Food And Drink

BBC2, 8.30pm

There’s a Glasgow hue to this week’s TV schedules, with BBC1 and BBC3 showing the Commonwealth Games from dawn to dusk and numerous other programmes linking themselves to the city on the Clyde. Glasgow is not mentioned by name in this week’s Food And Drink but the episode is dedicated to full-fat food, so make of that what you will. Angela Hartnett joins Michel Roux Jr in the kitchen and shows him how to create a pizza bianco covered in a rich and creamy cheese. Meanwhile, Michel gets to work on dessert, an indulgent chocolate and salted caramel.

Channel 5, 9pm

I was once in a lowend supermarket (my nan told me it was good for meat) when I heard a mum call to her two daughters, Mercedes and Porcia, to come hither. If my ears weren’t pricked up enough by the pretentious names, my eyes were then amplified by the sight of two toddlers running down the aisle dressed in fake fur coats, dripping in jewellery and with hairstyles usually reserved for women getting married. I should add I was in Essex at the time, where good taste isn’t the first thing on people’s minds in the morning, but the trend of kitting out your kid in top-to-toe glamour is not exclusive to the county. This documentary meets three women (two of whom are not from Essex) who openly admit they treat their daughters like dolls and, perhaps more interestingly, the hostility that automatically attracts from other people.

BBC4, 9pm

Despite the spell of nice weather we’ve been enjoying, spoilsport TV schedulers seem determined to remind us that the onset of winter is little more than 100 shopping days away. And if you’re thinking nothing could be worse than last year, with the British Isles battered by a series of storms, then you should think again, according to Dr Lucie Green. The solar scientist takes us on a journey back through some of the most turbulent and dramatic weather in our history, including an 18th-Century storm surge that killed more than a thousand people working in Somerset fields, a hurricane that drowned a fifth of the British Navy and winters so bitter that the country came to a standstill. By the end of the programme I was making a mental note that one of those shopping days should include a trip to the local hardware store to stock up on sandbags.

Channel 5, 10pm

When Helen Wood entered the Big Brother house back in January (or maybe it just seems that long ago) she announced she was not looking for love during her stay. However, she did say she was “up for anything. The more physical, the better,” and although she was talking about sports at the time, if you put these two statements together you can conclude she’s found her perfect man in charmless Ash. He dismissed their dalliance under the covers as “just a snog,” and when cornered that it had occurred more than once, he said that, as the previous one was “decent” it happened again. Of course, being a woman, what Helen said and what she wants are two different things and as the rest of Britain basked in a heatwave all week there has been a distinct frostiness in the air in the Big Brother house.

Yesterday, 10pm

Yesterday channel are showing a week of programmes in the countdown to the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of War by Britain on Germany (which will be marked with appropriate circumstance next Monday). This drama-documentary (previously shown on BBC1 in 2006) offers a new perspective on of one of the war’s most infamous battles and how the lessons from the horrific losses on the Somme taught the British Army how to fight – and win – a modern war.

Coast

BBC2, 7pm

The Coast team revisit Australia in this episode – but they head north to do so. Mark Horton (pictured right) is in Mull to reveal the remarkable story of explorer and adventurer Lachlan Macquarie. Born on the Scottish isle two centuries ago, he went on to establish the country he named Australia. Virtually unknown in his native land, the Major-General is a hero down under, where he is heralded as “Father of Australia”. Horton hears how Macquarie and his wife, Elizabeth, managed to defy the British establishment to lay the foundations for present-day Sydney using convict labour and radical social reforms.

Channel 4, 8pm

With their tenement flat spared a detonation during the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, young couple Christine and Chris want to spruce up their distinctly Glaswegian home. Graphic designer Chris has some out-there ideas, so it’s up to Kirstie and Co. to bring them into line and match what’s achievable. And single mum-oftwo Helen Wade has moved back to the UK after spending the last 14 years in France, and wants to turn her bedroom into a lovely sanctuary for herself but also a workspace.

Sky Atlantic, 10pm

One of the appeals of Ray Donovan is that, like The Sopranos before it, amid the murders, FBI investigations and general air of menace, life carries on as normal for the main protagonists. Tonight’s episode is a case in point, with Ray and Abby facing a hurdle to get Bridget in to her dream school and Mickey trying to give his parole officer the slip to go on a date. Meanwhile, the main storyline is moved on by a nosey reporter paying a visit to the Fite Club.

One Born Every Minute

Channel 4, 9pm

Being a man I can be slow on the uptake sometimes, but I definitely think my fiancee is trying to tell me something. Being a teacher, she’s enjoying a well-earned six week rest right now and has series-linked Sky Living’s She’s Having A Baby, MTV’s Teen Mom (I think she’s living in the past by about 13 years there) and, the daddy of them all, Channel 4’s One Born Every Minute to watch while she’s home alone in the day. She’s either broody or deliberately trying to fill up our Sky Planner so that I can’t fit any more First World War documentaries on there. If, as I suspect, it’s a bit of both then I need to have a serious think about whether this is the type of woman I want to be having children with.

BBC4, 9pm

Andrew Graham-Dixon’s tour of the Low Countries that aired on BBC4 last year was clearly a dry run for something a little more ambitious. The art historian is now in China, piecing together the spectacular recent discoveries of ancient art that are re-defining the country’s understanding of its origins. He’ll come face-to-face with an extraordinary collection of sophisticated alien-like bronze masks created nearly four millennia ago and explore the tomb of a warrior empress which contains the origins of calligraphy.

ITV2, 10pm

All good things must come to an end and so, too, must the eternally abysmal series 12 of The Only Way Is Essex. There’s usually a drama or two in the series finale before the cast head off to “Marbs” for their holidays. It’s most likely to be when former best friends Chloe and Lauren meet for the first time since falling out over Mario.