Grow Your Own Drugs

BBC Two, 8.30pm

In the first of a new six-part series, the ethnobotanist James Wong shows how to make natural remedies for common ailments using fruit. He turns papayas, kiwis and limes into a face mask. He puts figs and sena into the blender to make a classic syrup of figs to relieve constipation.

He simmers a delicious-looking traditional Chinese soup made with garlic, chillies and goji berries to fight off the common cold, and he fills a pillow with hops and lavender to help insomniacs get a good night’s sleep – and almost nods off in the process.

He is an engaging and knowledgeable presenter; all the remedies are safe and simple to make; each one looks infinitely more appealing than anything available at the local chemist, and they all seem to work (even if there is sometimes an element of the placebo effect involved). The series looks set to be a huge success.

The Real Pink Panther: Lord Victor Hervey

Channel 4, 8pm

Of all the crooks featured in this series, Victor Hervey, the 6th Marquis of Bristol, has got to be the most repulsive. A playboy and a fantasist, he was expelled from Eton and then Sandhurst. To augment his huge personal allowance, he tried to become an arms dealer supplying weapons to both sides of the Spanish Civil War.

In 1937, he filed for bankruptcy. Next, he set himself up with three career criminals and three former public schoolboys as a gang leader, and ended up serving three years in prison for robbing a socialite of the jewels she was wearing. Not content with ruining his own life, he managed to destroy his offspring as well. An anonymous letter to the police begged them to “rid this ghastly parasite from our midst”. He was not a nice man.

Cutting Edge: Revenge of the Bin Men

Channel 4, 9pm

Hilary Clarke’s quietly hilarious film follows the war that has broken out between refuse collectors and the public they serve. The councils are trying to meet the Government’s 40 per cent recycling target. The public, for their part, are incensed about what they see as the inconvenience, inefficiency and high handedness involved.

That, at least, is the subject matter of this film, but it isn’t the reason to watch it. Like A Life of Grime, this is celebration of the eccentricity and diversity of people , from the dustman who quotes Aristotle to a delightful girl from the council who adores her job and says “the bins are my baby”.

Storyville: Bulletproof Salesman

BBC Four, 10pm

Fidelis Cloer sells armoured vehicles wherever there is danger. “I would not consider myself a car salesman,” he says. “We’re selling safety. We’re selling security. We definitely sell a good feeling.” He is fiercely proud of his product. As the bombs get bigger, he says, the armour gets tougher.

The cars have to be attacked to make the next models better, and people have to die in order to improve the product. Every word he utters has a chilling and considered logic, and he has not the slightest qualms about his job. “We do not have to create demand,” he says. “The demand is there. Is someone who sells bandages and medicine in war zones a profiteer?” And like many a born salesmen, Cloer is a forceful and beguiling character. It is a mesmerising film from the exemplary strand.

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