Miriam's Big American Adventure (premiere)

ABC, 9.30pm

Bracingly candid and often baldly funny, English actress Miriam Margolyes is not shy about offering her opinions. It's one of the reasons she's such a popular chat-show guest. And her opinions count in this three-part series in which the 76-year-old sets off, with her weak bladder and a walking stick, to discover America.

Specifically, she's travelling down the centre, exploring Middle America, from Chicago to New Orleans, via Indiana, Ohio and Arkansas. She explains that her goal is to ascertain "the state of the States", and she describes herself as "a nosy Jew" who will conduct her inquiry with "an open mind, a warm heart and a beady eye".

Margolyes lived in the US for 16 years, but she believes it's no longer the country that she once knew.