Today's TV highlights

Just when you thought there were too many cookery shows on our screens, along comes yet another. We shouldn’t carp, though, as this one is a worthwhile, campaigning series and solidly made at that. The idea is that some of Britain’s best fresh produce is under threat and in serious need of love. The rallying call to protect our native ingredients is backed by an impressive cast of famous foodie faces: James Martin, Michel Roux Jr, the Hairy Bikers, Clarissa Dickson Wright, Gregg Wallace, Angela Hartnett, Ainsley Harriott, Matt Tebbutt, Glynn Purnell and Gary Rhodes.

In each episode, two of them will passionately champion a heritage foodstuff they believe should be back on our shopping lists and plates. They’ll highlight the problems facing it, then cook three dishes that showcase their hero ingredient. For starters? The always charming Michel Roux Jr gets passionate about the lost art of baking bread. Concerned that bland, machine mass-made, homogenous-tasting loaves have become the norm, he reveals the secrets behind real artisan bread and shows how easy home baking can be. He’s joined by the Hairy Bikers (one of whom is Si King, left) on that much-maligned vegetable, the cauliflower, which has been abandoned in favour of broccoli. The hirsute duo explain why it’s ripe for revival and demonstrate that it’s not just nutritious but surprisingly delicious. MH

Let’s Make Love (1960)

Film4, 2.35pm

George Cukor directed this frothy musical, which turned out to be Marilyn Monroe’s penultimate film. Monroe stars as Amanda Dell, a showgirl who falls for ageing European playboy Jean-Marc Clement (Yves Montand) after he threatens to sue her off-Broadway revue show for satirising him. CM

Sink the Bismarck! (1960, b/w)

Film4, 4.50pm

Kenneth More stars as Captain Shepard, the strategist whose job it is to implement Winston Churchill’s simple order: “Sink the Bismarck.” But outwitting Hitler’s most powerful ship is no easy task. The film blends archive footage with special effects to make this a gripping war film. MW

Royal Upstairs Downstairs

BBC Two, 6.30pm

The daily revisiting of luxurious Victorian cooking and dining continues. In this third instalment, Tim Wonnacott and Rosemary Shrager discover what went on behind the scenes at Harewood House in September 1835 when a teenage Princess Victoria came to visit. Wonnacott looks around the estate’s local church, where a sermon was delivered by the Archbishop because it was feared that the local vicar would be too coarse for the young princess’s ears. Shrager, meanwhile, teams up with food historian Ivan Day to prepare a typically fancy 19th-century dish – an elaborate asparagus with pastry crust. CG

The Boat That Guy Built

BBC One, 7.30pm; not Scot/Wales

Square-jawed engineering enthusiast Guy Martin continues his bid to rebuild a neglected narrowboat with the best of British inventions from the Industrial Revolution. Tonight Martin and his sidekick Mave visit Birmingham, once a manufacturing hub, where they build a bathroom with a steam-powered shower, make their own soap and look at Thomas Crapper’s famed Victorian lavatory. MH

23 Week Babies: the Price of Life

BBC Two, 9.00pm

Filmed over six months in the neonatal ward at Birmingham Women’s Hospital, this documentary examines whether babies born four months early should be kept alive. Nine out of 10 die before they leave hospital and most survivors are disabled. Science writer Adam Wishart asks whether keeping these babies alive is pioneering medicine or science meddling too much with nature. Is it also a cost-effective use of funds? He meets parents, medical staff and 23-weekers who have now grown up. MH

MasterChef

BBC One, 9.00pm

A month into the culinary contest and we’re down to a mere nine hopefuls. Tonight they’re packed off for their first ever professional service. With exacting head chefs at leading London restaurants scrutinising every plate, who will cope with the pressure? It’s then back to base for an invention test with a twist. The nine are taught the instinctive, sense-based cooking style of Michelin-starred French master Alexis Gauthier. They must then choose ingredients while blindfolded and cook them with no timers or measuring equipment. MH

