TV highlights 1/12/2011

Rev 9pm, BBC2 Forget Ofsted, it's the church school religious inspection that worries Adam (Tom Hollander). Fail this and Archdeacon Robert won't be happy. Not that Ellie's concerned, with new teacher Feld (or "twatty Matty man" in Adam's jealous estimation) inspiring the kids. But there's a problem: Feld's on the side of Dawkins, not the angels. Meantime, Adam enters a team in an inter-faith football tournament. Shame it includes Nigel in goal. Adam: "Man up, put your sports face on or we're going to get humiliated!" The best sitcom on TV – as tonight proves, it never settles for easy laughs. Jonathan Wright America in Pictures: the Story of Life Magazine 9pm, BBC4 A profile of Life magazine, a news weekly that launched in 1936 and became the supreme chronicler of America's 20th century. British photographer Rankin undertakes a travelogue/pilgrimage across America, meeting the magazine's veterans, whom he describes, plausibly, as "gods of photography". Rankin negotiates a deft balance between awestruck fan and fellow professional, and the resulting encounters, illustrated with immortal images, are absorbing. All news photographers working today owe an immense debt to Life. Andrew Mueller London Underground Revealed 9pm, National Geographic This fascinating documentary on the construction of London's tube system may silence at least a few grumbling commuters. Building and upgrading the system is a challenging task, akin, as one expert here suggests, to performing open heart surgery on someone running a marathon. What's more, the clutter under London's streets means that plotting a new tube line is an extremely precise science; so much that the Jubilee line construction under Westminster prompted fears of Big Ben's tower toppling over. Gwilym Mumford Life's Too Short 9.30pm, BBC2 If you think this series has been iffy so far, you're advised to tune in tonight, if only to have your worst fears confirmed. As Warwick copes with divorce negotiations with only his accountant for representation and checks out a new flat with his idiot PA, we're subjected to a relentless volley of little-person gags that leave us, like the estate agent, looking on with unsmiling, dumbfounded horror. How on earth was this ever waved through? What happened to Gervais? As ever, redemption comes briefly in the form of the celebrity insert – this week, it's Steve Carell. David Stubbs It's All About Amy 10pm, Channel 5 Five's current policy of grabbing the soggy remnants of everyone else's reality shows continues. Unable to pinch The Only Way Is Essex wholesale from ITV, they've gone for a series following former star Amy Childs instead. Previews were not available, but Childs' ambitions are modest; her dream here is to open an Essex beauty salon and to house train her hideously monikered puppy, Prince Childs. GM The Slap 10pm, BBC4 Crises are not just for those in mid-life, though they are the most vocal about it. This week it's Hector's elderly father Manolis's opportunity to offer his take on the incident that appears to be tearing his family to shreds, exposing septic old wounds and creating new ones. Bewildered by what has gone on since his nephew slapped someone else's child at a barbecue, he concentrates on bringing his family together, but resistance comes from all sides. Like everyone in this superior, but unsympathetic Aussie drama, he is riddled with contradictions. Ben Arnold