Countrywise: Secret Wild Places (ITV, 8pm)

WHILE BBC's Countryfile continues to dominate Sunday evening viewing plus a spin-off set of secret places and holiday locations, the rival ITV Countrywise team – BBC deserters Paul Heiney, Ben Fogle and Liz Bonnin – travel the length and breadth of Britain in search of even more wild delights.

There are corners of the countryside virtually untouched by man that nature has reclaimed as its own. They visit the Cairngorms National Park, which is twice the size of the Lake District and is famous for its friendly villages and distilleries. But if you head away from civilisation, you can find frozen mountains, forest paths, rivers, lochs and wildlife hotspots. They also travel to north Cornwall and along its Atlantic coast, which stretches for more than 40 miles from Bude to Perranporth along a wildly beautiful landscape.

Olympics 2016 (BBC1, 1.45pm)

HAZEL Irvine presents the latest live coverage on day 12 of the Games in Rio. Defending champion Mo Farah features in the men's 5,000m heats at the Olympic Stadium from 2.05pm, looking to make it through to yet another major final, before the decathlon long jump at 2.35pm, the women's 800m heats at 2.55pm, the men's steeplechase final at 3.50pm and the decathlon shot put from 4.15pm. The athletics action is interspersed with coverage from the National Equestrian Centre, where the team show jumping final takes place, with Great Britain looking to defend their title.

Great Canal Journeys (C4, 8pm)

New series. Timothy West and Prunella Scales embark on more waterway adventures, beginning 14 miles west of Venice on the Brenta, a river that was first adapted to canal-life in the 13th Century. Lined with palaces which were once holiday homes for Venetian nobility, they follow the route that Casanova and Lord Byron took to the city. After crossing the Venetian lagoon, Tim and Pru arrive at St Mark's Square, where they escape the busy Grand Canal and discover the tranquillity and beauty of the smaller canals that tourists rarely see.

Skies Above Britain (BBC2, 9pm)

WHEN you look up, the apparently peaceful calm of a clear blue sky is actually masking the reality of the thriving air transport network buzzing above your head. This new five-part documentary series explores what goes on in the skies, as well as profiling the people who spend their lives in flight and the teams on the ground and in the air whose job it is to keep them safe. Tonight, air traffic controllers deal with an unidentified aircraft flying across Gatwick's flight path and the RAF scrambles a Typhoon jet to intercept an unresponsive plane. The programme also meets a pair of vintage plane enthusiasts, brothers Nick and Giles English, whose passion for flight persists despite personal loss.

Long Lost Family (ITV, 9pm)

THE most emotional series on TV continues as Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present two stories of women trying to bring their families back together. Mother and daughter Val and Marisa Moorhouse from West Yorkshire are united in their search for their missing son and brother Stephen, whom Val had adopted in 1977, when she felt she could not afford to give him the life he deserved. Meanwhile, 37-year-old Sam from Surrey is searching not only for her birth mother, but also her sister.

Man Down (Channel 4, 10pm)

IT'S the last in what has been a watchable series of the sitcom, but Man Down is going out in style with a guest appearance from none other than Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill. Dan's teaching career is reduced to few words in his final school assembly, along with some parting gestures from his child-nemesis and Mr Klackoff. With seismic news from America and mum taking a turn for the worse, Dan's world is in danger of being turned completely upside down. Meanwhile, Jo is organising a party at her shop, and usually unflappable Nesta is wrong-footed by the sinister "Daddy".

Viv Hardwick