The Hollywood star teams up with writers Afua Hirsch and Simcha Jacobovici to look back on 400 years of slavery.

Enslaved With Samuel L Jackson

9pm, BBC Two

Following his narration for Raoul Peck’s 2016 film on James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro, Samuel L Jackson delves deeper into the history of the black American experience in this four-part series charting 400 years of slavery. Accompanied by writer Afua Hirsch and journalist Simcha Jacobovici, the trio use scientific investigation, reportage and dramatic reconstruction to locate sunken slave ships and present the harrowing story of the transatlantic slave trade. Ammar Kalia

Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime

8pm, BBC Two

The ex-Python’s reflections on his second career continue with this recap of his ambitious trek starting in the Arctic and following a longitude line south. Pole to Pole was first broadcast in 1992 and featured the final days of the USSR, plus a magical rooftop train ride to Khartoum. Ellen E Jones

Us

9pm, BBC One

Having finally tracked down Albie, Douglas is on a mission to patch things up with his son before returning home to salvage his marriage in the final instalment of this emotional series adapted from David Nicholls’s bestseller. There are a few more gut-punches to come, though, namely in the shape of an unexpected hospital stay. AK

The Bridge

9pm, Channel 4

It’s a classic team-building exercise-turned-gameshow: 12 strangers, including talkshow host Trisha Goddard’s daughter Billie, have 20 days to build an 850ft bridge by hand to reach a prize of £100,000 lying on an island in a lake. Cue: squabbles, fierce rivalries and uneasily forged alliances. Ali Catterall

Diana: The Interview That Shocked the World

9pm, Channel 5

A huge cut above most backward-looking royal docs, this programme hacks through the thriller-esque knot of intrigue that led to Princess Diana’s bombshell TV encounter with Martin Bashir in 1995. The BBC gossip about how the exclusive was handled is even riper than the palace tittle-tattle. Jack Seale

Imagine: Marina Abramović – The Ugly Duckling

10.30pm, BBC Two

Alan Yentob’s arts strand returns with a profile of the lauded performance artist Marina Abramović. Famed for her works exemplifying the adrenalised nature of modern performance art, Abramović here travels with Yentob to her home town of Belgrade. AK

Film choice

A United Kingdom, 11pm, BBC Two

In London, 1947, law student Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo) falls in love with lonely typist Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike). But Seretse is also a prince of Bechuanaland (now Botswana), and their subsequent marriage is frowned on in his home country, while creating a British imperial crisis. An affecting romance.