MasterChef South Africa
7pm, Watch
Chefs Pete Goffe-Wood and Benny Masekwameng are your Torode and Wallace for this new series of MasterChef South Africa. The contestants may come out with the same cliches as the home-grown version (“I’m gonna give it 110%”), but there’s no sweating it out in kitchens for them. Instead, they’re in a culinary bootcamp, set against the backdrop of Table Mountain. The first challenge is to cook angelfish and guest judge Reuben Riffel, a less scary Monica Galetti, helps choose 25 chefs to go through to the next phase. Hannah Verdier
Damned Designs: Don’t Demolish My Home
8pm, Channel 4
Kevin McCloud would take a rather dim view of some of the planning nightmares in this new series. There’s the Surrey farmer Robert Fidler, who hid the building of a secret castle – complete with ramparts and a cannon – on his land in Redhill behind 40ft of hay bales. You have to admire the audacity. Meanwhile, Syed Shah has turned his Bedfordshire bungalow into a sprawling seven-bedroom mansion, and Rodney and Pam in Norfolk are nearing the end of a lengthy battle with local planners. Ben Arnold
Safe House
9pm, ITV
The final episode of the gloomy witness-protection drama. Robert (Christopher Eccleston) musters all of his negotiating skills as the story reaches its peak. The mystery of Joe’s parentage is solved thanks to DNA profiling but the family are unaware that their worst nightmare is lurking in the woods by the lake, biding his time. The Scandi-style setting looks amazing, but the strangely ungripping drama unfolding in front of it could never really compete, even with Paterson Joseph and Eccleston flaring their nostrils at each other. Julia Raeside
Benefits Street
9pm, Channel 4
Debut of a debatably desirable second series. In its first run, Benefits Street meandered all over the border separating thoughtful depiction of life beneath the poverty line and prurient sneering at the unfortunate. This series is filmed along Kingston Road on the Tilery Estate in Stockton-on-Tees, whose residents include mother-of-six Julie, unemployed food bank-user Lee and rebellious delinquent Maxwell. In a self-reflexive subplot, this opening episode shows the angry response of locals to media people who have turned up to cover the filming. Andrew Mueller
Game Of Thrones
9pm, Sky Atlantic
The sense of things very slowly wending their way to a terrible head, as rival worlds gradually collide, is as palpable as ever in this fifth series. This week, Brienne searches for Sansa, undeterred by the distinctly frosty reception she received on her last encounter with her, and the pitiful Theon remains under Ramsay’s thumb. Daenerys, mired in Mereen, makes a difficult decision that you hope will be an improvement on her previous difficult decisions there, while Jon enlists the help of an unexpected ally. David Stubbs
Episodes
10pm, BBC2
They’ve escaped. With Pucks! cancelled, scriptwriters Beverly and Sean are back in London. Except their “shitty sitcom no one watched” has, somehow, been renewed and the duo find themselves back in LA with a version of Matt LeBlanc still phoning in his Joey-from-Friends persona. Thus season four of the telly-about-telly series begins, and it’s good to have it back because it’s sharply written and funny. Tonight, Matt gets bad financial news. Beverly: “You can have a very nice life, even with as little as $31m.” Jonathan Wright
The Night Bus
10pm, Channel 4
This new three-part doc is essentially an anthropological study, with fly-on-the-wall cameras capturing raw footage of randy randoms hoping to get lucky in the wee small hours. From teen lads stripping down to their underpants to a chap who’s gone to great lengths to look like Johnny Depp, there’s rarely a dull moment, although veteran driver Tony has the air of a man who has seen it all, and then some. The slurred banter and clumsy attempts at flirtation are highly entertaining, and vastly preferable to an actual 2am bus journey. Graeme Virtue
Today’s best live sport
Cycling: Giro d’Italia Stage three of the Grand Tour race. 1.30pm, British Eurosport
IPL Cricket: Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kings XI Punjab Coverage of the match from the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. 3pm, Sky Sports 2
Premier League Football: Arsenal v Swansea City Arsenal continue to battle for second place as Swansea visit. 7pm, Sky Sports 1
League One Football Swindon host Sheffield United in the second leg of the play-off semi-final. 7.30pm, Sky Sports 2
