Endurance: Race to the Pole (Channel 5/HD | 9:00pm to 10:00pm | Monday 9th October 2023)
The Nimrod Expedition 1907 – 1909. Series 1, episode 2. Ben and Dwayne Fields tackle the trials and tribulations faced by Ernest Shackleton on his Nimrod expedition, the explorer’s second foray into the great white wilderness. Shackleton and his three-man team faced the formidable and unexplored Trans Antarctic Mountain Range, and Ben and Dwayne take on their own ice mountain challenge, facing steep slippery waves of blue ice, deadly crevasses and steep slopes to try to reach the barren and seemingly endless polar plateau.
Norfolk and Suffolk (Channel 5/HD | 8:00pm to 8:58pm | Wednesday 11th October 2023)
At Shottisham campsite high above the River Deben in Suffolk, campsite owner Claire Norton is busy gathering eggs and milking goats for what will soon be breakfast for the snoozing campers. Up the coast, Bill Pinney is rowing out onto Orford Ness to dredge up oysters to serve up for lunch at his restaurant on the bank. At Norwich Cathedral, Andrew Fiddes and Daniel Rose-Jones near the end of a mammoth project to restore the organ, tuning the last of the 6,000 pipes that give the instrument its voice.
Celebrity Race Across the World (BBC 1/HD | 9:00pm to 10:00pm | Wednesday 11th October 2023) ** PICK OF THE WEEK **
Budgets dwindle and intensity rises as the teams leave western Europe and set off to the next checkpoint in Sarajevo, travelling over 1,200km and passing through five countries on the way. Race leaders Harry Judd and his mother Emma opt to go through Austria but their budget is rapidly shrinking and the pace is taking its toll on Emma. Alex and Noel Beresford take advantage of their newly achieved second place and take some time to appreciate their surroundings on the journey while Billy Monger and sister Bonny adopt a ‘cheap and smart’ mantra for this leg. Mel and Helene Blatt hit a low point when things don’t go to plan.
Grand Designs (Channel 4/HD | 9:00pm to 10:00pm | Wednesday 11th October 2023)
Gloucestershire Treehouse Revisit. Series 23, episode 3. Kevin McCloud returns to Gloucestershire to visit Jon and Noreen who, in 2013, planned to build a three-bed treehouse on a half-acre patch of woodland. Their stacked three box design was to be almost gravity-defying to avoid harming any tree roots and a mirror glass ground floor to reflect the surrounding trees but their £250,000 budget didn’t seem to match the project’s high ambition. Despite having worked hands-on for long hours with help from friends and family, by 2016 the house was barely ready enough for them to move in and the money had run out with the project not finished. Seven years later, Kevin returns to see their progress.
Saving Lives at Sea (BBC 2/HD | 8:00pm to 9:00pm | Thursday 12th October 2023)
Heart of the Community. Series 8, episode 3. Reports come in of a kayaker who has failed to make it back to shore in Larne, Northern Ireland, so father-son duo Frank and Jack race to the rescue, while the missing man’s wife watches on helplessly. On the south Devon coast, the Torbay volunteers race to the rescue of a dinghy crew who have found themselves in a perilous position after running aground on rocks, and in Cardigan, two capsized kayakers provide the RNLI with a stern test.
All Creatures Great and Small (Channel 5/HD | 9:00pm to 10:00pm | Thursday 12th October 2023)
Carpe Diem. Series 4, episode 2. Siegfried has the bright idea of bringing in an experienced bookkeeper, Miss Harbottle, to bring method to the madness of the practice. She’s certainly efficient, but the cracks soon start to show – and a sick ferret only makes matters worse. Farmer Dakin is very attached to his injured, elderly cow, but Siegfried advises letting the animal go, while James and Helen arrive at a long-awaited decision.
Susan Calman’s Grand Day Out (Channel 5/HD | 8:00pm to 9:00pm | Friday 13th October 2023)
Hampshire. Series 6, episode 2. Susan’s adventures bring her to the county of Hampshire. In Portsmouth she explores HMS Victory, learning how Nelson’s cunning tricks won out in the Battle of Trafalgar. She also visits the former home of Jane Austen in Chawton, which inspires her to have a go at Regency dancing, and finds out about a curious eating competition in the town of New Alresford.
All TV guide information taken from DigiGuide — www.getdigiguide.tv/?p=1&r=15119.