Created by Elba as a fictionalised account of his childhood, the first episode dials down the topic of race to a few carefully placed jokes as it introduces Walter Easmon (Elba), a first-generation immigrant living with his wife and son who grudgingly makes room for wild younger brother Valentine (Jimmy Akingbola), freshly arrived from Sierra Leone. Add Bill Bailey as neighbour Bagpipes, precision period detail on the 1980s design and a surfeit of warm-hearted appeal and it's one to watch.

Fake or Fortune?

ABC, 9.35pm

As journalist Gabriella Coslovich's award-winning book Whiteley on Trial proved, art sleuthing can be as exciting as any true crime story. Fake or Fortune? is the British TV answer, a meticulously presented interrogation of the authenticity of (potentially) notable artworks.

In this week's nail-biting installation, hosts Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould set out to establish the veracity of a still-life attributed to English painter Sir William Nicholson – until it wasn't. Having paid a small fortune for it, owner Lyn is understandably keen to have it reinstated into the Nicholson catalogue, but it's her emotional attachment that makes the art detective process so thrillingly visceral.

Bruce and Mould are certainly on Team Lyn as they utilise the entire forensic tool-kit at their disposal, from peeling back the layers of paint, using photographic analysis of brush strokes, engaging a handwriting expert and heading to Canada to compare it to another Nicholson. Singularly thrilling.

Agatha Christie's Criminal Games

SBS, 11.15pm

Oh those damned Frogs, taking a beloved English cultural institution such as Agatha Christie and Frenchifying it with sex appeal and sophistication and lashings of ooh la la. Purists may be huddling under the duvet praying for the next tweedy BBC adaptation but Agatha Christie's Criminal Games brings a twinkly elan to the beloved mysteries with the additional heresy of newly minted detectives.

police inspector DS Swan Laurence and plucky young reporter Alice Avril are no members of the Christie canon but they do a fine job of amping up the charm of a series firmly bedded in the 1950s, complete with Vespas and red lipstick and non-judgmental smoking. Ah, so very French.