THE best of tonight's TV offerings.

Age Before Beauty (BBC1, 9pm)

Before she gave us the revamped Poldark, writer Debbie Horsfield brought us the hairdressing drama Cutting It, which ran between 2002 and 2005. And now she's going back to her roots with another series set in a Manchester salon.

However, as Debbie points out, a lot has changed in the beauty industry since the noughties. She says "[Producers] Laura Mackie, Sally Haynes and I were discussing what had changed in the world of makeovers and personal grooming, and we agreed that women - and increasingly, men - had become much more obsessed with looking youthful.

"The anti-ageing side of the beauty industry had exploded in those intervening years so we thought it would be interesting to explore the impact on three generations of one family by using it as the backdrop to our saga."

Hopefully though, the character of Bel Finch, who is played by Polly Walker in Age Before Beauty, won't struggle to get caught up on the changing trends.

She's suffering from empty-nest syndrome after dropping her teenage twins off at university, so Teddy Roxton (Robson Green), who is married to her sister Leanne (Kelly Harrison), suggests she returns to working in the family's struggling salon.

Polly explains: "As the most business-savvy member of her family, Bel was about to launch her own beauty product range but she gave it all up to raise her children, which she was happy to do. However, feeling her role of older sister strongly, Bel has a fervent sense of loyalty so she agrees to return to help out, temporarily."

Her mum Ivy-Rae (Sue Johnston) and siblings Tina (Lisa Riley) and Heidi (Vicky Myers) are thrilled to have Bel back where she belongs, but Leanne is less happy about the new arrangement. In this first episode, Bel's plan to showcase the salon's services only increases Leanne's sense of sibling rivalry.

And it seems that giving the salon a makeover is going to make Bel rethink her life, her family - and her marriage.

That's because Bel's joiner husband Wes (James Murray) is striking up a business deal of his own as he offers to fit twentysomething personal trainer Lorelei's (Madeleine Mantock) new kitchen on the cheap in return for discounted sessions.

Polly, whose previous credits include Line of Duty, Clash of the Titans and Rome, believes it is something a lot of viewers will relate to.

She says: "Having ignored herself for 20 years, Bel is forced to take a long, hard look in the mirror and think 'who am I?' She has lost her barometer of herself, she doesn't know where to place herself in the world, which is really common for some women."

She adds: "Bel is the heart of the piece, she is strong, but she is also weak. Bel represents lots of women who have given up careers to look after children or families, and then due to circumstances she is forced to re-evaluate everything, including herself. It feels very apt for me, at my age, to be playing this part."

Viking Dead (Yesterday, 8pm)

From around 700AD to the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the Vikings of the Nordic lands raided and traded across northern, central, eastern and western Europe to create a feared and notorious empire. Now, almost two millennia after their often-terrifying reign, this new series uncovers secrets from the Viking Age, asking who the Norsemen really were, what the truth was about the raids and battles, and what every-day life in a Viking settlement entailed. The experts begin by looking at the mass grave of a raiding party, which dates back to Roman times.

Love Your Garden (ITV, 8pm)

Alan Titchmarsh makes over a garden in Newark for a double-amputee veteran Nathan Cumberland and his young family. Despite his injuries, through his work with the Defence Medical Welfare Service charity, Nathan has devoted his life outside the armed forces to supporting older and elderly veterans who are often less likely to seek help for themselves than their younger counterparts. With tips on how to create a beautiful woodland themed outdoor space, Alan, Katie Rushworth, Frances Tophill and David Domoney take on Nathan's inaccessible plot and transform it into a show-stopping family garden.