The best of the rest: Food, ferns & flippin’ beautiful robots

You can imagine the pitch for Million Pound Menu – “It’s like Dragon’s Den meets Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares presented by that bloke everyone likes on First Dates”. There’s even a touch of Bake Off in the structure of it. All shot through with that most attractive of enticements: hope. Who could resist?

It’s easy to mock, but the show does sound like something I’ll be setting my digibox for. Each week Fred Sirieix sets two budding restauranteurs against the other with a three-day trial run in a 40-seater pop-up restaurant in the heart of Manchester. They are joined by some of the biggest investors in the restaurant world, each looking for the most innovative idea, and casting judgement on food, service, team-management and brand potential. So they’ll be running their pop-ups, being called in to tense one-on-one meetings with investors, and hoping to win their dream come true to work for themselves running their passion project. Alright, add a hearty dollop of The Apprentice into that pitch equation too.

That wonder, that peril, and a legitimate dramatic reason lots of beautiful people look flawless

Meanwhile, over on ITV1, Alan Titchmarsh marks the 70th anniversary of the National Health Service by taking on his team’s biggest project yet: a garden for The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. (Anyone else notice that Manchester is coming out rather well in this week’s telly?) Get your hankies at the ready as something rather beautiful and uplifting comes out of the ground and offers some the simplest of beauties and most complex of calendar blooming to brighten those that really need it the most. With many world events and loud voices urging us to see the darkness in the world, prepare to be moved by the more tender aspect of society, as served up by Love Your Garden.

Humans

Finally, for that escapism, that wonder, that peril, and a legitimate dramatic reason lots of beautiful people look flawless – Channel 4’s sci-fi drama Humans makes a return for its third season. By this point you know what to expect, and if you don’t then every episode of the last two series is available from Four On Demand, so you can treat yourself to a duvet day of catching up.

Love Your Garden NHS Special, Tuesday, ITV1, 8pm
Million Pound Menu, Thursday, BBC2, 9pm
Humans, Thursday, BBC2, 9pm