What's On the Box this week?

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS (RTE 1, Thursday). The first of a new six part series sees three home chefs go head-to-head to get their very own product onto the supermarket shelves. Only one can make it through to the final but who will it be? Dynamic restaurateur Oliver Peyton guides his protégées through a series of challenging supermarket tests to find out who could be a contender. The first hurdle is to get the thumbs up from the formidable taste testing panel, who sample food for a living. They will ditch one dish and send one of our hopefuls home. The remaining two are then sent on research journeys within the food industry to improve their products" chances for mass production. They will experience firsthand the development process and the epic journey food must go through before it gets anywhere near the development stage. Only one will make it through to the final show and get a step closer to winning the contract that will see their product on Supervalu"s shelves. MADELEINE WAS HERE (CH4, Thursday). Two years after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, what is life like for her parents Kate and Gerry? How do they deal with the pain of not knowing what has happened to their daughter? And how do they try to create a normal life for the sake of Madeleine"s brother and sister, four-year-old twins Sean and Amelie? With the search now shelved by the Portuguese police, the documentary follows the family, and the investigation team working for them, as they try to piece together what eyewitnesses say happened two years ago in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz. Also for the first time, Gerry McCann returns to Apartment 5a of the Ocean Club complex, where he last saw his daughter. The documentary reconstructs events surrounding Madeleine"s disappearance using actors and based on testimony given to the Portugese police as part of their investigations. INSPECTOR GEORGE GENTLY (BBC 1, Sunday). Gently and Bacchus investigate the murder of a young woman, as Peter Flannery"s police drama set in 1964 continues. The girl was a 'fox" - a waitress working at Rakes, the first hostess club in Newcastle, which is run by smooth American Patrick Donovan and his wife, Helen, an ex-fox herself. Like many regular Rakes punters, Joe Bishop keeps it secret from his religious wife, Margaret, who leads the locals in a protest against the club. Gently and Bacchus find themselves investigating a sexually charged murder that taps into their, and society"s, attitudes towards sex in the early Sixties. BEYOND A JOKE (ITV, Monday). The bawdy ménage a trois of Man about the House, the flamboyant outrageousness of Are You Being Served"s Mr Humphries, the gormless ignorance of Love Thy Neighbour"s Eddie Booth. Just as Dickens reflected Victorian Britain, these comedies are a modern day historical document that charts the evolution of society through the 70s and 80s. Beyond A Joke looks at how comedy shows reflected what was happening in Britain at the close of the 20th Century. With choice news archive, interview and comment from some of the major players in British comedy of the time - writers, actors, producers and directors - as well as the most relevant and downright hilarious clips, the series explore how comedy reflected the contemporary subjects of the decade such as the sexual revolution and women"s liberation, immigration and race relations, the class war, sexuality and other social, economic and political issues of the day. MOVIE OF THE WEEK: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (RTE 1, Wednesday). Starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadden, Brenda Blethyn and Donald Sutherland, this umpteenth adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel is well constructed and perfect in its period detail. No matter how diluted they become through numerous retellings, the words still hold their power. A midweek winner.