BEST OF THE REST
INSIDE THE FACTORY
BBC2, 8pm
THIS statistic-packed series which sees Gregg Wallace and Cherry Healey tour factories in blue hair nets, is always fascinating.
You might never have thought about how frozen potato waffles were made, but you’ll be glad when you know.
At the Birds Eye factory in Lowestoft, Gregg discovers it produces 450 tonnes of frozen food every day. And Brits eat nearly six million potato waffles a week.
“It’s waffly exciting,” says Gregg, in no doubt the first of many bad gags.
He follows the production line, from the arrival of 25 tonnes of potatoes through a monster masher and waffle stamp machine.
Elsewhere, Cherry finds out more about different spuds, also learning that they are packed full of nutrients.
Historian Ruth Goodman is mythbusting Walter Raleigh’s connection to potatoes.
And we also meet a potato waffle inventor, finding out how Mr Whippy ice creams were the unlikely inspiration behind this teatime treat.
THE MIRACLE
SKY Atlantic, 9pm
ANYONE who is a Doctor Who fan will know that weeping statues are absolutely terrifying. So if supernatural and horror genres are not your thing, be wary of this new Italian drama.
Based on a bestselling novel, by Niccolò Ammaniti, the subtitled thriller gets interesting after an operation at a mob boss’s bunker. Police find a sculpture of the Virgin Mary, which appears to be weeping blood.
Is it a chemical reaction? Is it a magic trick? Or is it weeping blood for real? Nine litres an hour, no less. It’s all very mysterious and chilling as the tears plop one by one into a bucket on the ground.
With no explanation forthcoming, haematologist Sandra, mob boss Molocco, fallen priest Marcello, Italian Premier Pietromarchi and everyone else who comes across the statue is drawn into the mystery, with life-changing results.
This double bill might well draw you into the mystery too.