Sleeping with the enemy

FLESH AND BLOOD MASTERCHEF

ITV, 9pm

A NOSY neighbour, a possible murder and more affairs than the soaps have seen in a year, this is a gripping story of relationships and intrigue.

A cracking cast, including Imelda Staunton, Russell Tovey, Francesca Annis and Stephen Rea, bring to life the mini-series that is set to take over four nights this week.

Make sure you’re paying attention as this opener introduces a lot of characters and sets up a complex family dynamic. Three adult siblings,

BBC1, 9pm

Helen (Claudie Blakley), Jake (Tovey) and Natalie (Lydia Leonard), are completely thrown when their recently widowed mum, Vivien (Annis), announces she is in love with a new man.

Mark (Rea) is a retired surgeon who she met on a dating website. He’s charming, gentlemanly and wants to give Vivien the world. But Jake is deeply suspicious, and viewers will be too.

While this is all going on, the siblings each have their own nightmares.

Affairs, failed marriages, conflict at work, perhaps a touch of alcoholism.

Their lives are spiralling out of control. Meanwhile, Vivien’s neighbour Mary (Staunton) has reached peak levels of curtain twitching. She watches absolutely everything that’s going on in her street.

Flash forward and Mary is being interviewed by the police about a terrible tragedy.

Someone, presumably from the family next door, lies on the beach and is seriously injured – perhaps dead. But who is it? And was it an accident?

“I never ever dreamt it would end like this,” says Mary, whose own behaviour is also somewhat dubious.

By the end, you won’t even know who the victim is but you’ll trust no one.

Continues tomorrow.

GRUB’S UP! John and Gregg are back “I’m not going to kill you, I promise.” This is a reassuring announcement from someone who is cooking you dinner. It seems John Torode and Gregg Wallace have every right to be nervous. It’s that time of the year again when the original TV cooking contest returns for another series. Thousands applied, but only 60 amateurs have made it through to compete over five weeks of heats. And this year they have to earn the right to even wear a white Masterchef apron. There are six contestants in each heat and only four aprons – who said BBC cost-cutting wouldn’t take its toll! To win one of the aprons they must cook a signature dish. “We want to see promise, courage and adventure... all well seasoned of course,” says John. But that’s not all. An Ingredients Challenge with bream, fennel and tomatoes, then a two-course cook-off will whittle them down to just three quarter finalists going through to the next round. Cooking doesn’t get tougher.