Paul Merton’s Secret Stations (Channel 4/HD | 8:00pm to 9:00pm | Sunday 15th May 2016)
Paul Merton goes in search of the hidden history of Britain’s rail request stops. This concluding episode begins on the stunning Pembrokeshire coast. From the request stop of Penally, Paul visits the trenches built for training during World War I. At Luxulyan in Cornwall, Paul looks for the hidden remains of local china clay mines. In Greater Manchester, Paul visits Reddish South – a request stop famous for having only one train a week. And for his final stop of the series, Paul goes to Corrour on the glorious West Highland Line, with a stop that’s ten miles to the nearest public road.
Highlands (BBC 1 Scotland/HD & BBC iPlayer only | 9:00pm to 10:00pm | Wednesday 18th May 2016)
Summer- The Greatest Race. Ewan McGregor narrates this landmark series about the wildlife of the Scottish Highlands. This edition charts summer, the most intense of all the seasons in the Highlands. Animals are in a great race to raise their young to independence before the nights close in and the storms of autumn arrive. Some, like otters and pine martens, are single mothers working ceaselessly for their young, while others, including golden eagles, work in pairs to look after the chicks. Most spectacular of all, young guillemots on Handa face a leap for life as they tumble to the sea from 400ft cliffs.
Paxman in Brussels: Who Really Rules Us? (BBC 1/HD | 8:00pm to 9:00pm | Thursday 19th May 2016)
As the EU referendum debate approaches its climax, Jeremy Paxman takes viewers on a journey to the heart of Europe, meeting the movers, shakers and anonymous faces who run the EU. His central question is simple – has the UK given the power to rule it to Europe, and if so, does it matter? Meeting crucial figures like Michael Gove and Nick Clegg, he hears arguments on both sides, whilst also trying to understand just how the incredibly complex organisation operates. On his journey he struggles through the Parlamentarium (an EU museum that tries to explain the place), tries on a replica of Margaret Thatcher’s famous EU jumper and samples the EU-regulated wares of the Portobello Road.
Barging Round Britain with John Sergeant (itv/HD | 8:00pm to 8:30pm | Friday 20th May 2016)
John Sergeant tours around Britain’s canals. In this episode, he meanders along the Oxford Canal where he visits Tooley’s, the oldest working boatyard in Britain, gets to play his hero Inspector Morse, and bumps into a group of floating thespians.
George Clarke’s Amazing Houseboats (Channel 4/HD | 8:00pm to 9:00pm | Friday 20th May 2016)
George Clarke looks back across five series of Amazing Spaces and some of the amazing houseboats people have built for the Great British waterways. There’s a seaplane from World War Two transformed into a bachelor pad; a 1960s pleasure cruiser refurbished as a marital home; and a hand built custom designed writers retreat created in the shape of an egg. George also looks further afield to an amazing holiday apartment on a lake in Germany and a Danish waterside home kept afloat by polystyrene and water bottles.
All TV guide information taken from DigiGuide — www.getdigiguide.tv/?p=1&r=15119.