TV Preview, Troy: Fall of a City (BBC1, Saturday 9.10pm): More myths and legends to feed the insatiable demand for fantasy

A bit of Homer is ideal for Saturday night on BBC1, sandwiched between ‘Casualty’ and the news

(From left) Jonas Armstrong, David Gyasi, Johnny Harris and Joseph Mawle update Homer in epic style (BBC)

I’ve never quite been sure about the point of all those myths and legends of the ancient world. Entertainment I suppose, and, now fashionable again, I can see why I suppose. They have the all the advantages of organised religion – gods, goddesses, supernatural powers, miracles, smiting of the evil – but none of the drawbacks (obeying commandments, prayer, penance, confessions, that sort of stuff). Plus, you get glamour, violence and, let’s face it, some sex too. Hence the fantasy boom, and hence the insatiable demand for material.

So why not coopt Homer as a scriptwriter? He was good at the epic stuff, and he’s cheap too. Ideal for Saturday night on BBC1, then, sandwiched between Casualty and the news.

Troy: Fall of a City is as good a choice as any for the telly treatment, and the story of the Trojan wars – mostly mythical saga with a kernel of hisortical truth – is promising material. Homer’s “plot” is enhanced by David Farr, who did the same dramatisation job on John le Carré’s The Night Manager. Opulent sets, rich costumery and stereotypically attractive actors (Louis Hunter, Bella Dayne, Jonas Armstrong and the curiously named Grace Hogg-Robinson) complete the set of ingredients. Let’s see if it marks “peak fantasy”, shall we?

You wait decades for some decent comedy treatment of later life love, and, look, here’s two arriving at once. The better one is Mum, starring the vastly talented Lesley Manville, which returns for a second run on Tuesday night. I can recommend it. In truth Manville, as a 60-year-old widow tentatively rebuilding her life and meeting new male “friends”, carries a good deal of the burden here, but, such are her Herculean capabilities, she makes it all look very easy.

Sixty not out: Lesley Manville as Cathy in ‘Mum’ (Big Talk Productions)

Mum is what they call “gentle” humour, which adjective usually translates as “unfunny”, but that’s not fair in this case. It’s a well-observed satire of the manners of modern life, rather like an episode of Motherland or Catastrophe that’s had a few Tamazepan stuffed down its gullet. The oldies swear more than anyone else, which is as it should be, raging against the passing of the light and all that. The millennials are, well, sweet.

John Cleese and Alison Steadman take the oldie agenda into the next age of man decade, and do their best with Hold the Sunset, as 70-somethings attempting to rekindle romance, thwarted by the entry of Steadman’s idiot son, an overgrown 50-year-old kid played d by the irrepressible Jason Watkins. More on the “gentle” end of the gentle comedy genre, but they’ve still got it.

The Baftas are up for grabs on Saturday night, and obviously I can’t tell you who the winners are because I don’t know, and I’ve not had a nomination either for my services to TV journalism. Joanna Lumley takes over from Stephen Fry as the presenter, and it’ll be the usual love-it-or-loath-it luvvie fest, this year in black in support for the #MeToo movement, which is fair enough actually.

For drama, Shetland is shaping up very nicely as what you’d call Sheltie noir, in the style of the Scandi noir detective dramas that have become so trendy in recent years. The dramatic landscapes of the Northern Isles provide a rugged kind of backdrop and you can well imagine people getting murdered up there by rough types with bushy beards, although of course the crime rate is in reality extremely low and you’ve more chance of getting topped in Swindon. Think of it as Wallander meets The Wicker Man and you’d not be far wrong. Episode two screens on Tuesday, and it isn’t too late to join in the fun. Douglas Henshall co-stars as Di Perez with an intrusive Volvo V60 estate car. Its clever electric tailgate steals a couple of scenes from the humans.

I’d have to admit that The Old Grey Whistle Test back in the 1970s may have been an important platform for new musical talent and featured groundbreaking performances by some of the greatest groups of the era, but I could never take it all that seriously. Just too pompous, to be honest. Even when the visibly nice “whispering” Bob Harris was presenting it. He’s still going, I’m pleased to say, and there’s a BBC4 festival of whispering musical nostalgia lined up for you next Friday night. Was music or television really better 40 years ago? Here’s your chance to judge.

Last, I should mention Boarding Schools: the Secret Shame – Exposure (ITV, Monday 10.45pm). For those who choose, or feel obliged, to pay vast fees to a public school to educate their offspring, and especially one with boarding, it is essential viewing. For while such institutions endow their charges with the benefits of later-life networking, proven higher earnings potential, ineffable self-confidence and academic achievement, all that has to be balanced with the risk of anal rape. Although the idea of a pervy schoolmaster is hardly new, and not as newsworthy as, say, sexual abuse in showbiz or the aid charities, the serious abuse of children is no less shocking or sickening for its familiarity. Your kid might actually be safer in the bog standard comp, all things considered, though he or she might not learn much about Homer, Troy and all that.

Troy: Fall of a City (BBC1, Saturday 9.10pm), Mum (BBC2, Tuesday 10pm); Hold the Sunset (BBC1, Sunday 7.30pm); British Academy Film Awards (BBC1, Sunday 9pm); Shetland (BBC1, Tuesday 9pm); The Old Grey Whistle Test Live: For One Night Only (BBC4, Friday 9pm)