This article titled "Thursday’s best TV: The 80s With Dominic Sandbrook; Mo Farah: Race of His Life" was written by Andrew Mueller, Mark Gibbings-Jones Jack Seale, Hannah Verdier, Graeme Virtue, John Robinson, Phil Harrison and Paul Howlett, for The Guardian on Thursday 4th August 2016 05.10 UTC
The 80s With Dominic Sandbrook
9pm, BBC2
First of a three-part survey of the 1980s – a timely commission, given the current resemblance of British politics to a Sealed Knot re-enactment of the period. Sandbrook attempts a mildly revisionist interpretation, proposing that Thatcher was merely responding to a culture of surging, confident consumerism, rather than driving it. Andrew Mueller
Mo Farah: Race of His Life
9pm, BBC1
With Rio 2016 upon us, this follows one of Team GB’s most celebrated athletes. Mo Farah may have many titles under his belt but there’s no time for complacency. This strikingly personal glimpse into his high-altitude preparations proves just how tireless a task defending Olympic gold really is. And you thought that staying up until 4am for the opening ceremony was a feat of endurance. Mark Gibbings-Jones
Boy Meets Girl
10pm, BBC2
Series finale of the sitcom about a transgender woman’s romance with a younger man. Judy (Rebecca Root) and Leo (Harry Hepple) are getting married in the morning, which means mild family ructions – Janine Duvitski excels as Judy’s annoying mum – and easily resolved church-on-time panics before the couple walk down the aisle. Buoyed by deserved audience goodwill, Boy Meets Girl amiably gets away with a script full of creaking, textbook jokes. Jack Seale
The Gift of Hearing
11.05pm, BBC2
Millions of people cried watching footage of Jo Milne hearing for the first time, but now she faces a further battle as Usher syndrome also threatens her sight. Along with her best friend, Amina Khan, Milne’s dream is to provide hearing aids to children in Bangladesh. Lauren Laverne, who also narrates, follows her journey to Dhaka. It’s worth watching for the moments of friendship between Milne and Khan: their smiles as they achieve their goal are an inspiration. Hannah Verdier
The Other Side
8pm, Really
Here comes Canada’s version of Most Haunted, hosted by credulous ghost-hunters Jeff Richards and Bill Connelly, who resemble two-thirds of a Blink-182 tribute band. In this opening double bill, the team sweep an ancient church and a spooky museum in Saskatchewan for bumptious spirits. It’s the usual daft formula of unflattering green nightvision and off-camera thumps, but at least the Paranormal Detection Laser Grid looks cool. Graeme Virtue
The Investigator: A British Crime Story
9pm, ITV
True crime has had a bit of a makeover in the last two years thanks to Serial, among others. In this four-part show, Mark Williams-Thomas revisits the disappearance of Carol Packman, believed murdered by her husband in 1985. The series has uncovered a strange and violent domestic life behind the veneer of suburban respectability, and solicited a confession. In this final episode, Mark heads to a golf course in search of a body. John Robinson
American Terrorist
9pm, PBS America
“To find the needle, we needed the haystack.” This quote, from an unnamed NSA operative, is the justification for the vast intelligence-gathering operation revealed by Edward Snowden’s leaks. The needle in this case, was David Headley, one of the men behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks. However, this film suggests a couple of caveats. Firstly, the Mumbai attacks still took place. Secondly, Headley actually gave his pursuers plenty of help. An insightful contribution to an ongoing debate. Phil Harrison
Film choice
Young Frankenstein, (Mel Brooks, 1974) Thursday, 6.45pm, Movie Mix
This marvellous monster movie is Brooks’s best spoof. The script runs the gamut of slapstick screen humour, it’s shot in 1930s-style monochrome and oozes affection for the horror classics. The fall-about cast give it all they’ve got: Wilder as the Baron’s grandson, desperately trying to deny his destiny; Madeline Kahn his sexually repressed fiancee; Marty Feldman as dimwit Igor; and Gene Hackman the blind hermit. But none is better than Peter Boyle as the eternally bewildered creature, who has been accidentally gifted an abnormal brain. Paul Howlett
We Bought a Zoo, (Cameron Crowe, 2011), 6.35pm, Film4
Crowe transposes the story of (former Guardian) writer Benjamin Mee’s Dartmoor project to Los Angeles for this somewhat saccharine but likable family story. A gentle Matt Damon (currently embarking on his fourth Jason Bourne adventure) plays the grieving journalist who buys a rundown zoo to occupy his children (cute girl, troubled boy) after the death of Mum; Scarlett Johansson is the sweetest of the zookeepers. Paul Howlett
Live sport
International cricket: England v Pakistan It’s day two of this third Test, with the series evenly poised at one victory apiece. 10am, Sky Sports 2
Golf: The Travelers Championship This PGA event comes from Cromwell, Connecticut, where Bubba Watson won last year. 8pm, Sky Sports 4
Baseball: New York Yankees v New York Mets Interleague match from New York. 12midnight, BT Sport 1
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