The Insider
Channel 4, 7.30pm

Britons lose £9.5 billion a year gambling, a figure that has doubled in four years. Young gamblers are three times more likely than adults to become addicted. This week’s “insider” is Jake Brindell, a former gambling addict, who argues that the Government’s Gambling Act will make it easier to open betting shops, which in turn will create thousands more addicts. Most bookies are concentrated in the poorest neighbourhoods so the poor will suffer the most. Brindell argues that the Government, which raised £2 billion from taxes last year, has opted cynically for higher tax revenues without regard to the consequences. A fair point?

Wainwright: the Man Who Loved the Lakes
BBC Two, 9pm

“Few people have done more to make their fellow countrymen more physically aware of a corner of Britain than Alfred (A. W.) Wainwright,” wrote The Times in his obituary in January 1991. This documentary – first shown on BBC Four – tells the life story of the famous Lakeland walker, who wrote, illustrated and published seven iconic walking books over 13 years. Each one was detailed and beautifully crafted, and written with an old-world charm that encompassed both the practical and the poetic. In later life, he became more commercial (relatively speaking, that is) to raise funds for an animal-rescue charity that he had set up with his wife. Here is an affectionate tribute to a unique and unassuming northcountryman.

Soul Britannia
BBC Two, 11.35pm

From the makers of Folk . .. , Jazz . .. and Classic Britannia, this history of British soul music (screened recently on BBC Four) is exemplary. This first part defines what soul music is – “It doesn’t have to be a white or a black person,” explains Mica Paris, “it’s someone who is singing to penetrate your soul” – then traces the journey of the music and its makers from the margins to the mainstream. Imported to postwar Britain by immigrant communities, the styles and sounds were embraced by what Robert Elms calls “dull, early-closing England”. Archive footage combines with a dream lineup of interviewees, including Tom Jones, Van Morrison, Paul Weller and Eric Burdon.

The Shield
Five, 11pm

The Shield always manages to sustain an impossibly high standard, but tonight there are two additional reasons to watch. This episode marks the arrival of Detective Kevin Hiatt (Alex O’Loughlin), who has been brought in to replace Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis, – or so he thinks. He soon begins to be won over by Mackey’s muscular charm and his undoubted ability to get results. “Vic is showing you his good side because it’s in his best interests,” warns the new precinct captain. Also in this episode, Vic is determined to help four African-American youths who want to quit their gang. By saving their lives, he feels he is somehow atoning for the death of his partner. Even more than most, the episode ends with a bang.

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