Stargazing Live, BBC Two, 8pm/Stargazing Live: Back To Earth, BBC Two, 9pm
There's a solar eclipse on Friday morning and to mark the event, the BBC is presenting two nights of programming about things celestial in the run-up to it, live coverage of the eclipse itself and another programme on Friday evening wrapping the whole thing up. You'll need to be in the Faroe Islands to witness the total eclipse but don't worry if you're not because Stargazing Live presenters Brian Cox and Dara O'Briain will be filming the whole two minutes 46 seconds of it from 30,000 feet up. Before that, they'll be based at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, which is where tonight's first programme comes from. It's followed by another programme in which the pair is joined by none other than Buzz Aldrin to answer viewers' questions.
The King's Speech, Film 4, 9pm
Tom Hooper's 2011 film was nominated for 12 Oscars and won four, including Best Film, Best Actor (for lead Colin Firth) and Best Director for Hooper himself. The Academy was probably a little too in thrall to the film's ultra-British credentials - it's a costume drama about royalty that isn't directed by Madonna: what's not to like? - but it's a pretty good watch nonetheless. Firth is George VI, whose stutter becomes an issue when his brother, Edward VIII, abdicates and he's forced to take the throne. Geoffrey Rush is Lionel Logue, the speech therapist who helps him, and the whole thing builds brilliantly to a finale in which the King delivers a stutter-free radio address to the nation at the outbreak of war in 1939. Fair brings a tear to the eye.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article