TV Highlights: From Morecambe Bay to Emperor Constantine

Telly Today picks for January 12th…

To the coast…

DS Jenn Townsend, Morecambe’s new Family Liaison Officer, is immediately thrown into the deep end when a body washes up in the bay on her first day on the job.

She must get under the skin of a grieving and complicated family if she has any chance of solving the premature death of an aspiring young boxer, whilst also trying to fit in with Manning and the rest of the team. At the same time, she has to navigate her blended family, who are struggling to settle in their new environment.

The Bay, ITV, 8 pm

Wordy times…

Jimmy Carr presents a game show with a unique twist. To win a cash prize of up to £25,000, four contestants must answer questions that have been written live as the show is being filmed, by a team including The Sky at Night’s Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

Testing the contestants’ memory, these questions can be about absolutely anything that happens during the show, from a celebrity cameo to an off-the-cuff joke, or even something one of the contestants has shared about themselves. To win the money, they must use their general knowledge skills to bank cash, before using their powers of recall to beat their opponents in the memory rounds. In the nerve-racking final showdown, the two players left standing go head-to-head, answering questions they have chosen for their opponents about what’s just happened in the show. Whoever remembers the most takes home the jackpot!

I Literally Just Told You, Channel 4, 10 pm

Painted…

Landscape Artist of the Year returns with a new group of artists jostling for the top spot as they capture some of the UK’s most stunning scenery.

Celebrating the glory and beauty of the natural world, this year’s series features sweeping vistas of our coastlines, countryside and city centres to remind us that our environment needs to be protected and nurtured at all costs.

Landscape Artist of the Year, Sky Arts, 10 pm

Dig down…

The west of Britain is explored for the best of its archaeological digs and post-excavation discoveries.

In North Somerset, archaeologists are blown away by the discovery of an entirely new Roman town in the intended pathway of some new electricity cables. Multiple, impressive layers of road building from the Roman era are revealed, in particular a spectacular section from the 4th century, when Emperor Constantine presided over a boom in Britain’s economy.

Amongst the many buildings, wells and roads is an incredible hoard of treasures left behind by this wealthy community of Romano-British people, who could afford the best from across the empire. In addition, the build quality and direction of the road implies a totally new trade route to take Britain’s precious resources of lead from the local Mendip mines perhaps to the coast to be shipped around the Roman Empire.

Digging for Britain, BBC Two, 8 pm