TV tonight: how ‘skinny jabs’ became a cultural obsession

4 hours ago 1

Skinny Jab Scandal: Dispatches

8pm, Channel 4

The rise of “skinny jabs” – appetite suppressants originally developed for certain diabetes patients – is at once quite remarkable and worrying. Reporter Ellie Flynn investigates how they have become a cultural obsession and norm within the health and beauty industry, and asks why some obese patients are unable to get jabs on the NHS, while questioning whether corners are being cut for profit. Hollie Richardson

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild

9pm, Channel 5

Fogle is in Utah, where Scott survives off-grid in the wilderness, with a stock of tinned food and growing concerns about what he will do as he ages. Having won the man’s trust, Fogle teases out a moving story about why the wife Scott used to live with is no longer around. Jack Seale

Mussolini: Son of the Century

9pm, Sky Atlantic

Ideally, this accomplished drama about the rise of Benito Mussolini wouldn’t feel as pertinent as it does. But each week brings grim modern resonances: this time, the aspirant dictator plans a new electoral law that will maintain a pretence of democracy but, in reality, guarantee him a permanent majority. Phil Harrison

National Theatre Live: Frankenstein

9pm, Sky Arts

In 2011, Danny Boyle received rave reviews for directing Nick Dear’s arresting double retelling of Mary Shelley’s gothic classic for the National Theatre. Here’s a chance to see both versions, starting with Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature and Benedict Cumberbatch as Victor Frankenstein. Next week they swap parts. HR

Seeking Satoshi: The Mystery Bitcoin Creator

10pm, Channel 4

Bitcoin? That’s just the beginning. Journalist Gabriel Gatehouse never met a rabbit hole he didn’t want to dive down – his excellent Radio 4 documentary on US politics, The Coming Storm, was proof of that. This new investigation finds him on a different trail, involving cryogenic freezing and hackers hiding out on a Caribbean island. Ellen E Jones

The Covid Queue at Pavilion 6: Storyville

10pm, BBC Four

A weird strand of nostalgia hits while watching this film about a coronavirus vaccine centre in Croatia. It’s truly bizarre to think that this is a very real snapshot of life for so many of us nearly five years ago, capturing the conversations of people queueing up for their jab and the health workers dealing with it all. HR

Film choice

No Other Land (Palestinian/Israeli collective, 2024),
11.15pm, Channel 4

Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham face each other, in the bleak landscape during their film No Other Land

This enraging Oscar-winning documentary – a joint effort by Israeli and Palestinian film-makers – was shot over four years in Masafer Yatta, a region of the occupied West Bank, and catalogues a tragedy in the making. After an Israeli supreme court ruling, villagers faced expulsion and the systematic demolition of the homes they had lived in for generations, as the army appropriated the land for “training zones”. Local activist Basel Adra was joined by Jerusalem-based journalist Yuval Abraham to film this destruction – and we witness the fear and distress of the populace up close. From bulldozing a school to night-time arrests and a fatal shooting by a settler, it’s a tough but necessary watch. Simon Wardell

Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes, 2011), 11.05pm, BBC Two
“He loves not the common people.” So not the best person to put himself up for election then, you’d think. But, in director and star Ralph Fiennes’ highly expressive version of Shakespeare’s Roman drama, that’s what the (literally) battle-scarred general and would-be consul Caius Martius Coriolanus does. Of course, matters take a turn for the worse, despite the efforts of his mother (a formidable Vanessa Redgrave) – and a tale of pride versus politics turns into one of single-minded revenge. Fiennes is magnetic as the soldier who, like the scorpion in the fable, just can’t deny his nature. SW