It’s a great week on TV again this coming week, with loads of classic films, new series and the return of some old favourites, so here are our recommendations for the next seven days viewing…

Monday

Life: Challenges of Life, 9:00pm, BBC1

This new series of ten episodes begins tonight, and we’ll discover that although our planet may be home to more than 30 million different animals and plants, every single one is locked in its own life-long fight for survival.

Life, a new series narrated by David Attenborough, uncovers some extraordinary strategies they’ve developed to stay alive and to breed. Using state-of-the-art filming techniques, the series is about extreme behaviour. It’s survival of the fittest in their battle against daily life or death challenges.

Four years in the making, mind-blowing behaviour captured for TV for the first time includes cheetahs collaborating together to bring down prey twice their size; the courtship battle, known as the heat run, of the humpback whale; a huge number of enormous Humboldt squid joining forces for night-time hunting; and the legendary, fearsome Komodo dragons bringing down their buffalo prey.

The Human Spider Returns: Daredevils, 9:00pm, Channel 4

Alain Robert is known to the world as `The Human Spider’ and is arguably the most daring climber the world has ever seen.

This film follows Alain over two years, bringing his story up to date with new, behind-the-scenes footage revealing his assault upon the one building that has eluded him time and again, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. Watch Alain as he takes on the 88-storey edifice with just his bare hands, some chalk dust, and an awful lot of nerve.

Alain’s attempts to ‘free climb’ up the outside of some of the world’s tallest buildings and structures without any safety equipment have earned him a reputation as one of the world’s greatest Daredevils.

Despite suffering from epilepsy and admitting to a fear of heights, Alain Robert has made headlines around the world with his unbelievable feats of daring. The 47-year-old husband and father-of-three has scaled skyscrapers such as the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, Berlin’s Debis Tower, and the Federation Tower in Moscow, Europe’s tallest building.

This heart-stopping documentary also features revealing interviews with Alain’s family in an attempt to understand what motivates him to repeatedly risk his life.

Tuesday

Joan Does Glamour, 9:00pm, ITV1 Yorkshire

In Joan Does Glamour, the actress, style icon and Hollywood legend will meet three generations of the same family and attempt to convert them to her brand of elegance and style.

Joan remembers a better Britain when everybody – regardless of personal circumstance – took care and pride in their appearance. She is a product of the time when no one left the house without looking their best and dressing properly. And she believes that if people made more effort, it would lift their self esteem and boost their self confidence.

Is dressing properly the key to feeling good about yourself and your surroundings? In the days of trainers and jogging pants, Joan certainly wouldn’t be seen in either. Having spent a lifetime in the public eye, she is one of the true great Hollywood legends. She was a style icon in Dynasty – one of the most glamorous television dramas ever – and with a unique combination of being forthright but warm and passionate, Joan believes that she has the answers on how to dress to impress – whilst sticking to a budget.

The Force, 9:00pm. Channel 4

A woman’s body, burned beyond all recognition, is discovered lying in a cornfield on an idyllic summer’s day.

Two days into the case, Hampshire Constabulary know their victim has been strangled, her body carried in a suitcase to a field near a tiny Hampshire village, and then set alight; but not who she or who her killer is.

House-to-house inquiries unearth a witness who’s seen a battered Vauxhall being driven slowly around the crime scene, the day before the killing. The offender profilers advise that whoever chose that lonely spot had done so because he knew the area, and a database search of car registrations throws up four names, one of them with a Hampshire bank account.

The chase is on, and as the case unfolds it presents an extraordinary snapshot of Britain in the 21st century – the passions and divisions hidden beneath the placid surface of middle England – and a unique insight into the fragility of modern policing.

Wednesday

East Is East, 9:00pm, E4

This is one of the most rib-achingly funny films I’ve ever seen, and I’ll be tuning in to watch it for about the twentieth time!

In it, we journey back to 1971, and meet Salford fish-and-chip shop owner George Khan, who expects his family to follow his strict Pakistani Muslim ways.

But his children, with an English mother and having been born and brought up in Britain, increasingly see themselves as British and start to reject their father’s rules on dress, food, religion, and living in general.

Here’s the film’s trailer…

Yellowstone: Autumn, 9:00pm, Eden

Series following America’s wildlife in Yellowstone. Winter is around the corner and there are just two months for the animals to get ready or get out.

Elk move down from the mountains to find food, and beavers repair dams before ice freezes their ponds. And as the snow and ice return, many animals move out from the heart of Yellowstone, away from the protection of the national park.

Here, their fight is not only to survive the cold, but also to find what little wild space remains in the modern world.

Thursday

The Red Lion, 9:00pm, Channel 4

Award-winning film-maker Sue Bourne sets off on a 3,000-mile journey to some of the country’s 600 Red Lions – the most common pub name – to discover why pub culture is so central to British society.

She wants to find out why we are still a nation of drinkers despite Government warnings about the dangers of drinking.

And with seven pubs a days closing amidst recession and the smoking ban, she asks if there is a future for our pubs.

From tipsy grannies to teetotal quiz night fanatics, and lonely souls to boozing netball players, the documentary reveals touching, funny, sad, gentle and unusual – but always fascinating – people and stories.

Modern Family: Pilot episode, 8:00pm, Sky1

Today’s American families come in all shapes and sizes. When a documentary filmmaker turns his camera on three very different family units it becomes quickly apparent that they are anything but the cookie cutter mould of man+wife+2.5 kids, Modern Family takes an honest and funny look at the complications that come with being a family in 2009.

