CONSIDER the line crossed. Peaky Blinders (BBC1, Monday and Tuesday, 9pm) returned this week, all dressed up for a new season on the main channel. For four series now, fans have watched as the Brummie hardmen and women have slashed and shot their way across the Midlands, stealing from the poor and growing ever richer. Monstrous behaviour, but the soundtrack is cool and Aunt Pol wears sunglasses even when it is raining, so a lot can be forgiven.

But now they have introduced a character with a Scots accent so bad he makes Mel Gibson sound like Sean Connery. As if Adrien Brody’s New Yoik drawl in the last series was not painful enough on the ears, Brendan Gleeson has arrived playing a Billy Boy from Glasgow. We knew he was a Billy Boy because he emerged from the bushes, with his fellow Billy Boys, singing a song all about being Billy Boys. Very Monty Python.

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The Glasgow gang are the latest to want a piece of the Shelby family fortune, and clan chief Tommy (the beautiful Cillian Murphy) is sick and tired of it. He’s so scunnered he has gone Shakespearean, mumbling about folk wanting his crown. There are dreams of a black cat, too, which he believes signals a traitor in his midst (why it can’t mean a darling black cat is going to enter his life I don’t know).

Between losing his money in the Great Crash, fascists courting him (Sam Claflin icily good as Mosley), and men driving up to his door at speed to disgorge bludgeoned bodies (ever thought of putting guards on the gate, Tom?), no wonder he is looking desperate. Just when you reckon things could not get worse, his first born, young Charlie, is learning to play the violin.

I’m worried, brother Arthur. Worried that Peaky Blinders might be taking an unwise turn for House of Cards territory, and worried that Brendan Gleeson is going to come back in the next episode and open his mouth. Other than that, carry on.

The Great British Bake Off (Channel 4, Tuesday, 8pm) is a prime example of sticking with a winning formula. The competition, now in its tenth season, has survived a channel hop and major changes in personnel, but it has kept on running as smoothly as a Kenwood Chef because the basics are sound. Nice people performing wholesome tasks with the occasional sprinkling of smut.

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This time are there are 13 contestants instead of 12, and one week two might leave rather than one, but they have had a baker’s dozen before so it is hardly revolution. Though the standard is now ridiculously high, one can already start to separate the Nigellas from the numpties. No strong personalities emerged in episode one. Most of them are very young, and everyone is being terribly nice, even famously hard-baked judge Paul Hollywood. We shall see how long that lasts.

I have high hopes for Michael, 26, who was born in Newcastle, lives in Stratford-upon-Avon but considers himself Scottish. Decidedly sausage-fingered with knives, Michael already has plasters on every finger. Any more nicks and he will be covered head to toe in them, like The Mummy. Let’s see him whip up a Victoria sponge then.

With perfect timing, along comes a new three part documentary series, China: A New World Order (BBC2, Thursday, 9pm). China is one of many subjects to have fallen off the radar in the wake of the all-encompassing Brexit. In reality it has gone nowhere, and as Richard Cookson’s balanced and well-sourced opener showed, the premiership of Xi Jinping really does deserve more of our attention.

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Covering Xi’s rise to power, his crackdown on the media and the treatment of the Uighur Muslim community, this was a chilling piece, particularly when attention turned to the prison camps, or to give them their official title “vocational training institutions", where people from minorities are “re-educated”. One talking head, Leon Panetta, former CIA director under Obama, said; “There is no question there are crimes against humanity going on in China; the question is whether the the world ultimately holds them accountable.”

Courtesy of the Radio Times, here’s a question to ponder when you tune into the second part of Sanditon (ITV, Sunday, 9pm) tomorrow: Is it too racy? Last week there were three, count ‘em, bare male bottoms and one fumble in the woods. Anne Reid, magnificent as the sarky Lady Denham, blames Daniel Craig for starting the race to the bottoms by coming out of the sea Ursula Andress-style in Casino Royale. Funny how male nudity is suddenly attracting lots of comment. The female variety went on for centuries and not a peep was heard. Tomorrow night I have it on good authority that a pineapple will feature. All in the best possible taste, no doubt, but I’ll have a peek just to check.