From the launch of the BBC's India Season to the return of The X Factor, there's lots to watch this week
Monday
Muslim Drag Queens
Channel 4
10pm
Filmmaker Marcus Plowright meets members of the clandestine gay Asian (‘Gaysian’) community, who often struggle to publically reconcile their sexuality with their culture and religion.
32-year-old Asif Quraishi is Britain’s first out and proud Muslim drag queen, and has become an activist and mentor for others trying to balance the flamboyance of the drag community with their conservative upbringings.
In the film, Quraishi tries to change how homosexuality is viewed in the Asian community, and starts by inviting his mother to join him at the Attitude Magazine Pride Awards Ceremony.
Tuesday
Goodness Gracious Me
BBC Two
10pm
(Credit: BBC/Des Willie)
The cast of Goodness Gracious Me reunite for a one-off special as part of the BBC’s India Season, with a bunch of hilarious sketches that leave you wondering why the BBC hasn’t commissioned an entire new series from Sanjeev Bhaskar and company.
British television gets an Asian makeover in Brownton Abbey and Brownadder, while an Indian broadcaster plans its first English Season.
Meanwhile, prepare to see Gandhi as you’ve never seen him before!
Wednesday
A Brief History of Grafitti
BBC Four
9pm
From cave paintings to war art, graffiti is arguably the oldest art form in human history.
Dr Richard Clay explores the 30,000 year history of this often-maligned medium.
(Please note that Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird has been rescheduled to air on Sky Arts on 2nd September due to technical issues)
Thursday
Stephen Fry in Central America
ITV
9pm
Actor and dream dinner-party guest Stephen Fry hits the road in a converted school bus to explore the land of some of the world’s oldest civilisations – Mayan, Aztec and Olmec.
Fry begins his journey in Ciudad Juarez, considered one of Mexico’s most dangerous cities, and just over the Sante Bridge from El Paso in Texas.
In Real de Catorce, the town is celebrating the Revolution of Pancho Villa, and Fry is persuaded to join in the festivities with a techno tribal dance group. If that doesn’t make you want to watch, nothing will.
Friday
Resistance
More4
9pm
Set in 1940 and based on true events, Parisian police catch teenager Lili laying flowers at a French war hero’s statue on Armistice Day.
This action sees her join forces with like-minded students against the Nazi’s occupation of France, to produce an underground newspaper, Résistance.
Saturday
The X Factor
ITV, 8pm
It’s all change on the singing competition this year, as long-time host Dermot O’Leary is replaced by presenting duo Caroline Flack and Olly Murs, while Rita Ora and Nick Grimshaw join Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and Simon Cowell on the judging panel.
What hasn’t altered, though, is the hunt for the next singing sensation. After The X Factor alumni One Direction announced they were going on hiatus this week, Cowell is bound to be on the look out for a new group who can whip teens across the globe into a frenzy.
Sunday
Big Blue Live
BBC One
7pm
Every August some of the world’s most spectacular marine life gather in Monterey Bay, California, drawn by the glut of fantastic food the waters offer.
Matt Baker, Liz Bonnin, Steve Backshall and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall will be taking us close to the action as blue whales, humpbacks, dolphins and great white sharks descend.
Bonnin will join the scientists tagging these ocean giants, while Fearnley-Whittingstall discovers how shipping companies and biologists are working together to avoid deadly collisions between ships and sealife.
