What’s on TV tonight: Helen is targeted by a gossip columnist as Aussie drama The Newsreader continues

Pick of the day: The Newsreader

9pm, BBC Two

While British viewers might be oblivious of the 1987 Australian election, what happened three months later had a global impact and will certainly be remembered by any Brits with a mortgage or shares in October 1987. The latest episode of this superior workplace drama opens with the crash that started on Black Monday. Newsreader Helen (the excellent Anna Torv) is more worried about a gossip journalist breaking a story about her mental health and tries to get newsroom boss Linday (William McInnes) to have the broadcaster’s lawyers shut it down. “The legal team are as much use as a glass door on a dunny,” comes his colourful reply.

Mary Makes It Easy

7.30pm, BBC Two

“I’m very good with eggs,” says Anton Du Beke, highlighting his lack of culinary expertise (not to mention the fact that he has never once cooked for his wife Hannah). Mary Berry catches up with the Strictly judge in Bournemouth, where Du Beke is touring a show, knocking up crispy squid, chicken escalope with tzatziki and lemon and caper salmon linguine. But are we really to believe that Du Beke has never before tasted a caper?

Britain: On the Sick? Tonight

8.30pm, ITV1

The number of people not working because of long-term health problems has risen sharply and is now at the highest level since records began. But as the Government says it is determined to get Britain working in a bid to boost the economy, reporter Adam Shaw finds out what’s behind the UK’s sick note epidemic.

DIY SOS

9pm, BBC One

In a special Children in Need edition, Nick Knowles and his team of volunteer trades and suppliers head to Treetops Hospice in Risley, Derbyshire, for an ambitious Big Build to support and help more children and families experiencing traumatic loss. Radio 2 presenters Scott Mills and Zoe Ball and musician Sam Ryder also don their safety boots, hi-vis vests and hard hats to get stuck in, while Richie Anderson and Owain Wyn Evans meet some of the young people who have lost loved ones and will benefit from the new building.

Taskmaster

9pm, Channel 4

You wonder whether Alex Horne’s imagination will ever run dry, but one task this week does earn a reprimand from Greg Davies. “Wow, you are getting lazy,” says the Taskmaster as the contestants are asked to throw playing cards into the mouth of a model clown’s head. Otherwise, there’s fun to be had on motorised road sweepers, Julian Clary rebels, Lucy Beaumont brings some mouse droppings into the studio and Sue Perkins makes a coat described by Sam Campbell as “Fagin at the disco”.

The King’s Guard: Serving The Crown

9pm, Channel 5

A new documentary series goes behind the scenes of the elite regiments of the British Army’s Household Division in one of the busiest years in its 350-year history. In the first episode, the cameras follow the seven regiments of the Division as they are preparing for the biggest national event in generations – the Coronation of King Charles – and follows them during the brutal process of training Ukrainian would-be officers to fight on the front line.