Written by Richard Curtis, the HBO-BBC production “The Girl in the Cafe” (7 p.m. today, HBO) commingles romantic comedy and blatant politics in a most curious and contrived manner.

Workaholic bureaucrat Lawrence (Bill Nighy) toils all hours for the British government. His special area of expertise is the Millennium Goals, a promise by the world’s richest countries to reduce poverty, disease and preventable deaths in the Africa and other poor countries. By chance, he shares a cafe table with Gina (Kelly Macdonald), another bashful soul.

“Girl” continues a theme, introduced in “Love Actually,” that seems near and dear to Curtis’ heart: Britons must stand up for themselves and not become an impotent junior partner to America’s foreign policy. Mutual respect, it seems, is an essential ingredient in a “beautiful friendship.”

¢ A story about ‘The Girl in the Cafe” appears on Page 7E.

Saturday’s highlights

¢ Scheduled on “48 Hours Mystery” (7 p.m., CBS): a son searches for clues about his father’s killer 60 years after his death.

¢ Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in the 1999 apocalyptic blow-’em-up “End of Days” (7 p.m., NBC).

¢ Mel Gibson is among the voices behind the 1995 animated musical “Pocahontas” (7 p.m., ABC).

¢ Janeane Garofalo stars as a lovelorn matchmaker in the 2005 cable comedy “Nadine in Date Land” (7 p.m., Oxygen).

¢ Scheduled on “48 Hours Mystery” (9 p.m., CBS): a 5-month-old baby disappears.

Sunday’s highlights

¢ Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): Marines battle insurgents in Ramadi; dogs trained to “smell” diseases; Lance Armstrong.

¢ Scheduled on “Dateline” (6 p.m., NBC): an interview with Bobby Brown and a plug for the Bravo series “Being Bobby Brown”; a profile of a free-diver Tanya Streeter.

¢ An ailing girl’s wish on a two-hour installment of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (7 p.m., ABC).

¢ Lester Holt hosts “Coming Home” (8 p.m., MSNBC), a look at the challenges to U.S. servicemen and reservists returning home from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.