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Bondi Vet, Ten, 6.30pm
Chris Brown, the eponymous Bondi vet, is a long way from home tonight, having taken his laidback charm, larrikin-isms and eager knowledge of veterinarian practices to Yorkshire and Cornwall in England. Awaiting him there are a herniated calf, a prize-winning duck with a damaged leg, a Siberian owl with an eye problem and a pair of seals ready to be returned to the sea after being washed ashore in a violent storm. Brown is very much at home as a locum vet in the verdant, if chilly, English countryside, and even gets to surf with the locals, who manage to put a damper on his reputation as a rugged, bronzed Aussie bloke.
The Office, SBS2, 6.35pm
Even on a good day, one would be hard-pressed to find a skerrick of normality, the misplaced Jim and Pam notwithstanding, in the offices of Dunder Mifflin, the setting of this triumphant sitcom which is now enjoying a rerun on SBS2. The absurdity is dialled up in the second of tonight's episodes, when Michael decides to stage a murder parlour game to distract his charges from the imminent demise of the company. As The Office does so well, it refuses to judge its joyfully eccentric characters and their methods of surviving the drudgery of the workplace.
Born In The Wild, SBS One, 7.30pm
The so-called Sex Before Soccer network has long had a reputation for pushing the envelope of permissiveness, and in the case of this fascinating nature documentary it has certainly set a new benchmark for graphic depictions of sexual activity. But there's no need to call in the censor. The last of four episodes of this nature series deals with the reproductive habits of dolphins and whales. If the first question to pop into your head is how to even differentiate the genders of these creatures, then you've arrived at the right place. Presenters Mark Evans and Joy Reidenberg are terrific founts of knowledge on the topic, explaining among other things how whales have "the most amazing penis in the animal world", how dolphins manage to breastfeed their newborns under water and the breathtaking lengths to which species go to ensure they breed and survive.
Paul Kalina
PAY TV
Pawnography, A&E, 4.30pm
There's no sense in being annoyed that the title of this show makes no sense. In the land of television, the pun is king, and it matters not whether that pun is inapt, unfunny or indeed incongruously sleazy. This is well attested by the clogging of the cable with such series as Pawn Stars,Cajun Pawn Stars, Hardcore Pawn, Game of Pawns, Game of Stones, Game of Crowns, Game of Arms, et al, et al. Ad nauseam. Pawnography, as it happens, is a quiz show spin-off of Pawn Stars. Each week, two contestants compete to win valuable antiques and curiosities from the storeroom of Las Vegas pawn shop owner Rick Harrison. To take them home, though, the contestants have to outdo Harrison, his son Corey, and Corey's pal, Chumlee in answering general knowledge questions posed by comedian Christopher Titus. Today's big prize is a 1959 Bowden Spacelander, a futuristic-looking bicycle previously seen on Pawn Stars. Pawnography may be one of the more educational shows on A&E, but real quiz fans will stick with Jeopardy! and Eggheads.
WPC 56, BBC First, 8.30pm
The 1950s keep rolling through the fictional Midlands town of Brinford – and it's lucky the local constabulary has a woman, Constable Gina Dawson (Jennie Jacques). The men, almost to a man, are complacently oafish or aggressively incompetent.
Brad Newsome
MOVIES
Madagascar (2005), Channel Ten, 7.30pm
At the Central Park Zoo in New York the animals are pampered stars, especially Alex the lion (Ben Stiller). His pal Marty the zebra (Chris Rock) isn't so comfortable. He dreams of "the wild", a place that is mythical to the domesticated creatures. Caught between the pair are no-nonsense Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett-Smith) and hypochondriac Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer, revisitingFriends). When Marty does a runner, his friends pursue him, creating a public panic and leading to them being sent back to Africa. Not a great deal more happens in Madagascar: the animals argue about whose fault their misfortune is, occasionally venture off the beach into the jungle and try to make sense of a vast horde of lemurs. There is one good illuminative idea, when Alex grows hungry and realises he is a predator and Marty is his natural prey, but it's smoothed over very quickly, lest anyone grow worried.
Coriolanus (2011), Masterpiece Movies (pay TV), 6.20pm
Set firmly in the present day Balkans, and shot around the still pock-marked Serbian capital of Belgrade, Ralph Fiennes's directorial debut applies a uniformed vigour to William Shakespeare's Roman tragedy as a soldier comes to despise the citizens he was empowered to serve. As the military general Caius Martius, Fiennes is commanding, all shaved head and battle scars, although the real campaigner may well be his ambitious mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave). When his lack of empathy with the previously admiring public dooms a political career, Caius goes into exile with his former adversary, Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler), the leader of the Volscians, determined to return as a conqueror despite the presence of his wife, Virgilia (Jessica Chastain), and children among those he wishes to take his revenge on. With Barry Ackroyd (The Hurt Locker) as his cinematographer, Fiennes stages urban combat and bitter soliloquies with a feel for the military mindset and how duty can become a form of self-destruction.
Craig Mathieson