UK TV programmes to watch this week : 29/06/2013

Tour De France 2013 Highlights (itv4 | 7pm to 8pm | Saturday 29th June 2013)

Highlights from stage one of the 100th edition of the Tour starts on the Island of Corsica, the only area of France that has never hosted the Tour before. The first 213km stage runs through the magnificent scenery of Corsica towards the finish in Bastia where the winner will almost certainly be a sprinter. This is a golden opportunity for Mark Cavendish to claim the yellow jersey. Presented by Gary Imlach with analysis fom Chris Boardman, and Ned Boulting is out at the roadside. Commentary by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen.

Top Gear (BBC2/HD | 8pm to 9pm | Sunday 30th June 2013)

The motoring magazine returns with the action kicking off in New Zealand, as Jeremy Clarkson and James May race a car against a boat in a nail-biting battle up the beautiful coastline to the very tip of the North Island. The boat is a state-of-the-art America’s Cup yacht, while the car is of a type many are familiar with yet have never before seen on Top Gear. Meanwhile, back in the UK, Richard Hammond attempts to find a hot hatch hero from a trio of newcomers, the Renaultsport Clio 200, Peugeot 208 GTI and Ford Fiesta ST, and a cavalcade of top stars assemble at the track to welcome a brand new Reasonably Priced Car.

Undercover Boss (Channel 4/HD | 9pm to 10pm | Monday 1st July 2013)

New series of the show in which high-flying executives take extraordinary steps to ensure their companies are fighting fit by going undercover in their own businesses. Starting the series is DHL. In the three years since Chief Executive Phil Couchman became boss, he’s seen the company’s turnover reach a massive 800 million pounds. But rapid expansion brings its own problems. So, Phil is heading back to the frontline to work alongside his staff. Terrified of losing even a single customer to fierce competition, Phil aims to find out if workers are delivering the top notch service he expects. But when the CEO goes undercover he discovers a stretched workforce and customer service staff who are tied up in red tape. And, moved by a courier who supports his family in Brazil but has no job security, another whose job is stretching his body to breaking point, and finally couriers being paid unfairly, Phil is forced to consider whether DHL have more to worry about than just their customers.

The Route Masters: Running London’s Roads (BBC2/HD | 9pm to 10pm | Tuesday 2nd July 2013)

More people now travel on London buses each day than on the rest of the UK’s buses combined. With passenger numbers up sixty percent since 2000, the capital’s bus drivers are under colossal pressure. And from their cab, they see how our behaviour has changed in that time. Driver Alex is an old hand who complains that no-one says hello to him any more. Driver Sadie thinks we are all in such a hurry we are heading for nervous breakdowns. Trainee driver Christine is worried about getting lost. Behind every driver is a controller who tracks drivers’ whereabouts and tells them to hurry up and slow down. The controllers themselves must hit strict targets if the service is to stay on track. The answer to all this pressure may lie in Transport for London’s big new idea: to bring back the Routemaster, with conductors. We see the new 21st century Routemaster being built in the factory in Northern Ireland, and follow it as it hits the streets of London. Will it make bus travel fun again?

Waterloo Road (BBC1/HD | 8pm to 9pm | Thursday 4th July 2013)

School-based drama. Grantly is alive and Tom is finally ready to donate his kidney. But when former bad boy pupil Kyle Stack shows up at Waterloo Road, matters take a turn for the worse after Tom tries to help the troubled boy.

Summer’s Supermarket Secrets (BBC1/HD | 9pm to 10pm | Thursday 4th July 2013)

Gregg Wallace goes behind the scenes with Britain’s biggest food retailers over the course of a year to discover how they source, make and move the food we find on the supermarket shelves. He has exclusive access to the buyers, product developers, food technologists and backroom teams, and gets the insider’s guide to how much they know about us and our tastes. In this, the first of four episodes, Gregg reveals how the supermarkets bring us our summer favourites. He finds out why there is more than meets the eye in a supermarket strawberry, what it takes to bring us our barbeques, and how they stay one step ahead of the weather.

All TV guide information taken from DigiGuide — www.getdigiguide.tv/?p=1&r=15119.