Secrets From The Clink (ITV, 9pm) 4/5 stars

OH dear, ITV’s desperate attempts to compete with BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? brings a crime-based look back at the ancestors of Michelle Collins and Len Goodman, who has already been the subject of the Beeb's genealogy show.

Former soap queen Collins is horrified by the Dickensian conditions her ancestor experienced in a debtors prison. The former EastEnders and Coronation Street star visits Covent Garden's Monmouth Street, and discovers that when her ancestor, Thomas Bright, had his umbrella-making workshop there, it was on the fringes of one of London's worst slums.

His small businesses was overwhelmed by a trade depression in the late 1840s. Debtors could be imprisoned prison without trial, and in 1848, Bright was sent to Whitecross Street debtors prison. Despite debtors having no money, they had to pay "garnish" for their lodging in the prison, where he got into more debt. The fact his wife Susanna was pregnant made his predicament worse, and his imprisonment could have lasted for years if he was unable to find the cash to pay off his debts.

"It's terrible, he's a victim of his circumstances, of being working class really," explains Collins. "You think prison is a place for people who have committed a crime, generally for people who are dangerous to us, or a danger to themselves. He's not a danger to anybody. It's not a crime, he's just trying to make a living."

However, by 1861, 13 years after leaving debtors' prison, Bright got back on his feet again, and was registered in a trade directory in Upper Street.

Strictly Come Dancing judge Goodman examines the next chapter in the story of his great-great uncle Henry, who was jailed for five years at the Old Bailey after attacking his father. Following nine months in solitary confinement, he was moved to a remote prison on the Dorset coast called Portland, where inmates were forced to quarry stone six days a week for eight hours a day.

Henry endured all manner of horrors, including being locked in a dark cell for three days with just bread and water. "It don't bear thinking about," says Goodman. "One thing's for sure, after five years of this sort of conditions, you're not going to hurry back if you've got any sense whatsoever. The conditions in those prisons were atrocious."

This show also examines journalist Daisy McAndrew's ancestor Mary, who narrowly escaped death for stealing a horse. However, her deportation to Australia became the sort of rags-to-riches story which should inspire everyone.

The Great British Bake Off (BBC1, 8pm)

THIS week, the group can expect to be tested on their biscuit-making skills; their challenge being to create biscuits that go well with a cheese course. Meanwhile, Mary Berry sets the Technical Challenge, handing the bakers her recipe for Florentines. They must follow her basic instructions to create the goodies with their chewy caramel sauce and lacy brandy-snap texture.

And is that’s not going to make anyone crumble, then Showstopper challenge involves creating three-dimensional biscuit scenes. Crumbs.

The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire (BBC2, 9pm)

HISTORIAN and filmmaker David Olusoga presses on with his mission of challenging people's understanding of the First World War, telling it from the perspective of the Indian, African and Asian troops and ancillaries who fought and died alongside the Europeans.

In this second and concluding episode, Olusoga reveals how Germany enrolled the Muslim people of North Africa and the Middle East to fight against the allies. Meanwhile, in east Africa, German general Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck led an army of African troops in a bitter insurgency war against the allies – but it would cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of black Africans.