PICK OF THE DAY

Dara And Ed’s Road To Mandalay

9PM, BBC2 Three-part series in which Ed Byrne and Dara O Briain embark on a 3,000-mile adventure through Southeast Asia, ‘one of the most rapidly changing places on Earth’. In a region where ancient religions and superhighways coexist, the Irish duo’s mission is to explore how the clash between East and West, traditional and modern, is transforming three of its most vibrant countries – Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar. Their journey begins in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, where their first stop is a chicken beauty pageant.

Babs

8PM, BBC1 This affectionate and compelling drama charts the early years of one of our bestloved, idiosyncratic actresses, Barbara Windsor. It begins in 1993, as a reflective Babs (an uncannily perfect Samantha Spiro; Jaime Winstone is great in her ‘dollybird’ years) looks back at the people and events that shaped her early life and career. Terrific.

Mexico: Earth’s Festival Of Life

8PM, BBC2 More than 2,000 miles long, Mexico is dominated by the Sierra Madre, a vast chain of mountains that is home to an astonishing diversity of wildlife. Episode one of this stunning, three-part series begins in the Serranias del Burro in the far northeast, where a black bear and her three adorable cubs are fattening up for winter.

The Durrells

8PM, ITV ‘We will celebrate you, in all your wizened glory.’ When her tactless children throw her a birthday picnic in episode three, Louisa is reminded that she’s not getting any younger, and decides it’s time to start ‘living for the moment’. Still pining for Sven, she tries to switch her affections to the smitten Hugh – much to Vasilia’s chagrin.