Arabian Nights
Pearl, 9.35pm
Schahriar (Dougray Scott), a young Baghdad sultan, must find a wife before the next full moon, otherwise his kingdom will be given to his exiled brother, Schahzenan (James Frain). Reluctant to marry again, having been the target of a failed assassination attempt by his first wife and his brother, he decides to take a wife from the harem and kill her the day after he inherits the kingdom. Scheherazade (Mili Avital, above with Scott) offers to marry Schahriar, revealing she has always loved him. After the wedding, while the chief executioner waits outside, the newlyweds sit alone in the royal bedroom. To ease the tension and to stall her impending execution, Scheherazade begins to tell her husband a story. Also starring Alan Bates, Rufus Sewell, Jason Scott Lee and Vanessa-Mae. Part one of a four-part miniseries.
Haunted Hotels
World, 9pm
Featuring a visit to Kirkstone Pass Inn (above) in England's Lake District, where innkeepers and guests say they are terrified by a slithery black apparition, and a visit to Louisiana's Chretien Point Inn, which is apparently haunted by the ghosts of a pirate and the woman who killed him.