The Paras: Men of War, STV, 9pm
THE Parachute Regiment, or Paras, is an elite airborne infantry regiment of the British Army. In this three-part documentary series, the regiment has opened its doors to camera crews for the first time since the early 1980s. Viewers will see young men, many still in their late teenage years, pushed to the extremes of their endurance, looking to pass the highly pressurised and often brutal recruitment stage. In the first programme, 41 recruits start training at Catterick barracks as the staff shave their heads and tell them they are to lose their civilian names and to be called “Joe” (which stands for Joined On Enlistment). Some struggle more than others with the course, including Private Jack Kojo-Braima, who is away from home for the first time at the age of 17.
Death in Paradise, BBC1, 9pm
MUCH as viewers love this Caribbean-set crime procedural, it does have a tried-and-tested formula. Each episode begins with a pre-credits sequence showing the events leading up to a murder on St Marie, while introducing us to the latest batch of guest characters. Eventually the British detective – in this case, DI Jack Mooney (played by Ardal O’Hanlon) – unravels the mystery in a dramatic denouement that revisits the murder in flashback, and afterwards the team will all toast a job well done. The eighth series begins tonight as four passengers board the bus to Honore, only for one of them to be killed by a knife to the chest. Therefore when everyone else claims to have remained in their seats and seen nothing, Jack
and his team are completely baffled.
Flirty Dancing, Channel 4, 10pm
BEFORE internet dating, many people tried to find love by catching the eye of a stranger on the dancefloor. And in this new series Ashley Banjo is finding out if fancy footwork can still bring people together. If that conjures up memories of meat-market nightclubs, don’t worry, he won’t be sending the singletons out to awkwardly shuffle around on a sticky floor. Instead two complete strangers will each be taught one half of a routine. They’ll learn their moves separately, before coming together to perform it for the first time on set and deciding if there are enough sparks to make it worth seeing each other again.
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