Jamie at Home
Channel 4, 8pm/8.30pm
Jamie cooks rhubarb and asparagus. A big fan of rhubarb, he does a rhubarb fool with Greek yoghurt and honey, followed by an elaborate roast belly of pork with rhubarb, ginger, soy sauce and honey. But the showstopper comes in the second half of the double bill, when he produces a potato and cheese tart. Actually, it’s more of a pie. It consists of a baking tin lined with filo pastry, filled with a mixture of potatoes, cheese, eggs and cream and then covered in a layer of asparagus. Think of it as a glorious alternative to the ubiquitous quiche or the butch cousin of Greek spinach pie.
Ashes to Ashes
BBC One, 9pm
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The sequel to the hugely popular Life on Mars, with Keeley Hawes taking over as a time-travelling police officer in the role created by John Simm. “My name is Alex Drake,” she says here. “I’ve just been shot and that bullet has sent me back to 1981.” She is a thoroughly modern heroine, who finds herself fighting crime alongside the loveable old dinosaur, DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), who knows his style of policing is on the way out. Once again, the series combines sci-fi with action and nostalgia in an entertaining mix of car chases, crazy clothes and some very un-PC quips. So far, bar the 1980s trimmings, it is indistinguishable from its predecessor, but die-hard enthusiasts may feel pangs of nostalgia for the good old days of Simm.
Cutting Edge: Who Killed the Playboy Earl?
Channel 4, 9pm
Cutting Edge describes the sad demise of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the tenth Earl of Shaftesbury, who was strangled in 2004 and whose body was found months later, half- eaten by wild boar. After a lifetime of service and duty, he went off the rails in his sixties after a series of misfortunes. In 1999, his mother died; he was forced to give up the family home, he was divorced from his second wife, he lost his hereditary peerage and hit the bottle. He spent his remaining days as an alcoholic in the south of France, where he was murdered by his new wife - a former Tunisian call girl - and her mentally disturbed brother. “He went beyond the reach of those that loved him,” says the priest at his home in Dorset.
Troubleshooter: A Tribute to Sir John Harvey-Jones
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BBC Two, 11.20pm
With his loud ties and ebullient manner, Sir John Harvey-Jones was the first to communicate the excitement of business on TV, long before The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den. “People don’t recognise business as being the challenging, testing, pressing human activity that it is,” he said. In 1980, ICI lost £16 million. Two years after Harvey-Jones became chairman in 1982, it became the first British company to make a pre-tax profit of £1 billion. Many distrusted his showmanship and high profile, and he admitted to being embarrassed by a period of ruthless ambition at ICI. But nobody ever accused him of lacking flair or failing to grasp nettles. Tonight’s programme pays tribute to a colourful, good-humoured giant of industry who loved ruffling feathers.