Monday
True Detective
Sky Atlantic, 9pm
The first series of True Detective was hailed as the renaissance of Matthew McConaughey, the former rom com lead who scooped up an Oscar for his role in Dallas Buyers Club.
For the show’s second season, the scene moves from the Louisiana bayou to the fictional Californian town of Vinci, where Vince Vaughan, Rachel McAdams and Colin Farrell hope to emulate McConaughey’s success.
The series focuses on unravelling a web of conspiracy in the murky transportation business to solve the murder of corrupt city manager Ben Caspar.
Tuesday
Mountain Lions: Big Cats in High Places – Natural World
BBC Two, 8pm
Wyoming may be the tenth largest state in the USA, but it is also the least populated… by humans at least.
The mountainous state provides a research base for scientists investigating the habits of North America’s mountain lions, where the number of lions has halved in less than a decade due to a combination of hunting by humans and the reintroduction of wolves.
Natural World follows the research project, which has redefined our understanding of these big cats.
Wednesday
Don’t Tell the Bride
BBC One, 8pm
Depending on your point of view, the concept of leaving a groom to plan a dream wedding on a tiny budget in just three weeks can be romantic, cheesy, idiotic or all of the above.
However it cannot be denied that watching these stressed-out men weighing up whether their bride-to-be will mind having to use a Hula Hoop as a wedding ring because her fiancé blew a grand on his stag do is entertaining.
In this series, the BBC Three stalwart moves to BBC One, ahead of the youth channel’s anticipated digital transition. As such, the stories have a little more depth to them, such as this week’s episode where Andrew plans to give his fiancée Jenni, who suffered a disability during pregnancy, a day to be remembered.
Thursday
Sean Conway – Running Britain
Discovery, 9pm
Watching bearded adventurer Sean Conway run from John O’Groats to Lands End stirs up images of Forrest Gump, but when you realise that Conway set out to run across the country in six weeks – the equivalent of 38 consecutive marathons – with no set route, no support, and sourcing his food and water on the go, it suddenly seems like Conway, not Gump, is the work of fiction.
He’s real enough though, as Running Britain proves, and the programme charts Conway’s highs and lows on his run of a lifetime, which is just one part of his mission to become the first person to have swum, cycled and run the length of Britain in ‘the Ultimate British Triathlon.’
Friday
Glastonbury
BBC Two, 7.30pm
It might be the world’s biggest festival, but between the rush for tickets, the gridlocked roads, and the quagmire of Somerset mud, the best place to enjoy Glastonbury is from your sofa.
Sure you might miss out on watching the sun rise from stone circle or high fiving Michael Eavis outside a portaloo, but if it’s music you’re after, you can’t beat the BBC’s extensive coverage of the festival, which starts on The One Show (BBC One, 7pm) before moving over to BBC Two where Jo Whiley, Lauren Laverne, Mark Radcliffe and Gemma Cairney kick off the weekend of entertainment with sets from Mark Ronson and Florence and the Machine.
Saturday
The 80s: The Best of Bad TV
Channel 5, 10pm
Every decade has its ups and downs as far as television is concerned, but while the 1980s saw production budgets boom, the same couldn’t always be said for quality.
Channel 5 explores the decade’s most memorable TV highlights, from the good to the downright ugly.
Sunday
Amazing Spaces Shed of the Year
Channel 4, 8pm
There’s something quite intriguing about a shed, the simple wooden structure that is found rotting and full of old paint pots and spider webs at the bottom of gardens and allotments across the country.
Throw in a little British eccentricity and some outdoor electrics, and suddenly these utilitarian spaces become something else entirely.
Architect and shed-supremo George Clarke meets some of these great characters as he embarks on a search to find Britain’s shed of the year, considering everything from an Anglo-Saxon dwelling to a tiny hut that forms part of a model railway.