When the weather turns torrid, perhaps it’s times for a bit of Dickens and Christmas. And robots, too. “Doctor Who: The Next Doctor” (8 p.m., today, BBC America) transports the long-running fantasy series to 1851 London, where the Doctor (David Tennant, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”) discovers the baffling presence of another Doctor (David Morrissey) and a conspiracy of metal creatures out to enslave England’s green and pleasant land. During the holidays, no less. Look for Dervla Kirwan (“Ballykissangel”) as the Cybermen’s human ally. Can Boxing Day be saved?

“Next” is the first of two “Doctor Who” movies to air on BBC America this summer. Look for “Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead” on July 26. It will be broadcast in HD, after the cable network makes the move to that format July 20.

• OK, I was all prepared to hate “Hung” (9 p.m., Sunday, HBO. Its story about Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane), a down-on-his-luck high school basketball coach who turns to male prostitution to make ends meet, seemed so desperately contrived, so snarky and pretentious, so Showtime.

I’m happy to be proven wrong. “Hung” uses its rather outrageous set-up to drag viewers into a nuanced drama about middle-class decline and middle-aged disappointment. These are the kinds of grand themes normally reserved for serious fiction — the kinds of books that are so difficult to capture on screen and that rarely find audiences when they do.

The prostitution angle also allows “Hung” to approach an American tragedy as sexual farce. Located in the outskirts of a crumbling Detroit, Drecker fears that his city, the economy and the country have gone to the dogs in his lifetime. And the chaos of his personal life mirrors this decline.

In the eventful first hour, we discover that his shallow first wife, Jessica (Anne Heche, in a memorably over-the-top performance), has left him for a short, rich dermatologist (Eddie Jemison). We meet Ray’s rather greasy, pudgy and blank children, Darby (Sianoa Smit-McPhee) and Damon (Charlie Saxton). We also see his circuitous path to selling his services, a trajectory that includes a house fire and an encounter with a needy former lover, Tanya (Jane Adams), a spacey poet who convinces Ray that he has a singular gift and perhaps even a lucrative calling.

This is a very smart and worthwhile show hiding behind the inverted fig leaf of a porn-worthy premise.

Today’s highlights

• Turner Classic Movies devotes 24 hours to Alfred Hitchcock, from 5 a.m. through 5 a.m., Sunday. Check listings.

• Silas shares private thoughts with David on “Kings” (7 p.m., NBC).

• The survivors take the offensive on “Harper’s Island” (8 p.m., CBS).

• The media is the message on “Eli Stone” (9 p.m., ABC).

• Thomas Jane (“Hung”) and Ron Perlman (“Hellboy”) star in the 2008 shocker “Mutant Chronicles” (8 p.m., Sci Fi).

Sunday’s highlights

• Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): online gambling; the science of mind reading; attracting tourists to Africa’s poorest spots.

• On two episodes of “Merlin” (NBC), epidemics (7 p.m.), poison (8 p.m.).

• “Masterpiece Mystery” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) presents “Poirot: Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.”