Satellite and cable: Pick of the Day

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS (right) is now a movie star, the sort of actor whose name can get big films green-lighted. It all started for him with My Beautiful Launderette (8pm FilmFour), Stephen Frears' memorable low- budget production of Hanif Kureishi's Oscar-nominated script about the relationship between an ex-skinhead, Johnny (Day-Lewis) and former schoolfriend, Omar (Gordon Warnecke). Together they run a launderette owned by Omar's dodgy uncle, Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey). With its often humorous portrayal of a divided society, this is one of the quintessential pictures of 1980s Britain.

Tonight's Biography (7pm History Channel) shows how Benito Mussolini used his skills as a journalist to manufacture a mythic air for himself as leader of Italy before and during the Second World War.