Friday

Pick of the Day

Barbra Streisand: Becoming an Icon 1942-1984

BBC Four, 9pm

This lavishly illustrated account of the early life and career of one of the world’s finest musical entertainers is the best documentary on television this week by a country mile. It begins with Streisand’s deprived Brooklyn childhood and ends with perhaps her finest achievement, Yentl, the first film to feature a woman as writer, director, producer and star. In between come breathtaking musical clips and crisp commentary from uber-fan Camille Paglia.

Unreported World

Channel 4, 7.30pm

As the western world agonises about dieting, obesity and expanding waistlines, far away in drought-stricken Mauritania, west Africa, nomadic people force-feed girls as young as five up to 10,000 calories a day in a bid to make them appear fatter and thus wealthier and more marriageable. Sahar Zand ventures into the Sahara to compile a horrifying report.

Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music: A Musical History

BBC Four, 10pm

Sequinned, sophisticated glam rock pioneers Roxy Music were one of the most influential bands of the 70s and this celebrity selection does them proud, extending into Ferry’s tuxedoed solo career. The only thing missing is proper praise for their producers. MB

Film

It’s a Wonderful Life

(Frank Capra, 1946)

TCM, 3.45pm

Over the years, Capra’s American perennial has become required seasonal viewing with its apparent message of reconciliation and good cheer: it’s generally seen as an inverted

A Christmas Carol, with James Stewart’s George Bailey as a Bob Cratchit figure confronting Scrooge-like banker Potter (Lionel Barrymore). But it’s a much stranger film than that suggests; the climactic sequence, in which George is plunged into a hellish parallel version of his own life in small town Bedford Falls, is a traumatic explosion of film noir darkness in the midst of comforting bonhomie. It’s a film that takes on new meaning with every turn in US politics, so now more than ever expect it to be very resonant. JR