Jamie’s Dream School

Channel 4, 9.00pm

Is crusading chef Jamie Oliver’s latest move, out of his kitchen comfort zone and into education, a step too far? For some tastes, yes, but it still makes compelling viewing as he ropes in famous people as teachers, to help give a second chance to 20 teenagers. Tonight Oliver tries to address disciplinary problems and ban mobile phones during lessons. David Starkey and Simon Callow have trouble with their classes, whereas musician Jazzie B’s tough but fair style seems to be getting results. Most amusingly, Alastair Campbell’s political masterclass backfires. MH

Looking for Eric (2009)

Film4, 9.00pm

Ken Loach plays a blinder with this affable study of a depressed postman (Steve Evets) who sorts his life out with the help of his imaginary mentor Eric Cantona. It’s not Loach’s most political work but it’s definitely his funniest film to date. Evets and his postie pals keep the daft laughs coming. RW

The Sopranos

Sky Atlantic/SAHD, 9.00pm

Boardwalk Empire, the series that launched this channel, is often likened to The Sopranos, so it’s instructive to look back at how quickly the latter hit its stride; Boardwalk is taking more time to build momentum. This episode, College (the fifth from series one), shows the two sides of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini): doting father and cold-blooded killer. The high point is when he tells his daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) that there is no such thing as the Mafia before sneaking off to brutally dispose of a former wise guy. A gem. SH

Grey’s Anatomy

Sky Living/SLHD, 10.00pm

There are times when this long-running medical drama has seemed more than a little lacklustre, but it certainly got a much-needed shot in the arm with the previous season’s explosive finale. Even 10 episodes on, the horror of the hospital shoot-out lingers. Cristina (Sandra Oh) is still recovering from post-traumatic stress and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) wants to help her get her passion for work back but disagrees about the possible benefits for Cristina of going on a fishing trip with Derek (Patrick Dempsey). SH

The Killing Fields (1984)

BBC One, 11.25pm; Scotland/Wales, 11.55pm; not N Ireland

Excellent dramatisation of a magazine story by New York Times journalist Sidney Schanberg about the events in Cambodia during Pol Pot’s Year Zero. At its heart is the story of photographer Dith Pran (Haing S Ngor), who was captured by the Khmer Rouge. CH

THURSDAY 10 MARCH

The British at Work

BBC Two, 9.00pm

Kirsty Young presents an interesting study of British working lives over the 66 years since the end of the Second World War. This first episode looks at the period from 1945 to 1960, as the country tried to shake itself out of its postwar weariness.

As she explains, the war and, before that, the Great Depression had left British workers and ruling classes alike haunted by unemployment. The postwar Labour government tried to stave this off with an unprecedented push for jobs for all - nationalising major industries and creating legal standards for the workplace. There are some fascinating vignettes of the working lives of the time: for anyone who watched as the coal-mining industry was destroyed, the sense of “freedom and hope” that its original nationalisation brought at least one miner will be poignant – for some, Young says, it was Labour’s “finest hour”. And compared with the atomised workplaces in Britain’s cities nowadays, the scenes of company singalongs, trips to the beach, beauty contests and team sports look oddly heartwarming.

Of course, there was a darker side, a pre-health-and-safety era of 1,500 industrial deaths a year, and regimented industrial work hindered productivity and personal ambition. But this is an evocative study of a formative period in British history. Later episodes will be worth watching just for a shot of a young Jeremy Clarkson with a ludicrous bouffant. Tom Chivers

Live Europa League Football: SC Braga v Liverpool

Channel 5, 5.45pm

After their victory over Manchester United, Liverpool will feel confident against Braga, who sit sixth in the Portuguese table. MD

