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Your complete guide to the week’s television, films and sport, across terrestrial and digital platforms
Saturday 12 August
The Queens That Changed the World
Channel 4, 7.15pm
Widely regarded as something of a side note to British history, Queen Anne is undergoing a welcome reassessment. Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1714, is mostly remembered for her childbearing tragedies, the death of her 11-year-old sole heir Prince William and the later-in-life scandal surrounding the vicious rivalry between two of her ladies in waiting (which in turn inspired the 2018 Oscar-winning film The Favourite). However, her regal achievements are rarely acknowledged.
“It’s time to change the narrative,” says Dr Tracy Borman, one of many historians and authors (including Alice Loxton) arguing Anne’s case here – and rightly so, as she reigned over a period that saw some of the most complex political changes ever to occur on these islands. Principally the 1707 Act of Union, which united England and Scotland for the first time, ensured the Protestant succession and made Anne the first monarch of Great Britain. That there was far more to Anne besides (she set a number of key royal precedents, such as making her husband prince consort rather than king) is celebrated in an enthusiastically fascinating documentary. GO
Elizabeth II: Making of a Monarch
Channel 4, 6.15pm
The two-part docu-series about the late Queen’s life prior to her accession to the throne concludes by covering her marriage to Prince Philip in 1947, the birth of her two eldest children and her fateful, life-altering trip to Kenya in 1952.
Pointless Celebrities
BBC One, 7.35pm
Strictly’s Anton Du Beke is among those gracing the Pointless podium, along with EastEnders actress Emma Barton, saxophonist YolanDa Brown, antiques expert Eric Knowles and The Repair Shop’s Will Kirk.
The Everly Brothers: Songs of Innocence and Experience: Arena
BBC Two, 9pm
This vintage edition of the BBC’s flagship arts series traces the rise, acrimonious split and reunion of two early giants of rock’n’roll, Don and Phil Everly. Ahead of their 1983 reunion concert at the Royal Albert Hall (10.35pm), director Anthony Wall traces the brother’s influence on a generation of stars. Later at 12.55am, The Everly Brothers: Harmonies from Heaven examines their Appalachian upbringing.
Becoming Elizabeth
Channel 4, 9.15pm...