Comic Relief 2011
BBC One
7pm-2.35am
Nobody can argue with Comic Relief, not even those hardened cynics who resist the urge to wear a Red Nose. Launched on Christmas Day in 1985 in response to the famine in Ethiopia, the various Red Nose Days have since raised more than £500 million. Tonight, there are sketches by Miranda Hart, Harry Hill, Steve Coogan, Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. There are special editions of MasterChef and The Choir as well as a mini-episode of Doctor Who, while the Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton is seen walking along a high wire between the chimneys of Battersea Power Station. Music comes from Take That, Adele, JLS and the Wanted, and throughout the night there will be appeals by David Tennant, Jack Dee, Ruth Jones and Lenny Henry. To donate, go to rednoseday.com.
Planning Outlaws
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Channel 4
7.30pm
An Englishman’s home is his castle, yes? Not entirely. It’s only a castle if it complies with the local planning laws. But if you build a house made of straw on agricultural land, or put 6ft-tall white lions as gateposts, or add a 4m extension to a £1 million property without planning permission, you’re asking for trouble. First Cut is the most eccentric strand on Channel 4, and this is a programme filled with colourful eccentrics who have fallen foul of planning regulations. The rights and wrongs of each case are hideously complex, but the one indisputably sane comment is spoken by the man from the council, who says simply: “There is an easy way of avoiding all the unpleasantness ... Come in beforehand and just ask.”
Gardeners’ World
BBC Two
8.30pm
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With the daffodils in full bloom and the trees about to blossom, there is hope finally. Fired up with the joys of spring, Monty Don, back at the helm of Gardeners’ World after suffering a minor stroke in 2008, is out in his garden singing a happy tune, showing off different planting techniques and arranging pots of summer bulbs. He divides and replants large clumps of perennials to ensure a brighter and fuller display later in the summer, and mercilessly attacks his gooseberry and currant bushes with pruning shears. Meanwhile, Carol Klein visits Glendurgan garden in Cornwall to admire its magnificent magnolias before helping them to replant a border, and the fragrant Rachel de Thame goes to a garden that was once tended by Enid Blyton.
Treme
Sky Atlantic
10.15pm
Once a week Treme guarantees the viewer one hour of total and unalloyed happiness. On the surface nothing seems to be working out for any of the characters who are trying to rebuild their lives in post-Katrina New Orleans. The busking couple are at odds. The restaurant is going under. An innocent man has been lost in the prison system for six months. The trombone player can’t get a gig. The tribe of the Indian chief is spread over the city like refugees in their own land. Everyone, in his or her own way, is struggling to survive — and yet the spirit of New Orleans and the music that binds the city together gets stronger and stronger. This is sensationally good television — and you don’t need to worry if you’ve missed it because the boxed set is released on April 18.