Seven Days

NIGEL ANDREW’S guide to the week’s TV

SATURDAY

Ninja Warrior UK 7PM, ITV This new, eight-part entertainment series – an international format that is already a hit in several countries – follows the thrills and spills on ‘the toughest obstacle course ever seen on British television’. Contestants from all walks of life compete to finish the course.

Last Tango In Halifax 9PM, DRAMA Another chance to enjoy the first episode of Sally Wainwright’s warm but unsentimental family drama – one that seemed very special from the start. Here, Derek Jacobi’s Alan and Anne Reid’s Celia meet again after many years.

Casualty 9.20PM, BBC1 In this week’s episode – titled, appropriately enough, Under Pressure – Connie helps a confused young mother to realise what she really wants, while Ethan gives advice to a bullied schoolboy with vengeance in mind.

Play To The Whistle 9.20PM, ITV This new, sports-based comedy game show, hosted by Holly Willoughby, features an array of sporting stars and celebrities in goodhumoured competition. The team captains are Bradley Walsh and Jimmy Bullard.

CSI 10.10PM, CH5 This week – overriding DB’s reservations – Sara reopens a ten-year-old family murder/ suicide case after the sole survivor has a flashback that suggests her accused father might have been innocent all along. Can the team make a case after all this time?

SUNDAY

MasterChef 7.30PM, BBC1 The keenly fought culinary contest strays into the weekend for the first of the semi-finals, with the remaining eight amateur chefs facing a fiendish Relay Invention Test. Continues on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Vera 8PM, ITV In the second feature-length episode of the new series, the discovery of a teenage girl’s remains leads Vera and the team back to a 30-year-old case, and deep into the troubled history of a mining town in turmoil.

Poldark 9PM, BBC1 In this week’s episode, the impetuous Ross breaks Jim out of jail in a desperate bid to save him from the fever, then gets fighting drunk at George’s grand ball, leaving Demelza to fend for herself at her first high-society event.

Indian Summers 9PM, CH4 In the penultimate episode of the series, Simla is preparing for a visit from a powerful nawab. Alice is terrified by Sarah’s threat to tell everyone at the club about her guilty secret, while Aafrin is coming under intense pressure to join a terrorist group, and Ralph and Cynthia fall out in spectacular style.

The Olivier Awards 10.15PM, ITV Lenny Henry hosts the prestigious theatre awards at the Royal Opera House, in front of a star-studded audience. As ever, musicals are well represented in the nominations.

MONDAY

Cowboys And Angels 11.45AM, BBC1 In this new series, Tommy Walsh meets homeowners who have fallen foul of ‘cowboy’ builders and follows tradesmen (‘angels’) as they solve crises in the home. Continues daily.

Wild Ireland 8PM, ITV The latest addition to ITV’s stable of scenic travelogues is this six-parter in which Christine Bleakley travels the length of the west coast of Ireland, along the Wild Atlantic Way.

Inside Harley Street 9PM, BBC2 This new, three-part documentary series by Vanessa Engle takes a beady-eyed look at the life of the Harley Street area, going behind the elegant Georgian façades to talk to doctors, patients and others who inhabit this unique grid of streets devoted to medicine.

Code Of A Killer 9PM, ITV In the second, concluding episode of this superb, fact-based drama, Baker takes the bold step of launching the world’s first DNA manhunt – but will it find the killer?

Jack Dee’s Election Helpdesk 10PM, BBC2 In this unscripted audience show, the lugubrious Dee turns agony uncle as, with his four comedian guests, he helps us through our election-related problems and dilemmas.

TUESDAY

Back In Time For Dinner 8PM, BBC2 This week, the Robshaw family go back to the 1990s, a time of varied, abundant and increasingly cheap food, of bagged salads and cook-in sauces and the rise of the out-of-town superstore, the gastro-pub – and Jamie Oliver.

Britain’s Favourite Foods – Are They Good For You? 9PM, BBC2 Alice Roberts investigates Britain’s most popular fresh foods, analysing their health benefits, and asking if we’re getting the best from them. If she’d chosen Britain’s favourite processed foods, she might have reached some rather less heartening conclusions.

One Born Every Minute 9PM, CH4 This week, an Iranian couple have some unusual problems in the operating theatre, a football-mad dad is well out of his comfort zone, and a husband who seldom leaves his wife’s side is in danger of missing the birth.

My Big Fat Asian Wedding 10PM, CH4 The exuberant Raj Somaiya, subject of this eye-popping documentary, is one of Britain’s busiest Asian wedding planners, and he’s on a mission – to make his family business the go-to planners for the UK’s most lavish ceremonies.

Millionaire Basement Wars 10.45PM, BBC1 This documentary reports on the fashion among London’s super-rich for digging out huge, multilevel basements beneath their houses. The noisy, disruptive and sometimes damaging work can go on for years, making life for the neighbours a living hell.

WEDNESDAY

The Ladykillers: Pest Detectives 8PM, BBC2 When Janet arrives at a Glasgow flat to treat an infestation of cockroaches, she discovers more pests – mice. Meanwhile, in this last of the series, Angela comes to the rescue of a young woman who is terrified of spiders.

Give A Pet A Home 8PM, ITV Six celebrity animal-lovers train as volunteers to care for residents at an RSPCA rescue centre in Birmingham. This heart-warming new series follows their work and their appeals to find new homes for their charges. Amanda Holden hosts.