On TV: North and South Miniseries Goes to Extremes in Victorian England

In case you missed it earlier in the week, CNBC, will rebroadcast its documentary “The eBay Effect: Inside a Worldwide Obsession” at 7 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Sunday on cable channel 49. According to the film, more than 400,000 people from Europe to Asia to the United States earn an income by selling on the online site. The film looks at how eBay operates and the controversies surrounding its success.

When their amazingly wonderful relationship ends, characters portrayed by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet want to erase every memory to end the pain in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” airing at 7 p.m. Friday on HBO, pay digital channel 300. Carrey plays Joel, who learns his girlfriend Clementine (Winslet) has undergone an experimental procedure to erase him from her mind. When Joel tries to do the same, he finds — in the words of Kylie Minogue — that he “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.” Also starring in this bizarre love story are Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood.

In case you’ve never seen it, Sally Field turns in a tour de force performance as a woman with multiple personalities in the real- life story of “Sybil,” being rebroadcast in its entirety at 7 p.m. Friday on TV Land, cable channel 62.

Rev up your engines with TNT’s live coverage of NASCAR’s Winn- Dixie 250 at 7 p.m. Friday on cable channel 29.

Tennis, anyone? NBC has Wimbledon coverage starting at 8 a.m. Saturday with the women’s singles final. For the men’s final, tune in at the same time Sunday. Both on channel 2 and cable channel 9.

BBC America turns the tables on viewers with its new miniseries “North and South” debuting at 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on cable digital channel 166. Instead of using the usual goings-on inside the lives of the upper-crust society in Victorian England, “North and South” transports a minister’s daughter from her warm and cozy life at a well-to-do cousin’s home into the smelly, seemingly uncouth industrial north after her father has a crisis of conscience and leaves the Church of England. There, surprisingly, the feisty daughter Margaret Hale (Daniella Denby-Ashe) turns up her pretty little nose at the the city and the family of a wealthy factory owner (Richard Armitage). Instead, she bonds with a family of factory workers who are contemplating a strike. It is based on the controversial book published in 1855 by Elizabeth Gaskell. The miniseries will repeat at noon July 17.

MTV, cable channel 39, and VH1, cable channel 65, will broadcast eight hours of Bob Geldof’s “Live 8″ concerts starting at 11 a.m. Saturday. Featured performers include U2, Coldplay, Madonna, Dave Matthews Band, Jay-Z and Destiny’s Child among others. The concerts are being held in eight cities to raise awareness of poverty in Africa.

Surprise, surprise. Starz, pay digital channel 390, is airing the Kirsten Dunst-Paul Bettany “Wimbledon” movie at 8 p.m. Saturday. She plays an American tennis champion on the way up who falls in love with a British tennis player on the way down in the rankings.

Saturday is a night for epic films (read lengthy but worth it).

Steve McQueen leads a band of Allied prisoners of war in a daring escape from a Nazi prison camp in “The Great Escape,” airing at 7 p.m. Saturday on AMC, cable channel 48.

War is hell for Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) and his small squad who spend World War II looking for a soldier who has become the sole surviving male heir after his three soldier-brothers die in military service in “Saving Private Ryan.” It airs at 7 p.m. Saturday on TNT, cable channel 29. Matt Damon plays the elusive Pvt. Ryan.

George DiCenzo stars as Assistant District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi in the chilling film “Helter Skelter,” airing at 7 p.m. Friday on TV Land, cable channel 62. It follows the 1960s story of the investigation and trial of cult leader Charles Manson, who directed his followers to murder, among others, Sharon Tate, pregnant actress and wife of director Roman Polanski. The film is based on Bugliosi’s book about the case.

Not really in the epic category from what I’ve heard but who can argue with men in short skirts, sword fights and Brad Pitt as Greek hero Achilles? It’s “Troy” airing at 7 p.m. Saturday on HBO, pay digital channel 300. Diane Kruger, Peter O’Toole and Eric Bana co- star in this ancient story of the Greeks and the Trojans fighting over Helen, Queen of Sparta.

Lots of fun things happening this weekend on “Entourage,” 7 p.m. Sunday on HBO, pay digital channel 300. Vince (Adrian Grenier) finds out why his gorgeous new neighbor is being so friendly, Drama (Kevin Dillon) and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) mysteriously scale back on their usual spending and Ari (Jeremy Piven) tries to blackmail his way into a meeting with a big director.

The 19th century West gets a kick in the pants when Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson team up to rescue Princess Pei Pei (Lucy Liu) kidnapped from the Forbidden City and transported to … Nevada(?) in “Shanghai Noon,” airing at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS, channel 6.

Teen Sleuth “Veronica Mars” (Kristen Bell) learns Mac was switched at birth with a rich kid on a repeat of an episode airing at 7 p.m. Sunday on UPN, channel 41 and cable channel 10.

Tear-jerker alert: James Caan and Billy Dee Williams star in the courageous story of cancer-stricken Chicago Bears player Brian Piccolo and teammate Gale Sayers in the 1971 drama “Brian’s Song.” It airs at 7 p.m. Sunday on TV Land, cable channel 62. Keep your box of Puffs Plus handy.

Turner Classic Movies is off to see “The Wizard of Oz” at 7 p.m. Sunday followed, at 8:45 p.m., by the special “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 50 Years of Magic.” And, magic it is with Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley and Toto, too. Both air on digital cable channel 210.