What to see on television this weekend? Our recommendations

Arte / Magazine – 5:20 p.m.

Invitation to travel
Linda Lorin is heading to Senegal, for a special broadcast, to capture the pulses and nuances of this West African country, through four stopovers. First, the eye of photographer Mabeye Deme who captures everyday life and family memories of working-class neighborhoods. Change of scenery with Senegalese wrestling: from the national arena of Dakar to the villages where this sport takes root, the camera follows the fights which nourish a collective fervor, where physical and mystical strength mix. In Saint-Louis, detour to the table with a fish yassa. Last stop in Dakar, in the Ouakam district: the architecture there defies straight lines with its bubble houses that emerged in the 1950s. The whole offers an exploration at the level of men and women, a portrait of a plural nation.

Our opinion: PP

RMC / Documentary – 9:10 p.m.

The True Story of Private Ryan
In the war film category, IWe must save Private Ryan marked a before and an after. When it was released in theaters in 1998, the public was shocked by the realism of the combat scenes, particularly the first twenty-eight minutes, which drew the viewer into the heart of D-Day like a field report. Director Steven Spielberg wanted to show the hell experienced by the GI’s on the beaches of Normandy, while relying on the tragic and true fate of American siblings. This documentary, which goes behind the scenes of the filming and the Landing of June 6, 1944 (with images and little-known historical details), also retraces the journey of the four Niland brothers, who largely inspired the scenario. Edward (32), Preston (29), Robert (25) and Frederick (24) had been assigned to different units. But after the disappearance of the eldest child’s plane over Burma, followed, a few weeks later, by the death of his two younger children in Normandy, the American army decided to do everything possible to evacuate the youngest child. A true story with even stronger twists and turns than in the cinema.

Our opinion: PPP

Historia / History – Podcast

The incredible epic of the Viking heroine Gudrid
She traveled from Norway to Canada, surviving famine, epidemics and attacks by natives. Through her robustness and her faith, which led her to Rome where she devoted herself to prayer, Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir, a Viking woman, born shortly before the year 1000, inspired numerous Nordic sagas. It is at the heart of this series presented by Virginie Girod, specialist in Antiquity and expert in women’s history, and informed by comments from historian Lucie Malbos and journalist Éric Pincas, authors of Vikings – Investigation of the women of the frozen lands (Ed. Tallandier).

Listen on historia.fr

TF1 / Magazine – 1:40 p.m.

Great reports
Helping customers perceive the history of a place, a name, a lineage, such is the proposal of the owners followed in this report “Family hotels are resisting”. In Dinard (Île-et-Vilaine), Jacques is in the process of passing on his establishment, in the family for four generations, to his daughter Inès, who wants to respect traditions while emancipating herself from her father’s gaze. Alice and Marion, supported by their companions, left everything to take over the inn founded by their grandparents fifty years ago on the Route Napoléon, near Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes). Martine, 69, her daughter and her grandson took on a daring challenge: building a 4-star hotel in Dordogne, around the identity of Périgord. Three challenges that require imagination and a lot of investment.

Our opinion: PPP

Arte / Documentary – 8:55 p.m.

The colors of Antiquity
In the collective imagination, the splendor of Greek statues and monuments is invariably associated with the immaculate white of the marble which constitutes them. While prehistoric caves, Egyptian tombs or Roman frescoes were overflowing with color, did Greek civilization knowingly disdain their use? In recent years, new technologies have allowed researchers to track down tiny traces of pigment in the smallest folds: contrary to the misleading image conveyed for centuries, color was everywhere. This documentary accompanies scientists to different ancient sites to virtually reconstruct their original, colorful appearance; same thing for their statuary. The effect is stunning! He also attempts to explain how the fascination with the purity of classical forms, during the first archaeological discoveries during the Renaissance, would have contributed to the voluntary erasure of the original colorings. The delicate question of presenting the works in polychrome version now arises. Some museums may consider it, while others categorically refuse.

Our opinion: PPP

France.tv / Magazine – Watch online

Bulky items: gold in our trash
Every year, the French throw away 3.5 million tonnes of bulky waste. Broadcast on January 22 in Special correspondentthis report presents people who take advantage of the night preceding their kidnapping by municipal services. They collect books, clothes, furniture… and resell them. The camera follows the scrap dealers who, in search of metals, play for time with each other; or second-hand dealers, who sell their finds on the markets, sometimes at a high price. But also families for whom the objects gleaned from collection points constitute a significant additional income. A discreet redistribution of wealth, therefore, between waste and treasure.

To be seen again on france.tv until October 18, 2026.

TF1 / Magazine – 1:40 p.m.

Great reports
In this issue, Les secrets des guides, the first channel’s reporting and information magazine, presents the scope of this profession by following three guides with varied missions. Anaëlle, from Backpacker’s Guidepaid per mission, tracking down a secret beach in Madeira. Franck, investigator Gault&Millau recruiting its mystery customers. The safari in Zambia tested by Valentin brings the expected tension with, as a climax, the observation of hippos and crocodiles aboard a canoe (photo). The dynamic editing and sensationalist teasers contrast with a rather educational approach. Few opponents, but a reflection emerges on overtourism and competition with influencers. An entertaining immersion in the company of passionate professionals.

Our opinion: PP

France 5 / Documentary series – 8:55 p.m.

Trains like no other
To keep us waiting until next summer’s new releases, Philippe Gougler looks through some of the most beautiful moments of season 15. A world tour that began in the Andes, with a bus transformed into a train, and ended with the feeding of a singular pangolin in Mozambique. Between the two, this very beautiful souvenir album contains astonishing railway discoveries (trains reduced to 1/8th in Brussels, a mobile school on rails in the Philippines), sumptuous stations (Antwerp and Chicago) and unusual encounters (a Peruvian shepherdess who uses a sling to guard her llamas, a Hungarian grandmother who rings bells), with the crossing of a nature that is at once grandiose, cruel and fascinating.

Our opinion: PPP

France 5 / Magazine – 10:40 p.m.

The hut of the century
The Rosenbergs, spies in the heart of America looks back at one of the biggest espionage cases of the 20th century. In 1953, the Rosenbergs were executed in the United States, accused of having revealed the secrets of the atomic bomb to the USSR. Julius and Ethel continued to proclaim their innocence even in the electric chair, hoping that diplomatic pressure from around the world (including the Vatican) would eventually obtain a presidential pardon. Through little-known archives – interventions by their lawyer in front of the press, images of their two sons (10 and 6 years old) coming to visit them in prison, but also extracts from letters they wrote to each other from their cells – this investigation retraces the facts. Coming from New York families originally from Eastern Europe, these two communist activists were denounced as Soviet spies in 1950, at the height of McCarthyism, by Ethel’s brother, employed on the Manhattan Project which had enabled the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War. We had to wait for the declassification, in 1995, of part of the American intelligence archives to learn the truth.

Our opinion: PPP