Men of the match

Match of the Day at 40 10.15pm, BBC1

ABOUT 30 years ago, when I was a child, I used the spending money I'd saved carefully for weeks to buy my first record. It was an LP (for the CD generation, that's a long player) of top TV theme tunes. It had everything from Thunderbirds to Hawaii Five-O and a bizarre, jazzed-up version of Magic Roundabout. But the one that was my favourite was the tune from Match of the Day.

I soon progressed to buying those compilation records from Woolworth's featuring ropey versions of hits and dubious-looking sleeves bearing semi-naked women, but the MOTD theme tune remained unchanged. And it is still the same today. A fanfare echoing around the minds of all sports and TV fans.

So it is not surprising that a discussion of that enduring tune helps kick off (pun intended) this absorbing show marking 40 years of the much-loved programme and coinciding with the start of the new football season. With a tear in his eye, Gary Lineker says: "It's a tune you associate with football." Jimmy Hill, the first person to bring match analysis to the screen, adds helpfully: "It's just right." The BBC tried to change the music once and viewers rebelled.

It is heart-warming stuff, indeed.

Early on there is a clever compilation of nostalgic film showing children playing football near back-to-back houses with the sounds of commentaries on some of the football greats through the ages - Best, Charlton, Beckham.

As MOTD pioneered TV football, many people were concerned that it would draw fans away from live matches, but the programme started on BBC2 partly because football bosses were convinced the channel would get few viewers.

However, they were wrong, and TV football quickly took off - at its peak, 12 million people watched the show.

MOTD returns to a regular weekend slot for the first time in three years (6pm, BBC1) with highlights of the Community Shield clash between Premiership champions Arsenal and FA Cup winners Manchester United at the Millennium Stadium.

From next week, MOTD will return to Saturdays. A good thing, too. It changed some boys' lives.

Ian Wright, who would not go out until after the programme, reveals: "Most of my inspirational memories come from Match of the Day."

Daniel Lee

Greek Gods and Godesses (8pm, BBC1).

In preparation for the Olympics, this two-parter uses dramatisations to investigate two of the greats of Greek mythology, Jason and Odysseus, and what they say about human relationships - DL

Taking a chance to rebuild Britain

Restoration Final 9pm, BBC2

This is the final of the popular series to find a building most deserving of restoration. Isn't it a shame that we have to pick and choose which bits of our national heritage to save in a game show?

Wouldn't it be nice if the Government allocated enough public money to ensure all these buildings were safe?

In the meantime, Griff Rhys Jones (above) and his team have made this entertaining viewing and they promise to turn tonight's final vote, live from Hampton Court, into a glizty affair. The Archbishop's Palace in Charing, Kent, is one of the eight finalists - DL

Medical team shows spirit

Kingdom Hospital 10.15pm, BBC2

When Sally Druse (Diane Ladd, above) holds a seance, Dr Hook (Andrew McCarthy) and Peter (Jack Coleman) are sent back to the Old Kingdom, where they find answers to the mysteries of the Gates Falls Mill fire.

It is all weird stuff, as usual, in the final episode of this season of the Stephen King series. Now the scary past of the place is understood, what about the future? And what will happen with the spirit of Mary (Jodelle Micah Ferland), which has been freed by the seance? The answers are out there - DL

BEST CRIME DRAMA

Waking the Dead 9pm, BBC1

There's more than a touch of Quentin Tarantino about this wonderfully menacing and darkly funny story. After the usual confusing, quick-cut scenes, sleazy detective Andy Bulmer (Phil Daniels) gets the real proceedings off to a macabre start as he leans over a naked dead body in a hotel room.

"Tomas Barac meet Dave Marvin," he says, sardonically. "Dave Marvin meet Thomas Barac. Nice."

Marvin (Paul Reynolds) is Bulmer's fellow detective in the organised crime squad, who must now work with DS Peter Boyd (Trevor Eve, right) and his team to find out who was behind the sadistic, sexually related attack. Tensions between the two teams quickly take hold.

"Can we talk?" Boyd asks Bulmer, as soon as they meet at the hotel.

"We can get a room," Bulmer grins back. Brilliant stuff - DL

BEST FILM

Pather Panchali 3.40am, FilmFour

It is incredible to think that before Satyajit Ray shot this, he had never made a movie of any kind. Incredible because it is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made.

It is the simple tale of a family who struggle to keep their heads above water in a small Bengali village, told and shot with a lyrical and visual poetry that is rarely seen. Ray shows the harsh routines that the family must endure to survive, but also punctuates the film with touches of magic, such as the villagers seeing a train for the first time, that lift the movie and the viewer.

A bona fide masterpiece that is helped by music from Ravi Shankar.

Nigel Pizey

Real Life: Lin and Ralph - A Love Story (10.45pm, ITV1).

This is the unexpectedly uplifting story of Lin, who is in her fifties and has cerebral palsy, and her husband, Ralph, who is 17 years older than her and suffers from Parkinson's disease. Despite their illnesses and a protracted legal battle for compensation, we see the ways in which the couple make their relationship work - DL

Radio pick of the day

Drama on 3: Portugal 8.45pm, Radio 3

A stranger appearing in a local inn, to the consternation of the regulars, is one of the stock-in-trade scenarios of drama. But few such visitations have quite the same impact as the one in Zoltan Egressy's play, here transferred from Hungary to northern England.

The stranger, Nick, is on his way to Portugal, but his visit causes the publican's daughter to fall in love, a huge argument and a murder (bet he wishes he'd never bothered). Bertie Cavel plays Nick while Alun Armstrong (above) is the landlord who desperately tries to pour oil on increasingly troubled waters.

Terry Ramsey

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