HARLOTS, ITV ENCORE, 10pm

IS it time we stopped being sniffy about these supplementary channels? Yes, ITV have about a million additional rag-tag ones, and their schedules are stuffed with repeats, but ITV Encore usually merits a second look. As evidence, I present to you The Americans, the brilliant Cold War espionage drama which, for some reason, found itself hidden away on this channel.

Well here’s another new series with ambition, sparkle and some big names. Starring Samantha Morton and Jessica Brown Findlay (aka Lady Sybil from Downton Abbey), it’s a vivid period drama set in 18th-century London where a woman’s options are often limited and so one fifth work as prostitutes.

It’s set in a noisy brothel but puritans on the outside are demanding such atrocities be closed down, with stern men hammering on the door with documents stating: “You do keep an obscene and bawdy house!”

If you loved Peaky Blinders and Versailles then do not miss this.

BROADCHURCH, STV, 9pm

NEW evidence is revealed tonight that suggests Hardy and Miller might be chasing a serial rapist. While this will prise the story open, pulling in more victims and suspects, it also threatens to move the focus away from Trish, and she’s been the star of the show so far. It’ll be a mistake if she’s allowed to slip into the background.

With other women coming forward to say they were raped, but were too afraid to approach the police at the time, the question of blame arises, with one woman feeling her silence allowed the attacker to go undetected, leaving him free to attack Trish. It shows us one more method by which women are blamed for rape.

In another powerful scene, Trish confesses to Cath about her dalliance with Jim, and the wounded Cath retaliates with a cruel insult. The three women – Trish, Cath and Ellie — are tremendous in this series.