Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc of Great British Bake Off. Photo: Love Productions 2010

RECTIFY Series return Thursday 9.30pm, SBS One

Other dramas have been getting way more attention (yes, we're looking at you, True Detective) but this exquisite series produced for the Sundance Channel stands head and shoulders above the pack. The budget isn't huge but the production values are impeccable, achieving a great deal with very little. A host of small, impeccably-considered details mean that while the pace is languid (season one covered a single week) every moment is drenched with meaning without ever feeling overwrought. Simultaneously brutal and gentle, and completely compelling.

SPORT: SOCCER From Friday 10pm, ABC

Inspector Gadget

Even if you don't follow the round ball game, the Asian Cup is a big deal. Like the World Cup, it's held every four years and a fascinating collection of nations is represented: Australia, of course; big names like Japan and Korea; and others where you wonder how they managed to field a team at all. If nothing else it's a testament to the truly global nature of the game. The action kicks off in Melbourne tonight, when the Socceroos take on Kuwait.

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HUMAN UNIVERSE WITH BRIAN COX New series Wednesday 8.30pm, ABC

Rock star. Astro-physicist. Pin up. It's so tempting to mock Professor Brian Cox, but that would be to do him and this series a great disservice. He can't help being perfect! And at least he's putting his many talents to excellent use in making complex science so accessible, and so thought provoking. It's a credit to both his intelligence and his imagination that he's able to take a rarefied field (physics) and show us not just how it relates to every day life, but in this series how it shaped the development of our species. Fascinating.

Professor Brian Cox Human Universe with Brian Cox 8.30pm ABC. MMag TV Previews by Melinda Houston. Photo: ABC Publicity

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