By Bridget McManus
APPLE TREE YARD
**** four stars
Emily Watson in Apple Tree Yard.Credit: BBC/Kudos/Nick Briggs
8.30pm, ABC
This fascinating psychological thriller jabs at the heart of the very thing that has the power to unseat even the most comfortable and accomplished – fear. As she traverses the stages of rape survival, Emily Watson's scientist, Yvonne Carmichael, is a woman pushed towards primal reactions that are both empowering and terrifying. Already privy to the dreadful consequences, we are left to watch, helpless, as she is led on.
CRUISING WITH JANE MCDONALD
Series premiere ** two stars
7.35pm, SBS
Veteran cruise ship entertainer, Jane McDonald returns to her old stomping ground as a passenger for this travel series aimed at the British 50-plus set. The Yorkshire party girls island-hops across the Caribbean, foraging for the best "full English" breakfasts and imparting packing tips. It's not as naff as it sounds. When moved, as she is by a gospel choir in the Bahamas, McDonald is the real deal.
THE FIRST MASTERCHEF: MICHEL ROUX JNR
***1/2 three and a half stars
8.30pm, SBS Food Network
The French-British chef pays tribute to his greatest influencer and the man responsible for haute cuisine and all those cooking shows, 19th-Century French chef, Auguste Escoffier. This touching personal tribute traces the culinary revolutionary's career from rural France to the Savoy and beyond, revealing much about the origins of a la carte and how kitchens are run today.