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Brexit Means Brexit, BBC2.
Brexit Means Brexit, BBC2. Photograph: Paul Davey / Barcroft Images
Brexit Means Brexit, BBC2. Photograph: Paul Davey / Barcroft Images

Wednesday’s best TV: Brexit Means Brexit, A Plastic Whale

This article is more than 6 years old

Patrick Forbes tracks the disturbing and deeply unpredictable year since the EU referendum. Plus: a whale’s tragic end at the hands of ocean pollution

Ackley Bridge
8pm, Channel 4

Although this series has drawn comparisons to Waterloo Road, the similarities between the Beeb’s grown-up Grange Hill and this culture-clash drama begin and end with the fact that they’re both set in schools. Instead, its frantic pace is more reminiscent of Shameless, with a big dash of soapiness, too. This week, the newly out Nas wants more with teacher Lila, but her dad’s plans derail things. Elsewhere, there’s heartache for Mandy, who calls off her affair with Sadiq. Hannah J Davies

Eat Well for Less?
8pm, BBC1

Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin continue their quest to satisfy the appetite of Britain’s squeezed middle. Tonight, the pair hope to help Nottingham’s Brook family chip away at their monthly food bills. Daughters Rosie and Sophia are more likely to consume a Snickers than a salad, but those sweet-centred palates task mum Janine with preparing contrasting meals for family members. Can Gregg and Chris help Janine engineer meal plans to satisfy all tastes, sweet and savoury? Mark Gibbings-Jones

The Met: Policing London
9pm, BBC1

A thrilling opening tonight: a 60mph car chase within the first five minutes, complete with speed bumps and swearing. Elsewhere, a team investigating drug dealers in Newham decides to name them after US states (“The hardest one to spell is Massachusetts”), and a murder squad is still attempting to find a lead after eight months. They know that if a suspect isn’t identified within the first 48 hours, the chances of it being solved falls dramatically … Ali Catterall

Brexit Means Brexit
9pm, BBC2

As we went to press, the increasingly bewildered Theresa May remained the lame-duck PM charged with the fiendish task of delivering us from union with mainland Europe. But it’s indicative of the poison the referendum has dripped into the British body politic that it still feels like this game of pass-the-parcel has a way to run. Patrick Forbes’s film tracks one year since the fateful vote, the consequences of which have been unpredictable and disturbing. Phil Harrison

Fargo
10pm, Channel 4

This enduring crime thriller continues to delight as much for its stylised conceits as its dramatic intrigue: this week, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf plays a starring role on the soundtrack. Ray engages in a bit of confidence trickery to extract money from his brother’s account, taking advantage of Ewan McGregor’s resemblance to himself, while David Thewlis’s dentally challenged VM drops in at Emmit’s for dinner and imposes a financial offer on him. David Stubbs

The Secrets of Sleep
10pm, More4

If you’re interested in this, you’ll likely have seen Michael Mosley’s recent investigation into kip, in which he revealed just how common sleep deprivation really is. No wonder that this new series might be thought a goer; how, it will ask, can something so universal and soothing be so tough? In this first episode, we meet 20-year-old Izzy, who resists sleep to avoid nightmares. Can the team of experts help her and her fellow troubled sleepers get a decent night? John Robinson

A Plastic Whale
9pm, Sky Atlantic

It was about as stark and heartbreaking an illustration of the effects of pollution in our oceans as might have been imagined. Earlier this year, a Cuvier’s beaked whale was found dying off Norway; an examination of its corpse retrieved 30 plastic bags from its stomach. Part of the Sky Ocean Rescue campaign, this affecting film tells the story of the stricken creature – and, more hearteningly, of the massive cleanup campaign that its tragic death inspired. Andrew Mueller

Film choice

The Way Back, Film4. Photograph: Allstar/NEWMARKET FILMS

The Way Back (Peter Weir, 2010) 6.25pm, Film4

An epic story of seven men’s escape from a remote Russian wartime gulag and subsequent 4,000-mile trek across Siberia: a desperate march across wolf-haunted, frozen forest, mountain and desert. Among the hunted are Jim Sturgess’s Polish officer, Ed Harris’s enigmatic American and Colin Farrell’s violent convict; plus there’s an affecting turn by Saoirse Ronan as a village girl.

Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell, 1997) 10.55pm, Movies4Men

Johnny Depp stars as FBI man Joe Pistone, on whose real-life memoirs Newell’s suspenseful thriller is based. Infiltrating the mob posing as low-level hood Donnie Brasco, he is unwittingly abetted by the oddly shrewish gangster and father figure Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino), who takes him under his wing. It’s a grim, downbeat portrait of mafia life: these mobsters are hard, but as tacky as their 70s suits. Paul Howlett

Live sport

Tennis: Queen’s 1.10pm, BBC2. The third day of the tournament as the second round of the men’s singles is reached.

Horse Racing: Royal Ascot 1.30pm, ITV. Six more races on the second day of the dressy race meeting.

International T20 Cricket: England v South Africa 6pm, Sky Sports 2. The opening game in a three-match series takes place in Southampton.

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