Surgeons: At the Edge of Life
9pm, BBC Two
At Addenbrooke’s major trauma centre in Cambridge, 20 medical specialisms can combine to save one life. In this striking series, we see the symbiosis between anaesthetist, surgeon, nurse and various other specialists play out in the most extreme circumstances. This week, ketamine administered after a motorbike crash has rendered Ben euphoric, while Jasvinder has severed her spinal cord. It’s shocking to watch someone’s life change before your eyes but the astonishingly intimate footage is testimony to the level of skill and care involved. Phil Harrison
Next Level Chef
9pm, ITV1
Gordon Ramsay’s cooking contest feels like an amped-up, more brutal MasterChef: The Professionals. The remaining 11 chefs tackle Italian cuisine. With last week’s better cooks swanking it up in the top kitchen, can anyone claw their way up from the basement? PH
Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or List It
Channel 4, 8pm
Spruce up or sell? Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer help horse-loving couple Tim and Heather decide what to do with their four-bedroom, seven-acre property in Edinburgh (ah, it’s great to see property programmes reading the room on the housing crisis). Can Kirstie convince them to stay by making a few tweaks to the interior, or will Phil find them a new home worth fleeing to in the Scottish Borders? Hollie Richardson
Hold the Front Page
9pm, Sky Max
“It’s just a lot of words,” grumbles Nish Kumar beside an equally ambivalent Josh Widdicombe. The comedians turned journos join “Yorkshire’s national newspaper” this week. With nearby Emmerdale celebrating its 50th anniversary, the pair’s set visit might provide the perfect scoop. Danielle De Wolfe
Our Flag Means Death
10pm, BBC Two
“Man for sale! Someone buy my booty!” A voyage to the debauched Republic of Pirates underlines the fact that farcical buccaneer Stede Bonnet could not ransom a valuable hostage to save his life. But something about his inept approach catches the attention of perhaps the most feared cut-throat of all: Blackbeard. Graeme Virtue
Ken Loach: This Cultural Life
10pm, BBC Four
The influential, controversial polemicist gets an evening in focus, talking at length about his early life and how it fed into his work as a film-maker. He discusses formative influences and his career at the BBC, which can then be sampled as Up the Junction airs straight after. PH
