BBC America brings cure for Cupid

Valentine’s Day on television arrives a few days early, albeit with some tales just short of romantic.

The three-part period drama “Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky” (7 p.m. today, BBC America) follows overlapping tales of desperate longing, misunderstood intentions and bittersweet, unrequited love.

Bob (Bryan Dick), a barkeep with literary ambitions, develops an infatuation with the beautiful, doomed streetwalker Jenny (Zoe Tapper), while Ella (Sally Hawkins), a decent girl with a Louise Brooks hairdo and a thing for Bob, fends off unwanted advances from an older man.

Set in London during the Great Depression, “Streets” is well-acted and beautifully produced, presented in muted colors with a maudlin, evocative soundtrack of 1930s popular songs.

¢Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy host “50 Best Chick Flicks” (7 p.m. Sunday, E!), a countdown of romantic popcorn movies with an accent on the MTV generation.

¢The words “James Lipton” and “hilarious” do not normally end up in the same sentence. But that changes when “Inside the Actors Studio” (7 p.m. Sunday, Bravo) invites comic and actor Dave Chappelle. The star of “Chappelle’s Show” seems uncomfortable talking about his background and biography at first, but he soon warms to the material.

Today’s highlights

¢Scheduled on “48 Hours Mystery” (7 p.m., CBS): A popular professor may have been a murderer.

¢Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan star in the 1999 prison drama “The Green Mile” (7 p.m., ABC).

¢ Pierce Brosnan stars in the 2002 James Bond adventure “Die Another Day” (8 p.m., CBS).

¢Bonnie Raitt and Lyle Lovett perform on “Crossroads” (8 p.m., CMT).

Sunday’s highlights

¢ Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): returning vets from the Iraq war; missing reconstruction funds; stem-cell research.

¢ One small step for a dance instructor on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (7 p.m., ABC).

¢Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman star in the 2002 thriller “The Sum of All Fears” (8 p.m., CBS).

¢Tom plays at office politics on “Desperate Housewives” (8 p.m., ABC).