TV choices

PICK OF THE WEEK The Apprentice

BBC1, Wednesday, 9pm

This show is such a fixture that right away you notice the slight changes to its fittings, such as: “Look, Lord Sugar’s got new paintings in the reception area where he makes the trolleybag-towing show-offs wait and sweat!” Inside the boardroom, he tells them: “I’m not looking for a friend. If I wanted one of those I’d get a dog. I’m looking for a partner, the Marks to my Spencer, the Lennon to my McCartney.” This is the eighth series and the early boasting has become a ritual, well-observed here: “They call me the master puppeteer… I’m the blonde assassin… When it comes to business I can be like an animal and I’ll literally roar my way to the top.” Best of all is the young man, eyes mad with money lust, who claims: “Truly, I’m the reflection of perfection.” An early exit for him? Let’s hope so.

BEST COMEDY

Hit The Road Jack

Channel 4, Tuesday, 10pm

Wish I’d been at the recent NME Awards because it sounds like Jack Whitehall did a fine job as host. Introducing the Kaiser Chiefs’ singer he said: “Here to present the award is Ricky Wilson, a man who can predict riots seven years in advance. Here he is clad exclusively in Foot Locker.” This is his comedy roadshow, beginning in Cardiff.

BEST DRAMA

White Heat

BBC2, Thursday, 9pm

The halfway point for this series and at least one Bafta must be in the bag, for Best Design. Shots of Charlotte in a peach bath and at a redbrick uni’s payphone are proof of the fine attention to detail. We’ve reached 1973, in case you hadn’t guessed, and our feminist heroine is disrupting the Miss World contest while Jack snorts cocaine at the TUC.