. It’s scary.

I’d like us all to toddle along at 20mph, nodding politely at other drivers, and stopping to let ducklings waddle across the road. Yes, you’ve guessed it: I’m not a driver, but there was still plenty to enjoy (or wince at) in this celebration of terrifyingly fast Formula 1 cars. Guy Martin, a former mechanic and a motorcycle expert, immerses himself into the sport.

He rolls up his sleeves and joins in with the Williams crew at the Belgian Grand Prix, taking us behind the scenes where it’s all about hard work, skill, and lightning-quick reactions instead of mucking about on podiums with champagne bottles.

So just how do the pit-stop teams manage to zip around the cars and change wheels in just a few seconds?

How can they do such fast work without compromising on safety?

And will Guy Martin be good enough to join them?