Second Chance Summer: Tuscany
9pm, BBC2
Another reality show in which a group of volunteers are placed in a challenging situation in the knowledge that this will produce personality clashes, tension and maybe, eventually, redemption. These 10 strangers are in Tuscany attempting to run a vineyard and B&B. The participants aren’t bright young things – they’re adults with baggage – and this gives extra poignancy to what feels like a slightly overfamiliar set-up. Phil Harrison
Me and My Dog: The Ultimate Contest
8pm, BBC2
The symbiotic relationship between human and hound reaches a logical conclusion in this series fronted by Chris Packham. Eight dogs and their owners compete in a series of challenges. With expert advice on hand to help maximise the potential of each competing couple, only the canniest of canines will prevail. Whatever happens, one thing’s for sure – you’re unlikely to see a similar format for cat owners. Mark Gibbings-Jones
The Benefits Cap: Is it Working?
9pm, BBC1
Cameras follow families who have been penalised by the move to limit the total amount of social security payments that any household can receive, which inevitably leads to difficult decisions about how to pay for food and shelter. If you’re tuning in – seven years into Tory austerity – to double-check that this is a fillip that will set these strivers free and propel them into Britain’s thriving jobs market, prepare for disappointment. Jack Seale
Marilyn Monroe: Auction of a Lifetime
9pm, Channel 4
There’s a sad irony in a documentary exploring Monroe’s life through her auctioned-off possessions, given that this closet intellectual has so often been reduced merely to a bunch of constituent parts: dress, hair, wiggle and voice. This film follows the three-day event, held last November, that saw the sale of everything from the gown she sang “Happy birthday, Mr President” in to a note on a menu reading, “Think with your body”. Ali Catterall
Jack Dee’s Helpdesk
10pm, BBC2
Years of lugubrious wit are turning Jack Dee’s face as saggy as the late Clement Freud’s. Tonight’s dosage of self-indulgent gripes from an invited audience won’t help any. He’s joined by Jeremy Hardy, Katherine Ryan, Larry Lamb and Andi Osho to field “first world complaints” about baby Facebook updates, emptying bins when husbands are away and inquiries about where best to shield an iPhone from the sun (“Britain,” offers Hardy). David Stubbs
Henry IX
9pm, Gold
This new abdication sitcom is a real coup for UKTV, having secured the writing services of British comedy royalty Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. After 25 years on the throne, good egg Henry IX floats the idea of stepping down, throwing his coterie into crisis. With an elegant cast – including Charles Edwards, Colin Salmon and Sally Phillips – exchanging dry lines in echoey state rooms, it feels like an eccentric UK cousin to The Young Pope. Graeme Virtue
The 100
9pm, E4
The epic-scaled teen sci-fi drama returns. For the uninitiated, it began with the expulsion of a group of 100 juvenile offenders sent back to Earth from a space station containing the last of humankind – following a nuclear holocaust 97 years earlier – to discover whether it is safe to reinhabit. Series four begins with Eliza Taylor’s Clarke facing murderous plots against her, and perhaps just six months remaining of human survival. Nothing trivial, then. Ben Arnold
Film choice
Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan, 2008) 9pm, More4
So, for your easy, £100 question, what proved to be the feelgood movie of 2008, scooping eight Oscars and a rajah’s ransom at the box office? Yes, it was Danny Boyle’s exuberant Mumbai love story about slum paupers, gangsters, a smart kid (Dev Patel) and the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? TV show. With the hard edge you’d expect from Boyle, it proved an irresistible combination. Paul Howlett
Live sport
Cycling: Basque Tour, 2.30pm, Eurosport 1. The Spanish road race continues.
IPL Cricket: Sunrisers Hyderabad v Royal Challengers Bangalore, 3pm, Sky Sports 2. The big-bucks Indian T20 tournament gets under way in Hyderabad.
Premier League Football: Chelsea v Manchester City 7.15pm, BT Sport 1. Can City somehow keep the title race alive?
