Great British Menu
7.30pm, BBC2
A 10th series for the culinary contest where top chefs face off for the chance to cater for a special event. The first regional heat takes place in Scotland, where returning contestant Jak O’Donnell takes on fellow Glaswegian Jimmy Lee and Graham Campbell from Oban for the chance to cook a banquet marking the centenary of the WI. As such, the trio’s first task is to create starters that pay homage to classic home cooking, whipping up everything from brioches to hearty broths. Continues throughout the week. Hannah J Davies
Flying to the Ends of the Earth
8pm, Channel 4
Beginning a series devoted to “exploring the world that only flying can reach”, Arthur Williams visits the Himalayas. Following an accident that left him paralysed, the ex-marine trained as a pilot to reactivate his sense of adventure – which he needs when he has to take the controls of a small aircraft after his pilot is discombobulated by the altitude. Elsewhere, Williams experiences a landing at Lukla, “the world’s most dangerous airport”, and learns about the dangerous harvesting of a fungus known as “Nepalese Viagra”. Jonathan Wright
Disabled In An Instant
9pm, BBC3
What happens to those young people who’ve undergone life-changing illnesses or injuries when they finally leave hospital? For some, it’s a case of swapping the frying pan for the fire, including struggles with benefits or waiting ages for proper assistance. In this report, actor and wheelchair sportsman Peter Mitchell asks why the system supposed to help disabled people isn’t working as it should, and talks to those affected, such as Jacob, trapped indoors without the specially adapted car he needs. Ali Catterall
A Very British Brothel
10pm, Channel 4
Attercliffe Road in Sheffield is widely referred to as the “golden mile of sex”. Cameras visit mother-and-daughter-run business City Sauna there to meet owners Kath and Jenny, who don’t dabble themselves, but offer a more mature sex professional to their clients. It’s estimated that one in 10 British men regularly pays for sex. And their needs must be met by women spilling forth from tight basques who stop occasionally for a meat pie. Victoria Wood to write the fictionalised version. Julia Raeside
Britain At The Bookies
9pm, BBC1
The third and final instalment of this sobering survey of Britain’s gambling habit is titled Going To The Dogs. This is literal, in that it visits the greyhound track at Romford, and metaphorical in that this is very much yesterday’s model of betting – something now done mostly on our high streets and telephones. It is (one supposes) praiseworthy that oddsmaker Coral has cooperated with the series, but it does the firm few favours: it confirms, as if confirmation were needed, that the bookies are the only real winners. Andrew Mueller
Travel Guides
9pm, ITV
Shades of Gogglebox about this new series, with its banal voiceover and myriad opportunities to chortle at ordinary Brits lowering the tone with their deflatingly fatuous remarks. Five households, ranging from those unfamiliar with all things foreign to seasoned globetrotters, are sent to exotic holiday destinations to sample the delights on offer. Tonight, it’s Koh Samui in Thailand, and the sort of Brits-abroad commentary we haven’t heard since the days of Blind Date, including an especially excruciating crack about “Celebrity Big Buddha”. David Stubbs
Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man
8pm, Sky Arts
Airing here before its run at Sadler’s Wells in London has even finished, Matthew Bourne’s revival of his 2000 ballet noir is getting orgasmic reviews all over again. That punning title tells you this is Carmen, but not Carmen: the music is the opera with some other bits of Bizet mixed in, but Bourne’s story also draws on The Postman Always Rings Twice. In a small Italian-American community in about 1960, a hot stranger walks into a grotty garage-diner. Sexual pandemonium ensues, choreographed with a dash of flamenco. Jack Seale
Today’s best live sport
Swimming: World Championships Day two from Russia, including the finals of the men’s 100m breaststroke and 50m butterfly, and women’s 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley. 3.15pm, BBC2
One Day Cricket: Sussex Sharks v Middlesex Panthers The 50-overs competition continues with this game from Hove. 1.55pm, Sky Sports Ashes
Tennis: The Citi Open Coverage of the opening day’s play at the William HG FitzGerald Tennis Centre in Washington, DC. 9pm, Sky Sports 1
Film Choice
Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008), 9pm, Film4
This was the takeoff for perhaps Marvel’s mightiest superhero, Robert Downey Jr’s playboy billionaire Tony Stark, who learns about power and responsibility after inventing a suit of hi-tech body armour. Jeff Bridges is the not-entirely-trustworthy business partner, Gwyneth Paltrow the loyal Pepper Potts. It’s charged as much by the witty, knowing script as the terrific action scenes.
