Ed Stafford: Into The Unknown
8pm, Discovery
Most people would just sigh resignedly when their destination is missing from Google Street View. In this new series, Ed Stafford takes matters into his own hands, exploring curios spotted on global satellite images. Tonight’s excursion takes Ed to Papua, with a mission to explore the West Papuan swamps and investigate a mysterious series of chalky white lines. “Don’t do it” might be a reasonable response from most travellers, but Ed’s trip reveals some of the richness lurking within the little-visited region. Mark Gibbings-Jones
Building The Ancient City
8pm, BBC2
How many people lived in ancient Rome? Historians are now pretty certain that there were upwards of a million. And how did they cope? That, as Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, brimming with erudition, explains, was down to their civil engineering. The Romans had running water, a fact that the show follows back logically, via aqueducts, all the way to the Tiber. It was built to last: people were still living in ancient “insulae” (Roman apartment blocks) as recently as 1932. John Robinson
Who Do You Think You Are?
9pm, BBC1
Early on in tonight’s episode, actor Derek Jacobi gets a whiff of a world beyond his humble Walthamstow roots, owing to his great-grandmother’s name: Salome Laplain (“You couldn’t make it up!”). It quickly leads him to the story of his sixth great-grandfather Joseph. A financier for the exceedingly Catholic “Sun King” Louis XIV, he was also leading a double life as a Protestant at a time when French Huguenots were being persecuted. Acting must run in the blood. Ali Catterall
Stephen Fry’s Central America
9pm, ITV
Yet another series apparently commissioned by plucking the name of a celebrity out of one hat, and their destination out of another. Travelling in an old schoolbus, Stephen Fry begins his four-part yomp – from the southern border of Texas to the Panama canal – in Mexico. It passes as might be expected: Fry chuntering amiably at the unfolding landscape and pausing every so often to meet characters, including soap opera actors and demonstrators protesting against official ineptitude in tackling Mexico’s drugs gangs. Andrew Mueller
The Other Prince William
9pm, Channel 4
Those of a certain age will remember a sombre piece of news footage in 1972 that saw a plane at an air show disappear from sight, followed by a black plume of smoke. The ill-fated aircraft was piloted by Prince William of Gloucester, dashing, adventurous the cousin to the Queen who kicked against royal convention yet was so admired by Prince Charles he named his own first son after him. For all his glamour and tragic demise, however, his story has been strangely forgotten. This documentary recounts his maverick life. David Stubbs
Celebrity Big Brother: Live Launch
9pm, Channel 5
Emma Willis returns with another series of the D-list Hunger Games, with the programme-makers promising “fly-on-the-wall fun”. After 15 series, it’s a tall order, but there’s a twist to keep things from stagnating entirely. Cue an inexplicable UK v US theme, with the tasks likely to be rebranded accordingly. Expect the usual dregs of reality shows past, with X Factor contestant Marcus Collins and two Towie personalities rumoured to be entering the house. Hannah J Davies
The Spoils Before Dying
10.30pm, FOX
Finale of the noir spoof where Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig and Michael Kenneth Williams scrap over half a script. It’s almost worth tuning in just for the fabulous bit of business where Wiig’s character can’t deliver an important line because her mouth is full of biscuits. But the show needs 10 of those moments an episode, not one: parody can’t survive this sort of stretching and padding. Anyway, tonight, hunted jazz man Rock Banyon (Williams) confronts J Edgar Hoover – a typically gnashing Ferrell turn. Jack Seale
Film choice
The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011) 9pm, More4
Payne’s bittersweet adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings’s novel has George Clooney drowning in problems. He’s a lawyer and patriarch of a leading family in Hawaii, and when his wife (Patricia Hastie) suffers a serious speedboat accident, he has to deal with precocious daughters, his responsibility to the islands and, not least, the revelation that his wife has been keeping a secret. Paul Howlett
Today’s best live sport
European Tour Golf: The Czech Masters Coverage from the Albatross Golf Resort in Prague. 10am, Sky Sports 4
World Athletics Championships Christine Ohuruogu will be hoping to defend her 400m title and Justin Gatlin and Usain Bolt are expected to clash in the 200m final. 11am, BBC2
One-Day Cricket Another quarter-final from the 50-overs-a-side tournament. 1.55pm, Sky Sports Ashes
WTA Tennis: The Connecticut Open From New Haven. 6pm, BT Sport 1
