Monday
Davina McCall: Life at the Extreme
ITV
9pm
Davina McCall sets out to discover some of Earth’s most extreme environments. Over four episodes, she’ll visit some of the hottest, coldest, deepest and wettest places on the planet to find out how people and animals survive in such hostile environments.
McCall begins her journey in Namibia, where she races a cheetah, spends the night camping in the Erindi Game Reserve, and meets the San Bush people, traditional hunter-gatherers from the Central Kalahari desert.
Tuesday
David Harewood’s F Word
Sky Arts
9pm
Actor David Harewood has a string of successes to his name, from Homeland and Supergirl to The Night Manager. This hasn’t always been the case, however, and in this series he sets out to break the taboo of failure in acting. Along the way he’ll meet with famous friends to discuss their own experiences of rejection and disappointment in the notoriously tough entertainment business.
Wednesday
Secrets of the Sauna
Channel 4
10.35pm
Channel 4 gains exclusive access to a gay sauna based in Nottingham. There’s thought to be similar establishments in every city in the UK, but this one-off documentary gives insight into what goes on inside for the very first time.
The Nottingham business is run by Joe and Hon, who have been a couple for over 30 years. They invite the viewer in to see this snapshot of gay culture with its own rules and rituals.
Thursday
Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle
BBC Two
10pm
Stewart’s Lee’s Comedy Vehicle returns to BBC Two for a fourth series. Filmed in front of a live audience at the Mildmay Club in London’s Stoke Newington, each week Lee will tackle a different theme, with topics ranging from childhood memories to Islamophobia.
This week Lee looks at wealth, and is quizzed by hostile interrogator and script editor Chris Morris on his approach to stand up.
Friday
Land of Hope and Glory – British Country Life
BBC Two
9pm
After the success of the 2014 series Posh People: Inside Tatler, BBC Two will again go behind the scenes at another posh publication. This time it’s Country Life that’s in the limelight.
Filmmaker Jane Treays spent 12 months observing the magazine, from a ‘girl in pearls’ photoshoot in Yorkshire, to meeting people struggling with the challenges of farming in 21st century Britain.
Saturday
Penelope Keith’s Hidden Villages
Channel 4
8pm
Actress Penelope Keith completes heads to the South Downs and the Weald of Sussex and Kent for the final leg of her journey around Britain’s hidden villages.
Keith visits Burwash and Batemans, where she learns about the life of The Jungle Book author Rudyard Kipling, and finds out about his role in the war memorial movement.
She also stops off at the village workshop that’s made cricket bats for some of the sport’s biggest names, from WG Grace to the current England captain.
Sunday
Doctor Thorne
ITV
9pm
Tom Hollander stars as Doctor Thomas Thorne in a new adaptation of the Anthony Trollope novel by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes.
Set in 1855, Thorpe lives in the village of Greshambury in Barsetshire with his niece Mary (Stefanie Martini), who is curious about the truth of her birth.
When she discovers that she is of neither breeding nor fortune, her relationship with the heir to the nearby Greshambury Estate, Frank, is called into question.