Take for example, Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire (Julie Bowen), the parents who want to have that open healthy honest relationships with their three kids. It’s not always easy, especially with a teenage daughter Haley (Sarah Hyland) who is growing up a little too fast, a middle daughter Alex (Ariel Winter) who is too-smart-for-her-own-good, and a rambunctious boy, Luke (Nolan Gould). On top of that, Phil wants to be the ‘cool dad’ while Claire is trying her best to run a tight ship, determined not to let her kids have the rebellious childhood she had.

Then there’s Jay (Ed O’Neill), your traditional guy’s guy, who some would say is experiencing a bit of mid-life crisis. He’s found himself a younger, and much hotter, wife Gloria (Sofía Vergara), who has become the centre of his world. Gloria is a passionate and sassy divorcee who comes with an 11-year-old son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez), a real hopeless romantic. Already taking notice of girls, Manny is passionate just like his mum, spending most of his time daydreaming and writing poetry. As Manny’s new stepfather, Jay’s not too comfortable with this sensitive stuff. He would rather toughen Manny up, but that’s the least of Jay’s problems when he’s faced with the challenge of people mistaking him for Gloria’s father and not her husband.

And lastly, we have Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his partner of 5 years Cameron (Eric Stonestreet), who have just taken that amazing next step of adopting a child together from Vietnam. While Cameron has a wonderfully big personality and – let’s admit it – maybe a flare for the dramatic, Mitchell is definitely the more serious of the two. They balance each other out and are already doting fathers – even a little overprotective of their little baby perhaps.

Life is not rigid, politically correct or tidy, but that’s exactly what makes it fun and interesting. Modern Family is a window into the sometimes warm and sometimes twisted embrace of three modern day families.

Friday

Unreported World, 7:35pm, Channel 4

In, Liberia: Stolen Childhood, Unreported World reveals how Liberia is facing a child rape crisis.

Six years after the end of a brutal civil war in which rape was routinely used as a weapon, children still face the daily fear of being attacked, and the West African country’s hospitals are overwhelmed with child victims, a quarter of them under four years old.

In the Liberian capital, Monrovia, reporter Jenny Kleeman and director Matt Haan meet Mercy, a six-year-old girl who was abducted and raped by a stranger two weeks previously. Mercy is taking a course of drugs to try to stop her from contracting HIV. She lives in a safe house run by a Liberian charity, which is filled with other child rape victims.

The team visits a children’s hospital run by the charity Médecins Sans Frontières. Elias Abi-Aad tells Kleeman that his unit saw 771 child rape victims in 2008 and in the first six months of 2009 had already seen 422 victims, but he estimates this is only a small fraction of the total number of cases in Liberia. Victims suffer serious medical problems as a result of their ordeal and the hospital saw three recent cases where children died as a direct consequence of rape.

Oldboy, 10:35pm, Film4

An average man is kidnapped and imprisoned in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. He’s then released, equipped with money, a cellphone and expensive clothes.

As he strives to understand why this happened to him, he finds out that not only does his kidnapper still have plans for him, but that those plans will be even worse than his fifteen years of imprisonment.

Oldboy has more to offer than action and violence – it’s an imaginative tale of guilt and revenge, with a shocking climactic twist.

Here’s the film’s trailer…

Saturday

Caravans: A British Love Affair, 8:00pm, BBC4

Documentary about the love affair between the British and their caravans, which saw the country establish the world’s largest caravan manufacturer and transformed the holiday habits of generations of families.

In telling the intriguing story of caravanning in Britain from the 1950s through to the present day, the film reveals how caravans were once the plaything of a privileged minority but after World War II became a firm favourite with almost a quarter of British holidaymakers.

It explores how changes in caravanning across the years reflect wider changes in British society, in particular the increased availability of cars during the 1950s and 60s, but also the improved roads network and changing attitudes towards holidaymaking and leisure time.

Enthusiasts and contributors include Dorrie van Lachterop from the West Midlands and Christine Fagg from Hertfordshire, remarkable and adventurous women who started touring alone in their caravans during the 1950s.

The Dead Zone, 9:00pm, Five USA

This is one of the best films of all time in my opinion and it’s one of those ‘must see before I croak’ films…

Johnny Smith is a young schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him. Unfortunately, after leaving his fiancé’s home one night, he’s involved in a wreck with an 18-wheel tractor-trailer and is in a coma for 5 years.

When he wakes up from it, he discovers he has an ability to see into other people’s lives, past, present and future, by coming into physical contact. But the visions he has are often frightening, and even apocalyptic…

Here’s the film’s trailer

Sunday

River Cottage Autumn, 8:00pm, More4

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall returns to River Cottage to harvest the best that autumn has to offer. He gears up for Bonfire Night, preparing medlar chutney and cheeses, lamb tagine and roasted vegetable kebabs to eat around the fire.

Clare’s stint as the butcher’s apprentice continues and Ray’s butchery class focuses on the head and hams. Hugh and Richard also search for a loving partner for Blossom the Bristol Saddleback.

Half Ton Mum, 10:00pm, More4

Half Ton Mum tells the story of the world’s heaviest woman, Renee Williams, a 64-stone, 29-year-old mother of two who, in a desperate bid to lose enough weight to save her life, undergoes life-threatening surgery.

Renee, who has realised she wants to be around long enough to see her two daughters grow up, hopes her story will help change the lives of the estimated 2 million Americans who weigh more than 40 stone.

That’s it for this week’s Primetime Picks but join us next Sunday for our choice of upcoming telly treats.