PICK OF THE DAY

The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs 9PM, BBC1

Almost 50 per cent of us regularly take prescription medication; the average Brit now receives a startling 18.7 prescriptions a year. But do we really need them? Dr Chris van Tulleken isn’t convinced and, to prove there’s more to being healthy than popping a pill, he’s taking over a busy GP surgery for three months, treating illness and controlling pain without drugs, and weaning patients off their ‘life-saving’ regimes. This fascinating twopart series charts his efforts – and reveals what his fellow doctors think of his ideas. Ground-breaking, or reckless?

Ingenious Animals 8PM, BBC1

In part three, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and the team investigate the intriguing world of animal communication. In Australia, conservationist Giles Clark finds out how cutting-edge communications technology devised for the military is being used to save the koala – and some of the footage is so cute, it hurts.

Paul O’Grady: For The Love Of Dogs

8.30PM, ITV Of all the dogs Paul has fallen in love with over the years, toothless 13-year-old boxer Prince probably packs the most profound punch. When they’re introduced at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, it’s love at first sight (‘He’s just the business… I’m mad for this dog’). Is Prince on his way to O’Grady Towers?

Inside Scotland Yard With Trevor McDonald

9PM, ITV The second and concluding episode finds Trevor McDonald looking back at the 1911 Siege of Sidney Street and the notorious East End gang culture of the 1960s. Plus, he talks to Norwell Roberts, who, in 1967, became the first black officer to join the ranks of the Metropolitan Police.