The Gadget Show (Five, 8pm); Tower Block of Commons (C4, 9pm); Murder on the Lake (BBC4, 9pm)

FOR 13 series’ The Gadget Show has been telling viewers about the latest must-have gizmos and gadgets. Back in 2004 when the series began, go-cars, motorised trainers and strapless sunglasses were all the rage and at the forefront of a collection of impressive inventions that were released that year.

Channel Five had realised that there was a growing interest in gadgets and gizmos and created a show detailing all the latest news about these inventions.

Jason Bradbury, Jon Bentley, Suzi Perry and now Ortis Deley return in a new series to test even more gadgets and gizmos, as well as present the latest news in consumer technology.

It’s no wonder that Jon Bentley, who’s worked on Top Gear and Fifth Gear, loves his job and wouldn’t swap it for all the tea in China. “It changes all the time and that’s the great thing, that there’s always new stuff coming out, unlike with cars, which I worked with before,” he says.

However, life’s not always peachy for the presenters, as tonight’s edition demonstrates. Bradbury and Perry face their most punishing challenge when they’re dumped in the Liwa desert, in Abu Dhabi, considered to be one of the most arid and inhospitable places on Earth.

Thankfully, the intrepid duo have a range of gadgets on hand to help them survive the extreme environment, including clothing designed to keep the body cool in the intense sun, and a stateof- the-art water bottle.

The pair conclude their challenge with a sand race, both driving the latest in desert vehicles. The Sand X all-terrain quad bike and the Sinister Sand Sports SR2 buggy are serious machines and the pair go head-to-head in a tense race.

Meanwhile, Bentley has a more sedate assignment – he travels to the stunning islands of the Turks and Caicos to test the latest generation of e-readers. IT could be argued that there’s never a good time for the electorate to find out that their MPs have been filing claims for moat-cleaning and floating duck houses.

However, when the expenses scandal broke last year, as Britain began to feel the grip of a credit crunch, it seemed particularly ill-timed, and appeared to justify many voters’ opinion that politicians are out of touch with everyday life.

Now, in Tower Block Of Commons, four MPs are hoping to prove them wrong as they prepare to leave Westminster and sample life in some of Britain’s most deprived neighbourhoods.

Their temporary second homes will be tower blocks on council estates, where they’ll get to meet a wide range of people and find out more about the issues that affect them.

First up, Austin Mitchell and his wife explore the effect of drugs on the Orchard Park estate in Hull.

IN the Sixties and Seventies, Joan and Alan Root cut dashing figures as adventurous wildlife film-makers. They pioneered new techniques to document the wonders of their beloved Africa earning Oscar nominations and world-wide celebrity.

When their marriage broke down, Joan retreated to their house on the shore of Lake Naivasha, where she found herself at war with local poachers.

After first challenging Kenya’s burgeoning flower industry to stop polluting the lake, she then created a vigilante group to arrest the illegal poachers who were emptying the lake of fish.

On a January night four years ago, intruders broke into Joan’s. Within minutes, the 69-year-old film-maker-turnedconservationist was dead, peppered by bullets from an AK-47.

Was it a revenge attack by illegal poachers, angry at Root for stopping their activities? Was it a cold-blooded murder by a disgruntled former employee whom Root had recently let go? Or was it something more bizarre? Murder On The Lake by award-winning film-maker Henry Singer tells the story.