TV highlights 03/11/2014

The Passing Bells
7pm, BBC1

A new five-part drama by Tony Jordan (showing every night this week), this follows the parallel journeys of two young men – one British, one German – during the first world war. It’s set up so that our empathy for both is equal, despite the slightly confusing mix of accents and non-accents this entails. Their families wear holes in the rugs back home while the initially enthusiastic boys’ lives are changed by the realities of the dirt, shrapnel and constant horror. Julia Raeside

Make Leicester British
9pm, Channel 4

Two years after Make Bradford British, the follow-up is delivered into a world where Ukip is on the rise. No preview footage was available, perhaps to forestall any lurid spins that might be put on the show, but we’re promised eight Leicester residents – four British citizens of different backgrounds and ethnicities, plus three European and one Somali migrant – sharing time. Citing Leicester’s reputation as a harmonious spot, the programme-makers say they want to explore what the city can teach the rest of the country. Jonathan Wright

Gareth’s All Star Choir
9pm, BBC1

The combined force of Gareth Malone and Children In Need is strong, but is it enough to turn 12 celebrities into a tuneful choir? Singers include Strictly bad guy Craig Revel Horwood, Nitin “Masood from EastEnders” Ganatra and Larry Lamb. Jo Brand and Mel Giedroyc bring the comedy, and rounding out the lineup is Alison Steadman, who sprinkles joy on everything she does. Of course, the trouble begins once they start singing, and they’ve only got three weeks until they’re booked into Abbey Road to record the official Children In Need song. Hannah Verdier

Toast Of London
10.35pm, Channel 4

Things are looking up for Matt Berry’s thwarted thesp: he’s got an audition for a role as Charles Dickens, he’s having a not-so-secret affair with Ray Purchase’s wife, and there’s a further opportunity to humiliate Purchase in the annual “celebrities and prostitutes” blow-football match – if Toast can manage to find an escort in time. Add Boris Johnson and an inspired Clockwork Orange reference and you’ve got an agreeably daft opener of Berry and Arthur Mathews’s chaotic sitcom. Gwilym Mumford

Micky Flanagan’s Detour De France
9pm, Sky1

Buddy-comedy travelogues are a way for stand-ups to extricate themselves from the relentless desk-bound joviality of the panel show circuit, and in this flimsily-premised series we join cockney comic Micky Flanagan and mate Noel as they cycle some of the Tour de France course, marauding their way around galleries, breweries and other sites of interest en route. Flanagan can be very funny but, for a show sustained by banter alone, there doesn’t seem to be enough here to get them through an entire series. RA

Monty Python’s Best Bits
10pm, GOLD

In which celebrities discuss their most treasured moments in all of Python history. Jim Carrey explains his unwavering respect for the Ernest Scribbler “funniest joke in the world” sketch, while for Mike Myers it’s the emerging use of “caméra-stylo” in the Alan Whicker-lampooning Whicker’s Island. Elsewhere, Stephen Fry gushes on the most chucklesome, whip-smart “argument clinic”, Jessica Hynes shows her adoration for Cleese’s “fish licence” skit and Eddie Izzard declares a deep love of “hell’s grannies”. Continues all week. BA

*SPORT CHOICE

Snooker: Champion Of Champions
12.45pm, ITV4

Live coverage from Coventry’s Ricoh Arena of the first day of the second staging of this annual event, which brings together the winners of World Snooker events over the previous year, along with competitors who have qualified via a lofty spot in the world ratings. Ronnie O’Sullivan returns to defend the title he won last year, along with Stuart Bingham, whom he defeated in last year’s final. Among the other top seeds are Mark Selby and Ding Junhui. Today’s action includes the group four semi-finals. AM