Bear’s Mission with Rob Brydon
9pm, ITV
A barely perceptible reduction in manliness here, after Bear Grylls’s encounter with boxer Anthony Joshua. On Snowdonia’s harshest mountainscapes, rugged Rob Brydon puts his body on the line in the name of light entertainment adventure: “If I have to die anywhere … Wales!” While chatting about his TV successes, Brydon leaps from a helicopter into a lake, abseils into a sinkhole, and permits Grylls to shred his pants to make torches. Jack Seale
Unreported World
7.30pm, Channel 4
Mexico’s huge tourist industry has co-existed for years with the country’s similarly immense drug wars but, in recent years, the latter has begun to overwhelm the former. The west-coast resort of Acapulco, once a synonym for high-living holidays, is now Mexico’s most violent city. Krishnan Guru-Murthy visits Cancún in the east, still visited by 300,000 Britons annually, to see if the same could happen there – and what is being done to prevent it. Andrew Mueller
Eight Days That Made Rome: The Spartacus Revolt
9pm, Channel 5
Episode two of Bettany Hughes’s overview of the Roman republic, and on to the Spartacus revolt of 73BC – and how one man’s shift from slave to gladiator to leader altered the course of Roman history. Was Spartacus the heroic – even proto-socialist – freedom fighter of Hollywood legend? Hughes explores the backdrop to his ascendency in this informative – if reconstruction-heavy – doc, which also looks at the wider impact of the uprising he led. Hannah J Davies
Queen: Rock the World
9pm, BBC4
There was once a time when Queen weren’t so beloved, the Queen Mums of Great British Rock. With punk throwing down the gauntlet, Queen’s 1977 album News of the World (key tracks: We Will Rock You; We Are the Champions) was a raw, stripped-down, back-to-basics affair – no Scaramouches here. Forty years on, Bob Harris presents this look back at its creation and touring, with previously unseen archive footage revealing a band reconciling their musical past and future. Ali Catterall
QI
10pm, BBC2
The O-centric 15th series of the wilfully esoteric panel perennial continues, this week rolling in the deep with an instalment devoted entirely to oceans. Quizmaster and commander Sandi Toksvig is joined by salty first mate Alan Davies and the rather lubberly crew of Aisling Bea, Joe Lycett and David Mitchell, all hoping to reveal some unexpected depths to their maritime knowledge. But do they know their oars from their ice floes? Graeme Virtue
Rock and Roll
10pm, Sky Arts
In the last of this series, refreshingly light on narrative, we look at the relationship between rock and the religious, be it the church origins of the music or the godlike status enjoyed by its big stars. Orbital, Roots Manuva and Anthrax’s Scott Ian participate, with Gene Simmons, always a brilliant interviewee, explaining what he has that other mortals do not. Meanwhile, there’s great footage of Sister Rosetta Tharpe performing at a wet Manchester railway station. David Stubbs
The Surgery Ship
8pm, National Geographic
The series following the work of doctors and nurses travelling aboard a hospital ship, Africa Mercy, to some of the poorest regions in the world continues. This time around, those treated by Mercy’s medics include a Muslim cleric who has overgrown facial bones and a boy whose left leg is affected by gigantism. There are plenty of optimistic moments but, throughout, the idea that Mercy’s resources are limited is never too far away. Jonthan Wright
Film choice
Boy (Taika Waititi, 2010, 10.50pm, Film4
This early comedy from New Zealander Waititi is the story of sweet, lovable, 11-year-old Maori, Boy (James Rolleston). It’s set in a deprived community in 1984 and the only person Boy admires more than his hero Michael Jackson is his worthless, petty-criminal dad (a sublimely comic Waititi). This is one beautiful, poignant and funny coming-of-age tale. Paul Howlett
Live sport
Figure Skating: Grand Prix 7.30am, Eurosport 2. The short dance event in Beijing.
Championship Football: Wolverhampton Wanderers v Fulham 7pm, Sky Sports Main Event. The expensively assembled second-tier front-runners welcome Fulham to Molineux.
FA Cup Football: Hyde United v Milton Keynes Dons 7.30pm, BBC2, The tournament begins.
