Ice Road Truckers (Channel 5, 8pm); Legends (BBC4, 9pm); Planning Outlaws (C4, 7.30pm).

SINCE debuting four years ago, Ice Road Truckers has become an unlikely hit. Who’d have thought that a series about Alaska-based drivers would have caught the public imagination.

Season one introduced us to TJ, Alex, Hugh, Jay, Rick and Roman, six men who probably watch classic trucking drama The Wages of Fear for light entertainment.

By season two Hugh, Drew, Eric, Jerry and Rick were the stars of the show, but by the third outing the producers decided a touch of glamour was called for. They brought in stunning blonde Lisa Kelly, alongside Carey, Cody, Alex, George, Jack, Tim and series regular Hugh.

With her looks and figure, Lisa – a native Alaskan from politician Sarah Palin’s home town of Wasilla – could have drifted into modelling or the acting world.

Despite such photogenic skills, she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. After studying at college, she started delivering pizza and realised she had a love of the outdoors so started driving a school bus. However, despite never having stepped foot inside a truck, she decided that was the road for her and hasn’t looked back since.

Naturally, success in a male-dominated field has involved lots of hard graft: “I’ve had to work twice as hard to prove I’m half as good,” she explains.

Never mind our recent snowy weather, the stars of this show know cold like noone else.

As if it wasn’t enough of a challenge to simply stay alive on the iced-over roadways offering some of the most dangerous driving conditions in the world, Greg Boadwine returns with a point to prove following a rookie season that saw him spill a load of pipes.

The 27-year-old has been given another chance by the freight company, but his first load is another cargo of pipes and he’s going to have to steady his nerves if he’s going to be any use.

Meanwhile, Lisa hauls a tricky carcarrier for the first time. It soon becomes clear that Lisa needs to drive slowly. “It feels like running a trailer made of balloons over a cactus,” she confides.

And new driver Ray Veileux, whose business recently went under during the recession, takes on his first run but finds himself facing a treacherous mountain pass as night falls. The fact he hasn’t secured chains to his truck tyres makes things even more perilous.

THE Boys Are Back in Town as the classic rock power of Thin Lizzy is featured in Legends. The documentary explores the story of the legendary Irish rock band, which started out with singer-songwriter Phil Lynott, guitarist Eric Bell and drummer Brian Downie back in 1969.

Taking their name from a character in The Beano (the robot Tin Lizzie), the band line-up has changed considerably over the more-than four decades they have been taking to the stage.

The programme uses archive footage, interviews and photographs to chronicle the evolution of the group, which reached what is regarded by many of their fans as its peak with the addition of guitarists Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham in 1974.

The programme also looks back on the struggles the band members had with drugs and alcohol.

THE planning laws in this country are complex and mystifying. Planning Outlaws, a documentary from film-maker Melody Howse showing in the First Cut strand, reveals the story of three people who have taken on planning regulators with extraordinary and sometimes disastrous consequences.

Jim built a straw bale house on agricultural land, having attained planning permission for an educational centre.

However, coming to love the house so much he decided to live in it instead. Jim has since faced a four-year battle to keep his home.

Mr Gulzar erected 6ft stone lions on the Pevensey Marshes without seeking planning permission and has to deal with hostility from the community and the vandalism of his lions.

Finally, 76-year-old Nicole Harper is left to look on in horror as the flat her son built for her is demolished for violating planning regulations.