Welcome to Primetime Picks; I hope you’re having a lovely, relaxing Sunday in preparation for the week ahead. And to help you plan that week, here’s what we recommend you watch on TV in the next seven days…

Monday

Dispatches: Cops on the Cheap, 8:00pm, Channel 4

They’re known as ‘Blunkett’s Bobbies’ or ‘Plastic Police’. There are 16,500 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) walking the ‘beat’, costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds per year.

Critics have always attacked them for providing policing on the cheap and a political gimmick, but their supporters say they have been useful in curbing antisocial behaviour and visible reassurance to the public.

Filming with PCSOs at work on the streets of Lancashire, Dispatches investigates whether PCSOs have proven to be a policing success story or an expensive mistake.

Masterchef The Professionals, 8:30pm, BBC2

Legendary double Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux Jnr and vegetable expert and Masterchef veteran Gregg Wallace are joined by Michel’s trusted sous chef Monica Galetti, as they hunt for a young chef who can make it to the top of the culinary world.

In this heat, four chefs face a nail-biting elimination round. They have to earn the right to cook for Michel by demonstrating their culinary expertise with a skills test of spatchcocking a poussin and a palate test of making lemon curd.

Tuesday

Party Mamas: Eva, 9:00pm, Biography Channel

Eva is a single, working mother, who always leaves things until the 11th hour. And her son Aidan’s Bar Mitzvah party is no exception…

It’s one month till the party and Eva still needs to book a venue, entertainment, catering and send out invitations! On the other hand, Aidan is meticulous and fastidious and is putting pressure on his mother to create a fabulous party.

Eva and Aidan hire event planner Leigh, who has less than one month to pull off the perfect party … can she do it?

This show is followed by another episode.

To Catch a Paedophile, 10:35pm, ITV1

In this first of two programmes, child protection expert Mark Williams-Thomas follows officers in the Metropolitan Police’s Paedophile Unit.

Detectives go into internet chat rooms posing as teenage girls and investigate the startling number of paedophiles trawling for images and sex.

The programme reveals the disturbing exchanges and tricks that the men use to entice children to show nude pictures of themselves and meet up for sex

Wednesday

Real Crime: Cracking the Killer’s Code, 9:00pm, ITV4

This series examines crimes that made the front pages. This episode looks at the first ever case that was solved through the use of DNA fingerprinting when police managed to catch the killer of two Leicestershire schoolgirls.

The programme features interviews with the mother of one of the victims, the police officer who was in charge of the investigation and a man who nearly threw the whole investigation off track by impersonating the killer.

The Crashes that Changed Flying, 10:00pm, Discovery Channel

Air accidents and the subsequent investigations into what happened make flying safer for all of us.

From the legendary implementation of the Black Box to the latest inventions that hope to prevent another 9/11, nearly every step forward in air safety has come about as a result of disaster. This documentary explores why people have to die to make us all that bit safer in the air.

Thursday

Vice Squad, 9:00pm, Five

This new series follows the work of the Metropolitan Police Vice Unit.

These dedicated Officers risk life and limb when they go undercover in the heart of Soho to close down one of many illegal ‘clip joints’.

Elsewhere, undercover policewomen try to catch kerb crawlers who are prowling the streets looking for sex.

Watching the Dead, 9:00pm, BBC4

Documentary which explores television’s fascination with forensics, revisiting classic shows like Quincy and Marius Goring’s The Expert and looking at the appeal of contemporary dramas such as Silent Witness, Waking The Dead and CSI.

The film examines how scientific advances like genetic fingerprinting have been reflected in the crime drama, finds out how pathology got so sexy, how accurate the science shown on screen actually is, and how TV cops solved crimes before DNA.

Contributors include Sue Johnston from Waking The Dead, Tom Ward and William Gaminara from Silent Witness, and old Quincy himself, Jack Klugman. Plus comment from crime writers, scientists and detectives.

Friday

Derren Brown: How to be a Psychic Spy, 9:00pm, Channel 4

This is the third of Derren Brown’s series of ‘events’ and in this one, the illusionist puts the theory of remote viewing to the test.

It’s a principle that the US and Russian governments spent millions of dollars on researching in the ‘60s.

Tonight, Derren will attempt to project an image into the minds of viewers before revealing his chosen image at the end of the show and comparing the results.

Boys from the Brown Stuff, 10:00pm, Blighty

This is a rather grim but fascinating documentary about ‘flushers’ who are the sewage operatives working everyday under the streets of London.

For 150 years, they’ve worked knee-deep in excrement – and worse – to keep our streets free of overflows of this matter. Staff numbers have plummeted in recent years and tonight, we see boss Kenny retiring after 30 years service, and how the next generation of flushers are hired.

The programme also explores the future of this unique, and so far, all-male profession.

Saturday

Bean, 3:50pm, ITV1

Mr. Bean – played of course by Rowan Atkinson – is an eccentric caretaker working for the British national gallery in London, England, Mr. Bean is supposed to be getting fired by the museum’s board of directors but instead, the board decides to send Mr. Bean to Los Angeles, where David Langley, curator of a museum in L.A. has requested an “art scholar” to talk about the famous painting “Whristler’s Mother.”

Mr. Bean’s arrival in Los Angeles causes mayhem as David invites Mr. Bean to stay with his family and he immediately begins causing problems. And what’s more, Mr. Bean doesn’t know anything about paintings, and although the museum staff think he’s a brilliant, eccentric art scholar, Bean really isn’t the right man to protect the painting…

Here’s the film’s trailer

Stepmom, 10:30pm, ITV1

Anna and Ben, the two children of Jackie and Luke, have to cope with the fact that their parents have divorced and that there’s a new woman in their father’s life; Isabel, a successful photographer.

She does her best to treat the kids in a way that makes them still feel at home when being with their dad, but she also loves her work and doesn’t plan on giving it up. But Jackie, a full-time mother, regards Isabel’s efforts as offensive and insufficient.

She can’t understand that work can be important to her as well as the kids. The conflict between them is deepened by the sudden diagnosis of cancer, which might be terminal for Jackie.

Stars Julia Roberts, Ed Harris and Susan Sarandon.

Here’s the film’s trailer…

Sunday

Come Dine with Me, 8:00pm, Channel 4

Tonight, four cooks from Manchester battle it out for the £1,000 cash prize.

Stuart Donnelly starts the week in style by hosting a dinner party in his flashy penthouse, setting a high standard that party girl Angela Daly, shop manager Rachel Vose and eco-warrior Josh Steiner will find hard to beat.

Point Break, 10:20pm, BBC1

Following the sad death of Patrick Swayze, BBC1 are showing this brilliant film in which Swayze played a surfing bank robber…

Johnny Utah – Keanu Reeves – is a Special Agent for the FBI. Utah gets partnered with Angelo Pappas, played by Gary Busey, an experienced agent who’s more than committed to his work.

The two are asked to investigate the number of robberies committed by a group called the Ex-Presidents, who wears masks of Presidents Reagen, Nixon, Carter and Johnson for their robberies. Pappas has a theory that the Ex-Presidents are a group of surfers, and asks for Utah to go undercover as a surfer.

The problem is, Utah can’t surf. Add to that the fact the two are being continuously hassled by the unpleasant Agent Harp. However, with the help of Tyler, a female surfer, Utah begins to gain the respect of local surfer Bodhi (Swayze) and his group.

Utah forms a close bond with Bodhi, but the relationship between Utah and Bodhi becomes limited when Utah suspects that Bodhi and his group are the Ex-Presidents.

Here’s the film’s trailer…

So that’s it for this week. Have a great seven days and we’ll see you next Sunday.