The Nation’s Favourite Beatles Number One
8pm, ITV
The week after the Beatles greatest hits collection, 1, is re-released, here is a two-hour celebration of the most successful band in history. Quite rightly: this is music that rearranged the world’s DNA. So much so that to properly revisit these ubiquitous songs, as elemental as earth, fire or water, can be quite a surprising experience (Ticket to Ride, for one, really is stranger than you think). Fans and fellow performers, from Twiggy to Björn Ulvaeus, give thanks. Ali Catterall
The Apprentice
9pm, BBC1
Lord Sugar and aides Karren Brady and Claude Littner have had their work cut out this series, with a cohort of would-be Apprentices who have shown themselves to have all the business aptitude of the manure they shovelled in episode three. This week, they’re at a builder’s yard in south London, where they’re charged with setting up and running their own handyman businesses. From cleaning and gardening to DIY and refurbishment, teams Versatile and Connexus go head to head but, as per, there can only be one overwhelmingly mediocre team of victors. Hannah J Davies
Dominic Sandbrook: Let Us Entertain You
9pm, BBC2
Part two of Sandbrook’s study of Britain’s transition from manufacturing centre to the world’s primary engine of popular culture. Tonight takes a contrarian swipe at the notion that rock’n’roll levelled playing fields and dismantled class barriers, etc. As Sandbrook tells it, not only was much putative rebellion actually a displaced celebration of the established order, the self-styled outsiders were keen on little more than becoming insiders. Andrew Mueller
Colour: The Spectrum Of Science
9pm, BBC4
Dr Helen Czerski explores the importance of colour in the formation of life on Earth. Tonight, we look at the green of almost all plants, and the rainbow hues of human skin. Czerski climbs to the top of a scaffolding tower to survey the green forest canopy beneath. It’s a fascinating series but also a chance for director and camera operator to show off like mad with dizzying, zoomed-out shots of the beauteous planet and ultra-magnified zoom-ins to individual particles floating in the sea. A proper eyeball workout. Julia Raeside
The Frankenstein Chronicles
10pm, ITV Encore
Big names gather in misty old London for this gory drama. It’s the 19th century and Inspector John Marlott (Sean Bean) hits the trail of the legendary Frankenstein after he finds what he thinks is the body of a child. The truth is worse: it’s a monster of a corpse stitched together from a variety of body parts. The fearless investigator wades through a world of syphilis, urchin children and a dimly lit Smithfield Market as he searches London for clues to help him crack the crime. Chilling from the start. Hannah Verdier
Josh
10.30pm, BBC3
Corkscrew-curled stand-up and Last Leg co-host Josh Widdicombe takes the lead in this new sitcom. He plays the eponymous sadsack, flatsharing with a platonic female friend and a dim Welsh romeo, with Jack Dee occasionally popping up as their overfamiliar landlord. When Josh flukes an invite to a glamorous pool party, the insecure slob must finally tackle his lifelong fear of swimming. It feels like a distant, low-energy cousin of Spaced, but there’s an appealing hangout vibe, and future guest stars include Barry Chuckle. Graeme Virtue
Peep Show
10pm, Channel 4
It’s three years since series eight, yet Mark and Jez must remain forever young, so as the final run starts we’re only six months on from Dobbygeddon. Mark arrives at Super Hans’s stag do still despising his old flatmate: he’s unmoved when he then sees the spectacular low that is Jez’s new gaff. Will he stick with cartoonishly cardiganed replacement bro Jerry (Tim Key), or let Jez come home? Kenco and William Morris, or Twirls and Octopussy? A relatively restrained opener but it still hums with disgustingly funny lines. Jack Seale
Today’s best live sport
One-Day International Cricket: Pakistan v England
The first game of the series from Abu Dhabi. 10.30am, Sky Sports 2
Snooker: Champion Of Champions
From the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. 12.45pm, ITV4
Women’s Champions League: Chelsea v VfL Wolfsburg
Can Chelsea’s women do better than the men? Probably. 6.45pm, British Eurosport
NBA Basketball
Dallas Mavericks v Los Angeles Clippers from the American Airlines Center. 1am, BT Sport 1
Films
Cabaret
(Bob Fosse, 1972) 11.35pm, BBC1
A sparkling musical version of Goodbye To Berlin, Christopher Isherwood’s account of life in the decadent, dazzling city in the early 1930s. Oscar-winning Fosse is stronger inside the club, with its brilliantly choreographed dance and song, than on the streets where the Nazi thugs roam. Liza Minnelli is raunchy and vulnerable as bubbly nightclub entertainer Sally Bowles, who falls for Michael York’s innocent abroad. She and Joel Grey, as the arch MC, also won Oscars. Paul Howlett
The Insider
(Michael Mann, 1999) 12.30am, Channel 4
Russell Crowe piled on the pounds to play Jeffrey Wigand, the real-life hero who, sacked by tobacco company Brown & Williamson, risked everything to expose the dangers of nicotine, with the help of CBS producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino). Mann creates a nervy world with lustrous compositions. PH