Arts Royal Upstairs Downstairs

BBC Two, 6.30pm

Tim Wonnacott and Rosemary Shrager’s eccentric tour of British country homes, on the trail of trips Queen Victoria made, reaches Holkham Hall in Norfolk. The young queen visited the house near King’s Lynn when she was 16, and despite staying for only two days prompted a frenzy of activity as the house’s owner, Thomas Coke, set about preparing a grand reception. EC

The Culture Show

BBC Two, 7.00pm

Sunday Telegraph critic Andrew Graham-Dixon looks at an exhibition of Afghan treasures at the British museum, while poet Simon Armitage rummages in the archives for rare footage of TS Eliot, Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes. Also, Miranda Sawyer reports on Richard Ayoade’s feature-length directorial debut, Submarine. EC

Crufts 2011

More4, 7.00pm

More4 took over coverage from the BBC last year, but little else about the annual canine extravaganza has changed. Every day this week, Clare Balding will present two hours of highlights from the show at the NEC in Birmingham. This first day includes gundog breeding. EC

Love Thy Neighbour

Channel 4, 9.00pm

Week two of the reality show in which a £300,000 house will be given to the family who can convince locals in a Yorkshire village that they are suitable neighbours. The programme’s apparent efforts to make rural England seem like a hotbed of fear and prejudice grate. This week, after hearing one villager tell us that “some people are a little bit scared of gays”, we meet Donna and Louise, a lesbian couple. They’re competing against Sarah, a “single mum who takes her clothes off for a living”. TC

Comic Relief: Famous, Rich and in the Slums

BBC One, 9.00pm

Lenny Henry, Samantha Womack, Reggie Yates and Angela Rippon continue their stay in a Nairobi slum. Womack meets a woman forced to work as a prostitute to support her children, and Rippon meets a mother of six who is living with HIV. Light-years away from the bathtubs-of-baked-beans side of Comic Relief. TC

Monroe

ITV1, 9.00pm

You know the drill. [Well-known face from 1990s drama] plays [insert name here], a brilliant [professional of some sort] whose genius in the [office/cockpit/courtroom] is matched only by his uselessness in his personal life and relationship with [wife/girlfriend/attractive colleague]. Here it’s James Nesbitt as Monroe, a brain surgeon. The love interest is Sarah Parish, a fellow medic. Despite its tired format Monroe could still prove popular: audiences seem to have a bottomless well of fondness for the big-hearted Nesbitt. TC

House

Sky1/Sky1HD, 10.00pm

Tonight, Dr House (Laurie) goes into explicit detail during a high school careers advice workshop and ends up with a ticking off at the principal’s office, where two students also give him relationship tips. Simon Horsford

Entourage/How to Make It in America

Sky Atlantic/SAHD, 10.15pm;

Sky Atlantic/SAHD, 10.50pm

l In many ways How to Make It… is like an early version of Entourage, albeit one spoofing New York’s fashion industry. The programmes share some producers, including Mark Wahlberg, but although How to Make It… has charm and atmosphere, Entourage has all the humour and chutzpah. Take tonight’s episode, which boasts appearances by Sean Combs and Lenny Kravitz, as Vince (Adrian Grenier) is caught snorting cocaine before a meeting with his producer. In How to Make It…struggling entrepreneurs Ben (Bryan Greenberg) and Cam (Victor Rusak) try to sell a pair of jeans. SH

The Ricky Gervais Show

Channel 4, 11.35pm

The animated versions of Ricky Gervais’s podcasts, featuring Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington, return for a second run. The voice-over describes them as a “series of pointless conversations”, which is about right. Still, they’re funny men, it’s not without charm, and the animations are amusing. TC

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Telegraph previewers: Ed Cumming, Toby Dantzic, Serena Davies, Michael Deacon, Catherine Gee, Chris Harvey, Michael Hogan, Clive Morgan, Pete Naughton, Gerard O'Donovan, Andrew Pettie, Vicki Power, Ceri Radford, Sam Richards, Patrick Smith and Rachel Ward