Generation Gifted, BBC 2, 9pm
PART one of two. Documentary following children from low-income families over three critical years, exploring the challenges they face as they progress from ages 13 to 16. The first episode follows three young girls as they face the mounting pressure of their first year of GCSE preparation. In Port Talbot, avid reader Ann Marie knows she wants to go to university. Meanwhile in Tamworth, Shakira’s school tries to help her find her creative voice by pushing her out of her comfort zone, and aspiring paediatrician Jada from Birmingham is determined to ace her Year 9 exams.
Taken, 5USA, 9pm
THE Taken films turned Liam Neeson into an action star and introduced viewers to Bryan Mills, the man with the ‘very particular set of skills’ which he used to track down his daughter’s kidnappers. Now this drama series gives us an insight into how he acquired those skills as Clive Standen takes on the role of the young Mills. In the opening episode, the former Green Beret is out for revenge after his sister is killed when she gets caught up in a shoot-out on a train.
Earth’s Natural Wonders, BBC 1, 9pm
NEW series. Cameras explore some of the most breathtaking places on earth, following the lives of some of the people who call these extraordinary places home. In the first episode, cameras follow Yak-herder Thokmay Lowa as he leads his herd through one of the most treacherous mountain passes in the high Himalaya. Elsewhere, the programme follows members of Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic as they take part in the hazardous mussel harvest, and people in Siberia searching for mammoth tusks, now released from the Siberian Permafrost after thousands of years.
£1 Houses: Britain’s Cheapest Street, Channel 4, 9pm
NEW series. Following the work of buyers in Liverpool transforming derelict houses bought for just £1, as they gamble their savings to try to step on to the property ladder. The
first episode follows childhood sweethearts Mel and Rob, who are desperate to give their children a home through sheer hard graft and a tiny budget, but a local shooting makes them question their decision.
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