The Secrets of Your Food
9pm, BBC2
First in a series on food chemistry, presented by Dr Michael Mosley and botanist James Wong. It’s one of those expensively mounted, globe-trotting magazine shows where the production values sweeten the pill of some basic educational material: visits to a San Fran baker and a Mexican wrestler accompany lab-based explanations of how bread and eggs work. Rice and yoghurt are among other staples broken down to molecular levels. Jack Seale
Piers Morgan’s Life Stories
9pm, ITV
In which Piers Morgan meets Nigel Farage: the ad breaks have presumably been sold at premium rates to companies that repair televisions, or the windows they have been flung through. The pair should at least enjoy a rapport, perhaps mutually marvelling at the degree to which iron-clad obnoxiousness can be forged into a lucrative career. Possibly endurable if thought of as the final episode of a reality show quest entitled Britain’s Worst Man. Andrew Mueller
Gogglebox
9pm, Channel 4
The breakthrough postmodern TV format begins what is already – unbelievably – its ninth season. As with the most expensive and highly secretive cable TV dramas, there’s very little that we can tell you in advance about what we will be watching our favourite sofa stars watch, but it’s fair to say that unfolding events in the news may feature. Likewise, it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to suggest that The Great Pottery Throw Down and Taboo might also be in with a shout. John Robinson
Stan Lee’s Lucky Man
9pm, Sky1
Lucky Man, created by Marvel’s Stan Lee, returns for a second series with Jimmy Nesbitt’s Harry Clayton, a detective bestowed with a mysterious bracelet that brings him inexplicable luck, investigating a spate of mysterious ricin poisonings happening around east London. It hurls him into the path of a similarly lucky lady who has the same bracelet as him. But who is she, and how does she know so much about Harry? Of course, it all remains very silly indeed. Ben Arnold
Celebrity Carry On Barging
8pm, Channel 5
Simon Callow, Debbie McGee, Lorraine Chase and Nigel Havers follow the Llangollen Canal into Wales. Things seem to be going well, especially for Nigel, promoted from “Captain” to “Admiral” Havers. Debbie even gives him a sailor’s cap. Which he wears, jauntily. The odd moment where the real world intrudes, such as a meeting with PTSD sufferer Mark, who finds calm on the water, just about stops things getting too fluffy. Jonathan Wright
Schofield’s South African Adventure
8pm, ITV
This three-parter started life on This Morning as a series of segments intended to banish the January blues. Now upgraded to primetime, the sun-kissed travelogue trails Phillip Schofield and his wife Stephanie as they explore the wilder side of South Africa, kicking off with some djembe drumming. Then a dip in shark-infested waters answers the question: what happens when a great white gets a whiff of a silver fox? Graeme Virtue
The Hobbit Enigma 7.45pm,
PBS America
In 2003, ancient humanoid remains were found in Indonesia, apparently those of a one-metre-tall evolutionary “missing link”. Only, the skeleton predated accepted theories of humans’ ancestral presence in the region by more than half a million years. This engaging if no-frills doc recounts a discovery that divided science: a new species or simply a one-off deformity? As one scientist puts it: “One group of people is going to be 100% wrong.” Luke Holland
Film choice
Man on a Ledge, (Asger Leth, 2012), 12.55am, Channel 4
Framed for a jewel robbery and shoved in the slammer, there’s only one sensible course of action for good cop Sam Worthington: break out of jail, clamber out on a ledge on the 21st floor of New York’s Roosevelt Hotel, and wait for the preposterous/ingenious plot to work through to finally proclaiming his innocence (or not). Ed Harris adds bad-guy heft to this tense tale. Paul Howlett
Live sport
Rugby Union: Harlequins v Leicester Tigers The Stoop hosts a Premiership clash between the sides. 7pm, BT Sport 2
Championship Football: Wolverhampton Wanderers v Birmingham City A Midlands derby between two sides in indifferent form. 7pm, Sky Sports 1
Rugby League: Wigan Warriors v Widnes Vikings The season continues with a first home game for the champions. 7.30pm, Sky Sports 2
