Wild Australia with Ray Mears (ITV, regions vary)

SURVIVAL expert Ray Mears explores the geography, flora and fauna of Australia in this six-part series which visits the many spectacular landscapes this extraordinary land has to offer.

Over the course of the series, the intrepid explorer navigates the calm waters of the Great Barrier Reef, the teeming billabongs of the wetlands, the eucalyptus forests of the bush, the ancient heartland of the rainforest, the dramatic shoreline of the southern coast and the scarlet sands of the desert. Along the way, he introduces rare and extraordinary creatures, including the tree kangaroo, the giant cassowary bird, the bizarre duck billed platypus and the stranger still weedy sea dragon.

In the first episode, Ray explores the Great Barrier Reef with whale expert Wally Franklin. They witness a mother humpback whale teach her three-month-old calf the moves needed to survive the long migration to Antarctica. Later, he flies out to Lady Elliot Island at the southernmost tip of the reef, where he goes scuba diving and discovers giant turtles, manta rays and shoals of big-eyed trevally fish. Back on the island, Ray helps marine biologist Maggie O’Neal to plant a pisonia tree and finds out how these unique plants kill the black noddy birds that nest in them in order to use their corpses as a fertile compost,

enabling them to thrive in the unforgiving ground of a coral island.

The 52-year-old presenter told TV Times that he feels like an 18th Century naturalist when he goes out to Australia.

"It's such a stunning and beautiful place. For the opening episode, I got to dive on the Great barrier Reef for the first time ever, which was wonderful. I free-dived with some manta rays which are such powerful creatures. They look slow and ponderous, but they have to flex a couples of muscles and they've gone."

Later in the series, Ray comes across a huge crocodile and says: "You don't get a warning sign with a crocodile. If you're too close, it's all over. Crocodiles are the master of ambush. they incredibly patient and a very dangerous animal. I got very close to that particular crocodile and it was over four metres long."

The most unlikely animals Ray encountered was Penguins. "We staked them out at night when they came ashore after being out at sea all day, and they looked like a team of commandos creeping up the beach. It was incredible to watch."

Horizon: How to Find Love Online (BBC2, 9pm)

IN theory, it's never been easier to find love – just log on to a dating site or app and find your life partner, or at least a date for the weekend. But can we really trust technology to find our perfect match? Dr Xand Van Tulleken is single and looking for love, while mathematician Dr Hannah Fry needs a guinea pig to test whether the algorithms used by dating sites to match people really work, so at least we know they should be well suited in this documentary. As Hannah builds her site, Xand gets expert advice on what photo to use and how to write his profile, as well as undergoing an MRI scan to find out whether his brain is equipped for romance. He's also sent out on various dates to test whether the algorithm has better judgement than he does when it comes to finding a date.

Flowers (C4, 10pm)

New series. Comedy about an eccentric family struggling to hold themselves together, beginning with a double bill. Children's author Maurice and his music teacher wife Deborah live in a crumbling old house with his ailing mother Hattie and their maladjusted 25-year-old twins Amy and Donald. An already black day for Maurice turns into a nightmare when Deborah insists on celebrating their anniversary, while Amy and Donald vie for the affections of their lovely neighbour Abigail. Starring Olivia Colman, Julian Barratt, Daniel Rigby and Sophia Di Martino.

Viv Hardwick