Hive Alive (BBC2, 8pm)

FEW of us aren’t aware of the plight of Britain’s declining bee population and are probably doing all they can to add bee-friendly plants to the garden. In the height of midsummer - the busiest period for Britain’s honeybees - Chris Packham and Martha Kearney are joining bee expert Professor Adam Hart for a two-part series exploring the remarkable secrets of this iconic insect of British summer.

Cutting edge technology, exciting new experiments and an army of bee experts will help us discover just how amazing these insects are and what we can do to help them to help us. With a world population of trillions of individuals, there are thousands of times as many honeybees as humans on Earth, making them one of the planet’s most abundant insects. Our relationship with honeybees spans more than 10,000 years and, today, they play a vital role as pollinators, supporting a worldwide agricultural industry worth £50 billion a year. Without them, many of the foods we eat daily would be very hard to come by.

Thermal, UV, infra-red and endoscope cameras, time-lapse photography and remote helicopters are used to tell us more plus attached sensors and microphones to the hive and some of the bees tagged to track them throughout their short but active lives. Chris Packham says: “I'm very excited to be able to tell people about the current science of the honeybee and to explain more of their mysteries. As ever, I'll be hoping to learn a few things as well - the best bit of my job!”

Martha Kearney adds: "As any beekeeper will tell you, the secrets of the hive are fascinating. We will be learning how their honey can save human beings, how they can navigate miles from home and about their incredible relationship with flowers."

Let’s just hope that we do better than Winnie the Pooh, who discovered too late that he was seeking honey from “the wrong kind of bees”.

COAST (BBC2, 9pm)

THIS clever series uses the current wartime interest to inspire a six-parter kicking off with the English Channel. Nick Crane explores the secret life of Mont St Michel, a monastery located precariously on a rocky outcrop, which despite its remote location still manages to attract more than a million tourists a year. He takes a lesser-seen view of the place, though - one which gives him a first-hand look at the fearsome power of the Channel's tides, whose daily rise and fall sets the clock for coastal folk on both sides of the sea.

Neil Oliver uncovers the tragic tale of the wreck of the troop ship SS Mendi. The vessel sank during the First World War, costing the lives of some 600 black South African soldiers who were on their way to fight for the British Empire. But why did no one try to save them? Oliver hears how the tragedy would go on to become a potent symbol of racial inequality in Nelson Mandela's South Africa.

Nick and Margaret: Too Many Immigrants (BBC1, 9pm)

FITTING 63 million people on an island approximately 900 miles long is not an easy task. And with that number growing daily, there's little wonder Britain's immigration issue is rarely out of the news, or far from the agendas of leading politicians and comedians. Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford have proved themselves to be two of the smartest personalities on the box thanks to their star-making turns on The Apprentice.

Now they examine the impact that the UK's seven million plus immigrants are having on the UK, by bringing both sides of the debate together. Five UK-born citizens with strong views on immigration meet five immigrants and assess whether they are a “gain or drain" on the United Kingdom.