Coast Australia, Del Boys & Dealers and Jack Taylor - best TV on tonight
Dip into the history of Australia, take a look into the life of the auction house or opt for a detective drama in our pick of tonight's top telly for Wednesday 21 May
Del Boys & Dealers – 9:00pm, BBC1
Documentary following the real-life wheeler-dealers who scour auction houses, car-boot sales and junk shops, dreaming of finding that precious item that will one day transform them into millionaires. The film introduces London couple Richie and Nikki, who have been at the auction game for the past decade and specialise in gold, and Pontypridd man Ieuan, who strikes it lucky at a sale when he is the only buyer to recognise a Rolex watch. At least, that's what he thinks it is.
There's also the story of Essex husband and wife Al and Sharon, who gave up work to become full-time dealers and now recycle old items to sell on. But their home is getting overrun with stock.
Coast Australia – 9:10pm, BBC2
Coast loves the word “ancient” almost as much as it (and just about every other factual TV series) loves the dreaded word “iconic”. Thus Neil Oliver explores Australia’s “ancient coastline” and heads towards Sydney, a “modern city with an ancient heartbeat”. Naturally we take a look at the “iconic” Sydney Harbour Bridge.
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There’s some heart-stopping 1920s newsreel footage of the bridge being built, with workers tottering along girders.
Elsewhere, Oliver stands on the prow of a boat, his hair fluttering in the ocean breeze as he heads to Botany Bay, where we get a little history lesson. Thrillingly he hovers at the site where, it’s estimated, Captain James Cook first dropped anchor in 1770.
Jack Taylor – 10:00pm, C5
Iain Glen returns as the Galway private eye with the lived-in face and the drink problem. Jack used to be in the Garda and still wears his old police overcoat like a suit of armour, but he operates as a freelance, knowing everyone and everywhere on his patch. “You have a reputation as a skilled finder of lost things, hidden things, truths,” says an old professor friend of his, who wants Jack to look into the death of one of his students, an apparent suicide.
