Alan Sugar and co are back for a new season of The Apprentice (9.00pm, BBC One) Downton Abbey continues at 9.00pm on TV3 and The Face of Britain at 9.00pm BBC Two portrays The Face Of Fame
The Apprentice, 9.00pm, BBC One
Alan Sugar and co – including Nick Hewitt’s replacement, Claude Littner - return once more with another batch of fresh new candidates battling it out to become Sugar's latest business partner. And while the show is meant to show off those people's business and entrepreneurial skills, more often than not it show them to be more clueless than clever. Which, of course, is more than half the fun as Alan Sugar chews them up and spits them out.
Downton Abbey, 9.00pm TV3
As Tom and Sybbie settle back into life at Downton, the family and servants are surprised with the return of another old friend in unexpected circumstances. A visit from Sergeant Willis leaves Baxter with a dilemma, and Thomas struggles to fill Mr Carson’s shoes. A crisis takes Anna and Mary to London; will Bates find out what Anna has been keeping from him? Daisy has a bone to pick with Cora, and Mary’s eye is caught by an admirer.
Downton Abbey
The Face of Britain: The Face Of Fame, 9.00pm BBC Two
Over on BBC One, The Apprentice is beginning a new series, but why would you want to watch that rather low-rent exercise when you can have Simon Schama at exactly the same time. In his new series, the telly addict academic has been looking at portraits of famous Brits, from the pirate Francis Drake, to Princess Diana. Lewd depictions of the 18th century pin-up Kitty Fisher made her a public sensation and George Romney’s obsessive depictions of Emma Hart turned her into the most recognized woman in Britain. Indeed Emma won the heart of Horatio Nelson.
In the course of the programme, Schama also explains how fears that industrial Britain would lose its soul inspired the formation of the National Portrait Gallery. He reveals how the invention of cigarette cards put portraits of the famous into people’s hands. The historian discovers how the seductive photographs of Cecil Beaton allowed us to stare into the lives of the rich and famous. And still it goes on - but one doubts that he will report on any photographic images of the Kardashians and their, er, works and pomps. Schama is pictured below with a portrait of William Wilberforce by Sir Thomas Lawrence at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
