TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: July 5
SCIENCE The Nature of Things CBC, 8 p.m. Time to separate science fact from science fiction. In one of the best episodes from last season, B.C. molecular biologist Jennifer Gardy burns up the air miles on her quest to prove or debunk several popularly held beliefs. At the University of Manitoba, Dr. Gardy submerges herself in ice-cold water to ascertain whether or not humans really do lose most of our body heat through our heads. In Gainesville, Fla., she offers herself as bait to determine if mosquitoes prefer female flesh. And in New York, she issues a challenge to “competitive eater” David O’Karma to find out if wolfing down your food actually causes you to gain weight. Why wasn’t high school science class this interesting?Supplied
COMEDY Absolutely Fabulous Vision, 8:30 p.m. How we’ve missed you, Edina and Patsy. As portrayed by Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, the faded fashion divas remain the entire reason to watch this sharp British comedy, which originally ran from 1992 to 1995 and was revived sporadically in several TV specials. The pair recently teamed up again for two new specials. In tonight’s outing, Edina is aghast when her daughter, Saffy (Julie Salwha), accuses her of never working a day in her life. To prove the kid wrong, Edina books the famous French actress Jeanne Durand (Lindsey Duncan) for an extended singing engagement at Royal Albert Hall. The problem: Durand has never sung in her life. Watch for cameos from Sixties pop star Lulu and former Spice Girl Emma Bunton.
REALITY DUI TLC, 10 p.m. Drinking and driving is dumb, but getting caught driving while impaired is a nightmare. Now in its second season, this popular TLC series follows police in Oklahoma and Ohio in the actual process of catching drunk drivers. The show’s format tracks the accused through incarceration and trial, and there’s rarely a happy ending. In tonight’s first show, a young man named Jesse is arrested for failing the sobriety test, and a young woman named Haley hits the roadside trifecta: DUI, drug possession and possession of a stolen vehicle. In the second show, an irresponsible man named Jason is facing his fourth DUI arrest. MOVIE
REALITY The Liquidator OLN, 9 p.m. Meet Jeff Schwarz. If you live in Vancouver and need a few hundred mattresses, racks of designer jeans or several thousand rolls of duct tape, he’s the man to see. Launching tonight, this new series follows Schwarz on his daily rounds to keep the warehouse of his Burnaby-based company, Direct Liquidation, stocked to the rafters. In the series opener, he picks through the greasy remains of a former diesel-engine repair shop, which results in a heavy-duty haul of everything from industrial power drills to forklift trucks. Hey, it’s a living.
MOVIE The Night of the Hunter TCM, 10 p.m. EST; 7 p.m. PST Nobody ever played scary better than Robert Mitchum. In this 1955 thriller – the only film ever directed by actor Charles Laughton – Mitchum is evil incarnate as the self-appointed preacher Harry Powell, who has “love” tattooed on one hand and “hate” on the other. While sharing a prison cell with the condemned prisoner Harper (Peter Graves), Harry discovers the man has squirrelled away a small fortune and only his children know the location. After Harper is hung and Harry is sprung, the preacher man woos and weds the witless widow, Willa (Shelley Winters), and begins to slowly terrorize her two young kids. Watch for screen legend Lillian Gish – she was in The Birth of a Nation! – in a key supporting role.