Hadrian

BBC Two, 8pm

The Emperor Hadrian is famous in Britain for that wall, but – as Dan Snow points out in this richly informative programme – there was a lot more to him than that. He ring-fenced and consolidated an empire that covered the landmass of 40 modern countries. Everywhere, he built cities to bring the Roman way of life to the provinces; he transformed North Africa from semi-desert into rich agricultural land; and his rule heralded decades of prosperity and peace. But Hadrian was no saint: he was responsible for the death of half a million Jews and died a miserable death, festering in paranoia. It is the best – and calmest – programme that Dan Snow has made to date.

Casualty

BBC One, 8.20pm

Everyone in tonight’s episode is exhorted to take responsibility for his or her own lives. Take the injured Christian. For once – unlike most Christians who are portrayed on television – this one isn’t a paedophile, although he might as well be.

He’s angry, selfish, cowardly and unkempt, and he drives his dirty white van without due care and attention. But as soon as he’s ended up in the hospital, good old Charlie is on hand to set him to rights, and they have one of those ponderous heart-to-heart exchanges in the hospital cubicle. “You can’t sitaround blaming God andplaying the victim,” saysCharlie. Whereupon the mad, misguided Christian has a politically correct epiphany and sees the error of his ways. The score? Caring Agnosticism 3, Blind Bigotry 0.

Foyle’s War

ITV1, 9.10pm

The three essential elements of Foyles War vary little from episode to episode. Always there is an overelaborate whodunit, a soft-focus history lesson – and the wonderful Michael Kitchen. In tonight’s repeat, the whodunnit bit involves complicated goings-on in the woods, with German airmen falling out of the sky, a drunken farmer, a mock suicide and a man with wild, staring eyes crashing through the undergrowth.

The history lesson covers land girls. As for Michael Kitchen, he becomes more priestlike with every episode – all detachment, kindliness and melancholy.

Comics Britannia

BBC Two, 9.30pm

There’s no shortage of affection in this three-part, contributor-stuffed salute to comics, old and new – from The Bunty and Dan Dare to Viz. Shown on BBC Four last year, it’s a breakneck tour of 70 years of cheeky scamps, superheroes and thought bubbles. The series gives a sense of how cheap weekly rags reflected broader cultural attitudes (the Bamboo Town tales in early editions of The Dandy are preposterously jingoistic by today’s standards). But the series is also notable for its pleasing visual style – close-ups panning over archive colour prints that make you feel you’re almost stepping into the comics.

The first episode, The Fun Factory, focuses on the first golden age of comics and the work of such exponents as Dudley Watkins and Leo Baxendale in the 1940s and 1950s. If those names mean nothing, think Desperate Dan and Dennis the Menace.
James Jackson

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