ABC, 7.30pm

It's hard to believe, but this BBC series is actually a daytime program in the UK, despite it having distinctly Sunday night vibes. Yes, it's another crime procedural set against the backdrop of a picturesque seaside town, Lighthaven, to where our coroner, former high-flying lawyer Jane Kennedy (Claire Goose) has recently returned from London with her teenage daughter Beth (Grace Hogg-Robinson), and where she has to work closely with her former flame Davey Higgins (Matt Bardock), the local detective sergeant. This town has more than its share of unexplained deaths and lurking dangers, but the mood never becomes too dark as Jane's relationships with her zany mum (Beatie Edney), daughter and colleagues balance out the rigor mortis with light-hearted tangles. In this first episode, a local teenager has been found dead at the base of a lighthouse and Jane is drawn into a classic tale of forbidden teen love, parental abuse and small-town secrets. Kylie Northover

Movie: The Artist (2011) 

World Movies (pay TV), 7.45pm

A young woman dreams of becoming a Hollywood star. She lands a job as a movie extra, but things aren't looking good until she meets a movie star with whom she has long been enamoured. But he is now an alcoholic and, while he sinks into obscurity, she gets her big break. A star is born. Such is the plot of the Oscar-winning The Artist, from French writer-director Michel Hazanavicius. It is also, of course, the plot of A Star is Born, which was first made in 1937 (with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March: the great version), then remade in 1956 and 1976. MGM foolishly forgot to renew the copyright and the property landed in the public domain, which meant anyone could remake it without so much as a thank-you or acknowledgement. Appreciating The Artist's many charms, therefore, comes down to whether you can forgive the smug, self-serving theft of a masterwork. I cannot. SM

Pay: Outcast

Saturday, FX, 8.30pm

There's some decent horror and loads of intrigue as the dishevelled duo of Reverend Anderson (Philip Glenister) and Kyle Barnes (Patrick Fugit) continue trying to find out why the Devil's minions are so keen on afflicting the nice, god-fearing folk of rural West Virginia. Much of that horror involves a cop (guest star Lee Tergesen) seemingly driven to nightmarish violence by some malevolent force. The intrigue comes from Kyle's step-sister, Megan (the increasingly compelling Wrenn Schmidt), facing a human demon from her past, and from small-town police chief Giles (Reg E. Cathey) suddenly looking rather shady when it comes to whatever dark deeds might have been perpetrated in that old caravan in the woods. Series creator Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) continues to populate his work with interesting characters who are racked by grief and guilt and subjected to intolerable pressures. It makes for involving human drama. Brad Newsome

Movie: North Face (2008)

SBS 2, 11.15pm

It is perhaps understandable, though still unsettling, how often politicians try to make hay out of the individual and team efforts of sportspeople and adventurers. They are quick to praise a man or woman overcoming the forces of nature, the limitations of their bodies, the competition of others, but if nationalism can gain by subsuming solo achievement into a perceived group gain, then so be it. Take Philipp Stolzl's North Face, about a 1936 international competition to climb the previously unconquered north face of Switzerland's Eiger. Austrian politicians think victory there will be a good way to convince the world of the correctness of merging with National Socialist Germany. Two German climbers are reluctantly cashiered into the fray. It is always surprising to me how riveting it is to watch people inch their way up a rocky or icy ascent, but cinema proves this regularly – including North Face, with its multiple layers of intrigue. Scott Murray