Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC1, 9pm)

BRADFORD born and bred Anita Rani is really lifting her profile on TV by adding this appearance on the popular family history show to joining Countryfile as a presenter and having a twirl on the current Strictly Come Dancing.

She never met her maternal grandfather Sant Singh, having been born two years after he died. Rani knows he had another wife and family before meeting her grandmother – and that he suffered terrible tragedy at the time of India's Partition when he first wife was killed in 1947.

Rani's mother isn't even sure of her father's date of birth or where he was born and doesn't know his first wife's name.

The broadcaster sets out for India to see if she can find out more about his first family and what happened to them. It proves to be an extraordinary and harrowing journey as Rani is reduced to tears by the fate of her ancestors in a brutal period of India's history.

Finally, the gloom lifts with some scraps of information about a member of her Panjabi family.

"At least I now know she existed and she deserves to be remembered," Rani says.

"The episode is going to illuminate a family history I knew little about. I'd heard so many incredible stories about this grandpa I never met. My episode is a phenomenal tale of the story of the Punjab from the First World Ward through to partition. Fifteen million people were displaced and that's my grandfather's story. It was nerve-racking to make, but a very personal story in a good way."

It's certainly an epic encounter for a woman who counts Whitby and the wide expanses of North Yorkshire as her favourite place.

While studying in Leeds she took a part-time job at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and recalls getting to see all the plays for free.

Now married and living in Hackney, Rani credits her parents with encouraging her to be independent, individual and follow her dreams. That includes hosting a show on Sunrise Radio, Bradford, when she was 14.

"I recall a time when mine would be the only Asian family out in the Yorkshire countryside. Thankfully, that is now changing. School trips to the countryside should be mandatory, especially for children who grow up in the inner cities," says the Countryside queen who recently joined the Femmes Fatales ladies clay pigeon shooting team after winning a contest at Yorkshire's CLA game fair.

The Pride of Britain Awards 2015 (ITV, 8pm)

CAROL Vorderman hosts the annual awards show from London's Grosvenor House, where Prince Charles joins some of the biggest names in TV, showbusiness, politics and sport, including David Cameron, Simon Cowell, Shirley Bassey, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, David Walliams, Jeremy Piven and Little Mix, paying tribute to this year's deserving winners. These include an elderly retired couple who turned their home into a home for bullied children, a van driver who saved an unconscious driver on a busy motorway, and a woman who took on drug dealers and petty criminals on her estate – and won.

Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railway Journeys (C5, 9pm)

IT'S been a while since we saw Chris Tarrant on our screens, but he's back – and doing something he loves. The train enthusiast is embarking on a series of trips along some of the world's most extreme railways, and begins with a journey to South East Asia, where he explores two very different routes. The first is the notorious Burma-Siam railway, which is 250 miles long and has been dubbed the Death Railway because it was built by prisoners of war during the Second World War. Then he visits Myanmar, where the line built by the British in the days of the Raj is still operating today. His trip takes him to the ancient capital of Mandalay, and en route, Tarrant witnesses some of the most breath-taking scenery he's ever seen.