Another gem of a South Bank Show, this time profiling Maxim Vengerov — considered by many to be the greatest violinist alive. He has been playing since the age of 5, and for the last 15 years his life has been a non-stop round of concerts and recordings. At 30 he decided to take a year off to broaden his skills. He picked up an electric violin, took classes in improvisation and learnt to dance the tango, all of which came together in a thrilling performance of Benjamin Yusupov’s new concerto in Hanover. He is a glorious subject to profile. His jaw-dropping skill is combined with a childlike energy and joy that can make an entire audience smile with happiness. David Chater

BRUCE GOES DANCING
BBC One, 5.45pm

“I’m going to take you on a dance journey,” Bruce Forsyth tells viewers in his introduction to this new series. And so he travels to New York and Los Angeles to explore how one popular dance movement evolved into the next; how, for example, Irish folk dancing turned into American tap and African rhythms combined with jazz to create swing which, in turn, was superseded by rock’n’roll and street dance.

In the course of his journey, he meets dancers young and old, shows wonderful clips of old routines and never misses an opportunity to put on his dancing shoes for a jive, a tap or a bop. For better or worse, it is vintage Bruce Forsyth.

KILLER SHARK LIVE
Five, 8pm

Since these programmes go out live over the next seven days, it is difficult to know whether the presenters Donal MacIntyre and Nick Baker will go swimming with sharks. One can but hope. But we do know the programmes will be broadcast from a diving boat off the Californian coast and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego and involve scientific experiments and commentary from shark behaviourists.

In case you’re thinking this is all a bit earnest, don’t worry. It’s still Five. Every night, the publicity blurb promises there will be footage of shark attacks from around the world, including “Heather Boswell’s leg severed when she was bitten off the coast of Chile, and an Australian great white shark ripping the leg off a teenage girl on a Lilo”. There’s one for the diary.

WAKING THE DEAD
BBC One, 9pm

Does the name Jean-Claude Romand ring any bells? He was the subject of a recent Channel 4 documentary (The Man Who Never Was) about a medical student who, having failed his exams, lived an elaborate double life for the next 20 years pretending to work for the World Health Organisation. It began with one small lie that got out of control, until he ended up deceiving everyone, including his wife. When the lies were finally exposed, he felt driven to “protect” his family from the truth.

This episode of Waking the Dead has cleverly adapted the case, incorporating all the details into the fabric of the story. If it seems far-fetched, it isn’t. And Trevor Eve’s performance is as magnificently unpredictable as ever.

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