Ransom Pearl, 9.30pm Gripping thriller with Mel Gibson (above) starring as Tom Mullen, a fiercely independent business tycoon who takes the law into his own hands when his young son (Nick Nolte's son Brawley) is abducted. Director Ron Howard (Apollo 13) reunites Gibson with Rene Russo (Lethal Weapon 3) as his wife, who is horrified by Gibson's cat and mouse game. Howard's film is based on the 1956 Glenn Ford movie of the same name (1996).
Without Limits HBO, 9pm Steve Prefontaine was a charismatic, record-breaking distance runner who participated in the 1972 Olympics. His tragic story, of winning and losing, has since inspired two movies, Disney's Prefontaine, and this one, penned and directed by Robert Towne, the creator of that cinematic masterpiece Chinatown. Billy Crudup stars as the volatile athlete who lived on the poverty line and worked as a bartender while training for the Olympics. Donald Sutherland was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his part as the American runner's legendary Oregon coach Bill Bowerman. The movie was co-produced by Tom Cruise, who at one point considered playing the title character. The Disney film, directed by Steve James and starring Jared Leto and F Lee Ermey, was made the year before. The reason two were made on the same topic is that neither director was prepared to back down. It is a sentiment the front-running Pre might understand (1998).
Is It A Boy Or A Girl? Pearl, 8.30pm We think of male and female as being the great human divide, but one in 2,000 children are born each year of ambiguous sexuality. They are referred to medically as intersexuals. Since the 1950s surgeons tried to resolve the uncertainties through operations. Some of these children, now adults, talk of how difficult it has been to live with the gender they were given. They believe they have the right to choose.
The Nazis: A Warning From History BBC World, 5.10pm How could such a cultured nation as Germany have allowed a barbaric tyrant like Adolf Hitler (above) to wield power for so long? This new series tries to answer this question, revealing the Fuhrer's rise was far from inevitable. The first programme shows how big business aided Hitler at decisive moments in his career, enabling a fringe party to metamorphose into a mass movement.
On The Inside: The Diamond Industry Discovery, 8pm They begin as formless grey rocks but are transformed into sparkling gems worth millions of dollars. This programme charts the magical transformation of the diamond, from when it is first extracted from South African mines, to its cutting and the cut-throat industry that surrounds it.