Race to the Pole
7pm, Channel 5
Richard Parks’s dream to ski from the Antarctic coast to the south pole in record time becomes a terrifying reality this week. After a year of gruelling training, he’s now getting on the plane to the end of the world, and the base at Union Glacier. Deciding to take less food to make his sled lighter – and thus his journey shorter – is a risk, one he calculates in order to try to beat the standing Norwegian record. But disastrous weather from the off throws the expedition into jeopardy. Ben Arnold
Food & Drink
8.30pm, BBC2
As Tom Kerridge welcomes Irish chef Richard Corrigan to his kitchen, this week’s theme is “unsung heroes”. By which Kerridge means ingredients that don’t have a good reputation, such as hake, celery, liver and kidneys. The latter, according to Corrigan, need to be so fresh as to be “quivering… almost Hannibal Lecter-like”. Arguably not a great sales job, that. Elsewhere, drinks expert Joe Wadsack bigs up German red wine and Arabella Weir reports on posh kitchen knives and why the whelk is underrated. Jonathan Wright
Sound of Song
9pm, BBC4
This week, Neil Brand’s series on the development of popular song explores the extraordinary impact of magnetic tape on the genesis of the three-minute pop record. We’re in standard “greatest hits” narrative trajectory here – the development of Sun Studios in Memphis, Phil Spector’s groundbreaking “wall of sound”, the Beatles’ forays into psychedelia – but particularly enlightening is a detailed analysis of Good Vibrations, and Brand is a gleefully engaging narrator. Tom Howells
The Big Allotment Challenge
9pm, BBC2
This week, the passionate gardeners get serious. Perfect tomatoes must be grown, rudbeckias must be stacked and jams must be stirred. Will Rob’s job lot of ladybirds keep the aphids off his precious tomato plants? What’s the rogue bloom in Rekha’s rudbeckia? Who would measure their tomatoes to the nearest millimetre? (The unflappable JoJo, of course.) “I can feel it stiffening up now,” smirks Rob, in a brave attempt to slip an innuendo into jam-making, but it’s not all sunshine: one allotmenteer will leave at the end of the episode. Hannah Verdier
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
9pm, Channel 4
With a little liquid still left in that particular game show crossover sponge, here’s another splash of word-wrangling whimsy from the Cats crew, with Jimmy Carr, Sean Lock and Jon Richardson joined by Reginald D Hunter and British comedy award-winner Aisling Bea in search of those elusive eight-pointers. The lexicographical gold-panning is overseen, as ever, by Susie Dent, with assistance from Holly Walsh. As for which format to remix next, how about 8 Out of 10 Cats Does the Crystal Maze? Mark Jones
The Sisterhood: Becoming Nuns
8pm, Lifetime
For Stacey, Jesus is a “handsome surfer dude”. For Christie, he’s the ideal dance partner and a bit of a flirt. And for Claire, he’s nothing less than the “ultimate lover”. The first part of this bizarre new reality show focusing on young Americans who want to be Catholic nuns can’t help call to mind an ecumenically-minded version of America’s Next Top Model: hormones, meltdowns and (ever-so-mildly) bitchy comments to the fore. If the sisters seem a touch sceptical, viewers may be even more so. Ali Catterall
Murder in the First
10pm, FOX
The crime drama following a single case over the course of a 10-part series continues. Homicide detectives Terry English (Taye Diggs) and Hildy Mulligan (Kathleen Robertson) start their investigation into the death of Cindy the flight attendant, which leads them once more to tech genius Erich Blunt (Tom Felton). The autopsy reveals some illuminating clues and the cops are forced to get creative in getting DNA samples. Terry contends with his grief-stricken sister-in-law and Mulligan juggles dating with her job. Bim Adewunmi
Sports choice – FA Cup Football: Cambridge United v Manchester United
7.30pm, BBC1
Pity poor Angel Di María. Having bossed the Champions League final at the Estádio da Luz in May, this month the £59m man found himself sprinting across a field in Somerset, scoring late to drag Louis Van Gaal’s bling-heavy United through a surprisingly tight cup tie against Yeovil. Surely Van Gaal’s charges won’t stutter again here at even lowlier Cambridge? If they do, the Beeb – which foolishly showed dead-dull Arsenal v Hull instead last time – is there. JS
