Rugby Union: Gloucester v Saracens
7pm, BT Sport 1
Saracens have decent claims on being the “best of the rest” in this season’s Aviva Premiership, a solid side who have nevertheless failed to beat any of the early pace-setters, Northampton, Bath and Exeter. Saracens beat Gloucester at home in October and will be confident of claiming victory in this return fixture. The real test will come in their following Aviva Premiership game next month, when Bath visit the Allianz Park. Gwilym Mumford
Xtreme Endurance Race To The Pole
7pm, Channel 5
Former Welsh rugby player Richard Parks has embraced endurance and adventuring since retiring from the game in 2009. Arguably taking it all a little bit far, he’s hoping to become the fastest man to ski to the South Pole without a support crew. For prep, he takes on a 230-mile marathon through the Amazon, an ultra triathlon and a terrifying mountain-bike race in the Himalayas. That alone would be hard enough without the skiing across Antarctica bit. But there’s no telling him. Ben Arnold
Show Me Your Garden
8pm, Sky1
Britain’s most talented gardeners compete for the Golden Trowel and this week’s contenders are aninteresting bunch. Alan’s patch is in the sunny South Downs and he’s created a stunning beachside garden. Vanessa has been at the topiary at her Sussex home, while Jane and Nick have spent 50 years getting their herbaceous borders just how they want them. Nosing around their homes and gardens is more compelling than wondering who’ll get the prize. Hannah Verdier
Food & Drink
8.30pm, BBC2
Food & Drink used to be the most stilted of magazine programmes, a place where BBC viewers learned what wine was, when you might drink it and with what. Now revitalised, like everything else it has become a sort of competition: one in which Tom Kerridge and Monica Galetti josh each other uncomfortably on some loosely culinary lines. Tonight, “simplicity” is the theme. Tom makes a celery soup and an omelette in the kettle, Monica serves some nice chicken, and drinks man Joe helps explode some myths about expensive table waters. John Robinson
The Musketeers
9pm, BBC1
The second series of adventures adapted from Alexandre Dumas’s novel continues. Queen Anne (Alexandra Dowling) is left holding the baby (her infant son, the Dauphin) when King Louis (Ryan Gage) is kidnapped alongside d’Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino). While the other Musketeers search for the pair, Marc Warren’s creepy Comte de Rochefort ingratiates himself with the queen. This second run is decidedly darker than the first and, despite the absence of Peter Capaldi, still highly watchable. Hannah J Davies
The Big Allotment Challenge
9pm, BBC2
The Great British Rake Off continues within the peaceful confines of the walled garden. Except there’s not much peace as the allotmenteers must grow two cucumbers, bind a bouquet and knock up some lollies. “Happy cucumber fondling,” the gardeners chirrup, then shamelessly giggle while discussing the girth and length of their wares. It’s not all fun and games, though. There’s larkspur to be grown and with few making an appearance halfway through the challenge, some of the contestants are lagging behind. HV
Meat Loaf: In And Out Of Hell
9pm, BBC4
This week, the dadrock slot is occupied by a Texan who’s the missing link between Bruce Springsteen and musical theatre. That isn’t a criticism, because the overriding impression here is of a performer blessed with extraordinary charisma: whether camping it up as Eddie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, showing vulnerability in Fight Club, or giving life to Jim Steinman’s ludicrously wonderful songs. Top archive, top tunes, but not enough insights into the sometimes troubled singer’s inner life. Jonathan Wright
Before The Music Dies
9pm, PBS America
Narrated by Forest Whitaker, directed by Andrew Shapter and featuring contributions from Eric Clapton, Erykah Badu and Elvis Costello, this 2006 documentary examines what it regards as the parlous state of the record industry in the 21st century. Things, it protests, aren’t what they used to be, which is true enough. However, that premise is marred by a very earnest insistence on the value of “heart” and “depth” and “real music” as opposed to phoney pop, and can feel like the unreconstructed whinging of old timers. David Stubbs
