Holby Blue, BBC One, 8pm

Holby Blue tries to do for the police what Casualty did for the NHS. Because it is new, fresh and important in Tellyland, it gets off to a flying start with a high energy level and a top-notch cast. But there is nothing original about it, either in the characters or the storyline. There is the dedicated DS with a broken marriage who cuts corners; his young, highflying sergeant who does it all by the book; the comical rookie who gets her man; the sexist Lothario who gets put in his place; and so on. Tonight’s storyline is that the old redtop favourite, “Hunt the Paedophile”, and there is lots of Casualty-style murmuring about understaffing and poor leadership. But it’s watchable enough and will give The Bill a run for its money.

The Seven Sins of England, Channel 4, 10pm

Joseph Bullman’s film pulls off a double whammy: it is a simple and inspired idea that has been executed with consummate skill. Politicians and newspapers are forever condemning our degenerate society with its binge drinking, violence and hooliganism. But such behaviour has been commonplace for hundreds of years. Here, some of the choicest yobs and slappers of modern Britain talk about their lives and recite, with the passion and intensity that comes from personal experience, descriptions of loutish behaviour written hundreds of years ago. Today, asylum seekers are condemned for taking British jobs, but this bigotry flourished in 1593 when Dutch asylum seekers were attacked. And these same yobs and slappers, the film suggests, made this country what it is, and will continue to safeguard its character and independence in the future.

Imagine . . . Gilbert and George: No Surrender, BBC One, 10.35pm; Wales, 11.05pm

Alan Yentob begins a new series with a profile of the godparents of Brit Art, who for the past 40 years have captured life in the East End of London, transforming their environment into art and making graffiti, waste and bodily fluids appear decorative and beautiful. They present a delightfully eccentric and united front and are never afraid to court controversy. “We feel always under attack,” they say. “So we always feel we have to win.” As an added bonus, viewers will be able to download nine panels of an original Gilbert and George creation from www.bbc.co.uk/imagine for 48 hours after the programme is broadcast.

Roy Chubby Brown: Britain’s Rudest Comedian, Channel 4, 11.05pm

Roy Chubby Brown is the ugly face of stand-up comedy. “How do you get 20 asylum seekers in a shoebox?” he asks his ecstatic audience. “Tell them it f****ing floats.” Although his jokes are racist, sexist, misogynist and filthy, he performs to large audiences (of mostly drunk men). He claims his jokes are “fun”. What makes this film so sad and disturbing is that he is not a monster – quite the reverse. He is self-effacing, hardworking and rightly proud of how far he has come. But when it comes to justifying these repulsive jokes, he becomes defensive or defiant. He says: “I’ve spent 37 years doing this material. I can’t change now.” There’s the pity.

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