TV Tonight: Martin Compston Explores His 'Bizarre Second Home' of Las Vegas

Actor Martin Compston is the guide for a new documentary exploring Las Vegas, a city he describes as a kind of second home despite it never quite feeling like one, according to a preview from the Guardian.

Compston, whose wife is from Las Vegas, presents the three-part series with a cheerful, curious approach to the city's mix of hype, neon lighting and casino culture. Among the stops featured in the documentary is a hotel room built with its own basketball court, reflecting the extravagant amenities often associated with Las Vegas resorts.

The actor also tries his hand at the tables, reportedly losing a hypothetical $20,000 across four hands of blackjack as part of the show's look at the city's gambling scene. The sequence is framed as an illustration of both the excitement and the risk that define Las Vegas as a gambling destination.

Through the documentary, viewers get a sense of why the city continues to draw both enthusiasts and skeptics: its scale, spectacle and round-the-clock entertainment options sit alongside longstanding concerns about the financial risks of casino gambling. Compston's personal connection to the city, through his wife's family ties, gives the series a more intimate lens than typical travel documentaries about Las Vegas.

The documentary airs this evening on Channel 4 at 10pm. It follows a broader trend of celebrity-led travelogues that combine personal storytelling with exploration of a particular place's culture and history.

Elsewhere in tonight's television listings, the long-running sitcom Not Going Out marks its 20th anniversary, according to the same schedule roundup.