Love Your Garden (ITV1, 8pm)

ALAN Titchmarsh and the team return for the fifth series of the makeover show in which they transform unloved spaces into dream gardens for some very special people.

The first episode finds Alan and the gang in Walsall, where they plan to surprise a young widow. Nina Perrin Seedhouse has three beautiful children to look after and consequently struggles to find time for anything else. As a result, her garden is nothing more than a bare, blank canvas. Nina’s husband Gareth, who died last year after a long battle with cancer, was something of a local hero who worked tirelessly for Walsall Council for most of his life. His greatest passion was for the parks and open spaces of his

home town. He had just started to create a garden in the new family home when he died. It now falls to Alan and his team to give the family the dream garden that Gareth would have wanted. Their small empty patch, with its red brick walls and bare fencing, is spectacularly transformed with some stunning features to provide a magical play area for the children and a chill-out zone for Nina.

"Whenever you’re making a garden, you need a little germ or a little spark which sets it, particularly if you’re making it for somebody else. All gardens should be for somebody and not just wished upon them. It has to relate to that person. As well as that, I think it’s important to give information for other people to use at home in their own gardens," says Alan.

He still feels he's learning at his "ripe old age".

"I’ve been doing it for a living since I was 15. If you’ve never been able to grow something, you suddenly find a better technique, or you find a plant you’ve never encountered before, you know, there are millions of them around. I’m forever trying something new, and if I live to be 530, I’ll still be finding new plants. That’s the great joy of it, it remains a challenge and it remains changeable, you can do different things every year," he says.

Alan's advice to new gardeners is to take time to work out what you really want from your garden before you make it.

"Observe the path of the sun, it will help you to decide what plants you want where (in sun or shade) and where to site your sitting area. Start with the bit next to the house and work your way down the garden. And be patient," he says.

No Offence (C4, 9pm)

PAUL Abbott's comedy crime drama draws to a close, and there is no shortage of dramatic fireworks for the long-suffering law enforcers. Dinah clashes with Deering, setting off an irreversible chain of events which brings them into conflict with their professional duty. Meanwhile, Jonah's job is also on the line when an attempt to save the lives of a mother and baby goes disastrously wrong. Starring Joanna Scanlan, Elaine Cassidy, Alexandra Roach, Will Mellor and Paul Ritter. Last in the series.

The Bank: A Matter of Life and Debt (BBC2, 9pm)

SINCE the 2008 banking crash, the public's faith in banks is at an all-time low. Filmed over a year at the NatWest branch in Huddersfield, this series explores our tempestuous relationship with our finances and the banks we have chosen to help us look after them. NatWest is owned by RBS, which was bailed out by the government and is 79 per cent owned by the taxpayer. So when their customers feel they aren't getting a fair deal, even more focus is placed on the bank. Deputy bank manager Claire is challenged to improve the branch's customer service score, but when customer Alan fumes over a missing cheque, and another, Chris, complains about the mortgage advice he's been given, this seems like an impossible task.

Viv Hardwick