Who Do You Think You Are? – TV Preview: Boy George tracks down his Irish roots

Sean O’Grady anticipates a week of pop star revelations, stirring anthems, mystery solving ladies, movie heists and lavatorial fun

The O’Dowd family tree reveals some interesting branches to curious George (BBC)

When the then Boy George first sashayed into the national consciousness in 1982 this androgynous figure prompted a national debate that might be paraphrased as “what do you think you are?” Today, half a lifetime on, the old Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon is also known as George O’Dowd, and has helped lead British society into a stage of tolerance where both personal identity and ethnic background are no longer treated with hostility by significant proportions of the British population

Which is to say that they’ve let him make a thoughtful documentary in the series Who Do You Think You Are? Agreed, the shows sometimes trip the wrong side of self-indulgence (an occupational hazard when celebs are invited to address their favourite topic, ie themselves); but this show works better than most because of the backdrop of political and social history. So we learn about George’s great uncle, Thomas Bryan, an IRA man who met an unfortunate end, and plenty of other sad stories, as, it has to be said, tend to come out of Irish family histories like skeletons clattering from cupboards.

Two of the greatest “tunes” of all time are celebrated in BBC Proms on Friday evening. First, predictably enough, a celebration of the works of Hubert Parry, best known for Jerusalem, also known as the alternative English national anthem, the music that puts fire in the bellies and jam in the jars of the Women’s Institute, and, at times when it likes to de-emphasise its socialism, the Labour Party’s very own hymn.

No less catchy and no less of a national anthem is the theme tune from Doctor Who, which has been through a few iterations over the decades, but to my ear the 1963 original remains the eeriest and, therefore, most apt and the best. It was the work of a pioneer at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Delia Derbyshire, who has only recently been given the recognition she deserves for such an instantly recognisable piece of work. They say classical music is defined as something that stands the test of time (or Time Lords) and that one certainly has.

Julie Graham, Rachael Stirling, Crystal Balint and Chanelle Peloso play spies turned PIs in ‘The Bletchley Circle’ (ITV)

What a curious drama The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco. Not since Pride and Prejudice and Zombies have we encountered such an odd premise, this one being that the brilliant, and so often female, code breakers at wartime Bletchley Park team up as a team of private investigators. Yes, I know. Anyway, this third series finds the gels on the West Coast of the United States in 1956. Very Elvis. If nothing else, you’ll appreciate the style, I’m sure. Mind you, I doubt it’s much worse than Poldark, which continues to monopolise Britain’s remaining stocks of tricorn hats, bonnets and indifferent dialogue.

A better treatment of the secrets of a successful movie are offered by Mark Kermode, who else? Last week the doyenne of film critics deconstructed the romcom genre, which I couldn’t bring myself to even think about let alone watch. Even that little bit of related prose made me wince as my fingers hit the keyboard, as if it was covered in thorns. This week, however, it is a positive pleasure to promote his masterful analysis of the crime caper genre – The Italian Job and all that. Wallace and Gromit too – and how they remind him of Mission: Impossible. Criticism of the “popular” arts can be an art in itself, you see.

Gregg Wallace explores a Manchester factory that produces 700,000 toilet rolls a day (BBC)

Elsewhere on Tuesday night the BBC suffers a bad case of constipation, with its schedules bunged up with a lot of stuff about poo. Inside the Factory pays a visit to a toilet roll factory, as well as Britain’s oldest toilet manufacturer. With fond memories of the classic 1971 movie Carry on at Your Convenience I had assumed that was WC Boggs & Co, but it isn’t, and it isn’t staffed by girls in hot pants and with Kenneth Williams as the managing director. More’s the pity. (Does anyone, by the way, remember Kenny’s turn as the voice of the Brobat Bloo telly ads? It was a loo disinfectant and he was a talking cartoon khazi. Just came to mind. I hope he got a decent fee for it. On YouTube).

If that’s not enough lavatorial fun for you, then you can continue your journey right round the U-bend and into The Five Billion Pound Super Sewer. You will learn all you ever wanted to about toxic sewage, and civil engineering. It looks completely, well, shimmering, too.

Last, let’s not forget the elephants, and Elephants on the Move. No matter how many wildlife documentaries I see I can never get enough of these giants, and their majestic journeys across the savannahs of Africa or navigating the rich rainforest of the Indian sub-continent. This one features four Asian elephants being transferred up the M6 from Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire to Blackpool as part of a European breeding programme. You can’t have everything in life, though, as Michel Barnier is slowly teaching us all.

Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC1, Monday 9pm); BBC Proms (BBC4, Friday 7.30pm); The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco (ITV, Wednesday 9pm); Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema (BBC4, Tuesday 9pm); Inside the Factory (BBC2, Tuesday 8pm); The Five Billion Pound Super Sewer (BBC2, Tuesday 9pm); Elephants on the Move (BBC1, Monday 7.30pm)