Bake Off: Creme de la Creme
8pm, BBC2
Squeezing the Bake Off icing bag for any last drops of associated glory, a panel of expert pastry chefs put teams of professional pudding makers through their paces. It’s Bake Off: The Professionals but it’s unclear why they didn’t just call it that. Without the charm of the homebakers it’s all a bit sterile and perfectly executed: these people are baking machines rather than charming, flawed enthusiasts. “I want Mary Berry,” howls one of the contestants plaintively. Don’t we all? Julia Raeside
Benefits By the Sea: Jaywick
9pm, Channel 5
This reality soap should be genuinely depressing: an unvarnished portrait of an Essex seaside town where unemployment is rife and half of the 5,000-strong population suffer long-term health problems. But while the core cast may have more than their fair share of personal challenges, there are glimpses of optimism. After struggling with alcoholism, Gaz takes a day trip to a rehab centre that could help refocus his life, while the notoriously wayward JP bounces back from an upsetting burglary by visiting a jeweller’s. Graeme Virtue
The A Word
9pm, BBC1
With Joe diagnosed as autistic, his family goes into meltdown. At the heart of events is a schism between parents Alison and Paul, and a dispute over home schooling. Meanwhile, the pub project is in danger of falling apart and Nicola heads to Manchester to meets her former lover, paediatrician Michael, to get advice about Joe on Alison’s behalf. Awkward. With its nuanced performances and a Peter Bowker script that tightrope-walks the narrowest of lines between comedy and drama, this is an absolute treat. Jonathan Wright
The Beginning and End of the Universe
9pm, BBC4
Conclusion of Professor Jim Al-Khalili’s engaging contemplation of the ultimate questions of existence. Having examined the beginnings of the universe last week, tonight he wonders how it will end. As Al-Khalili explains, one of the many difficulties of such prognostication is the limit of our ability to comprehend something so physically and philosophically immense. The theoretical physicist discusses those who have tried, what they have figured out and what we still haven’t. Andrew Mueller
Life in Debt Valley
10.45pm, BBC1
For low earners and those on benefits, it’s not just a question of income not covering food, rent and bills; personal debt is a hole that can be punishingly difficult to climb out of, exacerbating the feeling of hopelessness that living on the breadline brings. This documentary meets people fighting to stay afloat in the Welsh valleys. Maria, 34, is a single mum hopelessly in the red; Sue, who works as a carpenter, wants to take her daughters on holiday, but needs to deal with some bailiffs first. Jack Seale
The Great Human Odyssey
9pm, Eden
This ambitious three-part series sees persistently amazed anthropologist Dr Niobe Thompson looking at how homo sapiens became the planet’s most predominant global species since the extinction of the dinosaurs. He visits the San people (probably sick of film crews by this stage) and the bush-dwellers of the Kalahari, who have some of the most ancient lineage of any group on the planet, and looks at sediment cores from the Rift valley to determine how changes in our environment set us on the path to civilisation. Ben Arnold
The Aliens
9pm, E4
“Opposites attract” goes the old adage, but there’s certainly very little love between reluctant undercover semi-alien Lewis and self-proclaimed alpha-dog border guard Truss as E4’s sparky sci-fi comedy continues. Yet, when the latter finds himself stuck in the middle of Troy with the Alien League in hot pursuit, his only exit strategy comes from his least favourite colleague. Lilyhot, meanwhile, has to deliver an ultimatum to Fabien, following an altercation with Antoine. Mark Gibbings-Jones
Film choice
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963) 11.50pm, Film4
It takes a while to get off the ground, what with socialite Tippi Hedren and lawyer Rod Taylor billing and cooing – but once the seagull has attacked, launching a skyful of hostility on the good folk of Bodega Bay, California, Hitch’s shock tactics take wing. The suspense is built not so much by special effects as by the timing, in a masterly adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s horror story. Paul Howlett
Today’s best live sport
Cycling: The Three Days of De Panne The opening stage of the event from Belgium. 1.45pm, Eurosport 2
International football: England v Netherlands Another Euros warm-up friendly from Wembley. 7.30pm, ITV
International football: Scotland v Denmark Friendly match from Hampden Park. 7.30pm, Sky Sports 1
NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers v Houston Rockets Coverage from Quicken Loans Arena. 1am, BT Sport 2
