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The Guardian - UK

Entertainment

Hannah Verdier, Ali Catterall, Graeme Virtue, Andrew Mueller, Ben Arnold and Jonathan Wright

Monday’s best TV

Vanessa Ringshall, who is forced to give up ready meals for a week. Photograph: Twenty Twenty Productions/Twenty Twenty

Vote for Me
4.30pm, CBBC

What happens when you give Year 6 pupils in a London primary school the chance to run for headteacher? Stacey Dooley sets the candidates thinking about their manifestos, though they go all wibbly after a visit from Wolfblood’s teen idol Bobby Lockwood. It’s soon back to business, however, as 30 candidates are whittled down to three, who will compete for votes throughout the week. Popular policies are chicken on the lunch menu and hot chocolate for all, as the children get a taste of how an election works. Hannah Verdier

How the Other Half Eat
7.30pm, Channel 4

Two families swap shopping trolleys for a week in this foodie experiment. In one corner it’s the Ringshall family, who spend £300 a week on sugary treats and ready meals. They’re swapping ingredients with the Janes, Aldi aficionados spending just £80 a week on food, with mum Michelle cooking meals from scratch. Mama Ringshall, proprietor of a “Cupboard of Dreams” filled with treats balks at the “no sugar after 7pm” rule. The boys from the other family suffer a post-sweets comedown. HV

VE Day: Remembering Victory
8.30pm, BBC1

“This is the BBC Home Service, interrupting programmes to make the following announcement … ” A bejewelled chest of national treasures, from Brucie to David Attenborough, share their memories of 8 May 1945, AKA The Day We Stopped Shooting One Another. While Jilly Cooper reminisces about dresses made from blackout curtains, others resort pleasingly to type: “People were doing all sorts of naughty things,” purrs Leslie Phillips. “I was kissed by a few women. And some men as well.” Ali Catterall

Safe House
9pm, ITV

Imagine the TripAdvisor reviews for the Lake District B&B where former detective Robert (a beardy, Barbour-jacketed Christopher Eccleston) stashes vulnerable families: “No telly, tense mealtimes, constant brooding – two stars.” In the third episode of ITV’s murky mystery, a grisly find suggests the vengeful Collersdale is determined to track the Blackwell clan all the way to their Cumbrian bolthole, while Robert’s unofficial investigation dredges up more memories of the case that made him retire in the first place. Graeme Virtue

The Stranger On The Bridge
9pm, Channel 4

Affecting documentary recalling the efforts of mental health campaigner Jonny Benjamin to find the man who saved his life. In January 2008, Benjamin resolved to throw himself from Waterloo Bridge. A passing stranger stopped, engaged him in conversation, persuaded him not to, and Benjamin was taken to hospital by police. Six years later, Benjamin launched a campaign to locate the samaritan who rescued him. A film that inspires, while subtly asking an always interesting question: what would you have done? Andrew Mueller

Mummies Alive
9pm, Yesterday

According to Mummies Alive, preserved cadavers are “time travellers from the past”. That’s perhaps a bit of a stretch – no flux capacitors here – but the sentiment is there, with these leathery individuals providing astonishing insights in the right hands. The first is that of Old Croghan Man, a dismembered gent found in the boggy wetlands of County Offaly, Ireland in 2003. He was discovered to be more than 2,300 years old, but how did he meet his gruesome end? A team of experts makes some startling discoveries. Ben Arnold

Ballot Monkeys
10pm, Channel 4

With three days to go before polling day, we can presumably expect events in the election battle bus sitcom to grow ever more frenetic. But in a controlled way, because Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin perfected the knack of dropping topical material into the mix at the last moment back in their days writing Drop The Dead Donkey; while the likes of Hugh Dennis, Ben Miller and Sarah Hadland can be relied on not to fluff their lines. Continues and concludes tomorrow and Wednesday. Jonathan Wright