BBC Knowledge (channel 251 on DStv):

The Spice Trail
From Thursday, 10 May at 22:00. Series continues every Thursday at 22:00.

Kate Humble embarks on a journey of discovery as she goes in search of some of the world’s most coveted spices. It’s a tale of epic voyages, bloody wars, the birth of multinational companies and contemporary cultures, as she travels around the globe to reveal how spices are grown, used and traded in the 21st century. In medieval times, spices were a symbol of wealth and power, and were thought to have medicinal properties that could even cure diseases. With immense fortunes to be made, explorers set forth in search of these tastes of paradise in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Humble follows in these explorers’ footsteps, travelling to India to uncover the story of the most heavily traded spice in the world – pepper – before heading south to the cinnamon islands of Sri Lanka; a place shrouded in mystery for Europeans until the Portuguese landed on its shores. Then it’s on to Indonesia; an archipelago of tiny islands which drew European explorers in search of nutmeg and clove. Humble then takes the spice trail from the Atlas mountains in Morocco to Spain, to reveal the story behind the world’s most expensive spice – saffron – before heading across the Atlantic to Mexico in search of vanilla. In each episode Humble reveals the history of each of the spices she encounters – nutmeg, clove, pepper, cinnamon, vanilla and saffron – including the folklore and superstition surrounding them, the processing methods, and how one of the greatest periods of discovery helped shape the world today.

Frontline Medicine
From Tuesday, 15 May at 21:00. Concludes on Tuesday, 22 May at 21:00.

From the frontline of war to the frontline of research, this documentary meets the inspirational men and women behind the latest medical breakthroughs that will save thousands of lives – both on and off the battlefield. These medical pioneers have introduced procedures that have seen the survival rate of injured servicemen and women rise to 90%. Designed for the warzone, these developments range from spray-on skin cells to rebuilding damaged hands using rib bones.

Frontline Medicine also reveals the innovators in medical research; those who are revolutionising healthcare for both civilian and military patients. These ground-breaking developments include mind-controlled prosthetics for amputees, and electrodes to allow blind casualties to “see” again. Offering a fascinating insight into the lives of medical professionals who are working in some of the most extraordinary and difficult circumstances, the programme reveals how today’s warfare is helping to create tomorrow’s treatments.

James May’s Toy Stories: The Great Train Race
Friday, 18 May at 22:00.

After he conceded a bitter defeat in 2009, James May returns to Devon for a second attempt at joining the towns of Bideford and Barnstaple with a Hornby model railway. His last effort faced shoddy engineering, vandalism, defective trains, leaves on the line and appalling weather conditions which left the attempt in tatters. The disaster culminated in the last of the five trains seizing up barely seven miles into the 10-mile journey – having left just 14 hours earlier.

But now, two years on, May is piqued by the sense of unfinished business and spurred on by a fresh challenge. In Hamburg, some of the greatest model train experts in the world are planning to snatch victory from the plucky Brits. They will be running their trains on their own track in the opposite direction – and their secret cutting-edge technology could see May's amateur tinkering pale in comparison. Armed with a crack team of engineers, a fresh approach, and a revolutionary but temperamental track laying machine, May's attempt with his trusty Flying Scotsman includes crashes, a battle of wits, and a dramatic, emotional conclusion.

Targeting Bin Laden
Tuesday, 22 May at 22:00.

Featuring an exclusive interview with President Barack Obama, this drama-documentary reveals the detail behind the US mission that successfully found and killed Osama Bin Laden. On 1 May 2011, the White House announced that Osama Bin Laden had been shot dead by US Navy SEALS in a house in the town of Abbottabad, Pakistan. The man who had eluded US forces for so long, the man responsible for masterminding the September 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, had finally been found.

Finding Bin Laden was one of Barack Obama’s key election promises, and the success or failure of the operation would define his presidency. In Targeting Bin Laden, President Obama and key players in the US Government, including America’s National Security Advisor and the White House Chief Counter Terrorism Advisor, discuss the mission in vivid detail, revealing what really happened along the corridors of power in the nerve-wracking days and hours leading up to the event.

Diamond Queen
From Tuesday, 29 May at 21:00. Series continues every day at 21:00.

Political journalist Andrew Marr looks at the defining moments in the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II in this three-part series in the year of her diamond jubilee. Looking closely at the influence of her grandfather, father and mother, and the impact of the abdication of her uncle, Marr reveals the story of the little girl who never expected to reign – and hears from the Queen’s grandchildren about what it must have been like to become queen at the age of 25.

Marr travels with the Queen to the Middle East and the USA to discover what the role of 'Head of State' actually entails, examines how she coped with decades of changing and sometimes tense relations with the media, and charts her trip to Australia to look at what some perceive to be her most enduring achievement; the Commonwealth. He also takes a look at the many challenges the Queen has faced over the years, from her attempts to modernise the monarchy to the Royal tragedies of 1992 - the year which the Queen herself termed an ‘annus horribilis’.

Including special interviews with Princes William and Harry, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, the Earl of Wessex, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, David Cameron, Tony Blair, Sir John Major, and President Obama, Diamond Queen reveals a personal account not only of the Queen’s reign, but her role as a mother and grandmother.

BBC Lifestyle (channel 180 on DStv):

Grand Designs (season nine)
From Sunday, 6 May at 19:00. Series continues every Sunday at 19:00.

Designer and author Kevin McCloud meets people who want something a little different out of their homes – so much so that they decide to build them themselves. In season nine of Grand Designs, we see a family from Braintree who decide to leave their cramped two-bedroom London flat to take on the conversion of a huge grade two listed timber-framed barn, another couple build a home big enough to house their own dance floor and DJ booth in a plot of land carved out of someone’s back garden in Kensington, and in Cornwall, stonemason Adam and his partner renovate a dilapidated grade two engine house into their dream home. Expect the usual building calamities and overspending that goes hand-in-hand with the peculiar and often extravagant building ideas conjured up by the British public.

My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding
Sunday, 6 May at 18:00.

Entering the world of 21st century gypsy and traveller weddings, where ancient traditions meet modern fashions in an ostentatious culture clash, this documentary follows four gypsy and traveller families on their wedding day. Although these young women look sexually provocative, there is a tradition of premarital chastity that is increasingly unusual in Britain today. Considered ‘on the shelf’ at 20, in gypsy and traveller communities many girls get married soon after their 16th birthday, with the full support of their family. The weddings are visual spectacles – brides and their families compete to have the most flamboyant dresses, which can reach enormous proportions and sometimes weigh more than the bride herself.

Gaining rare access to this fascinating and often misunderstood community, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding uses the prism of the weddings to reveal a culture where marriages between first cousins are acceptable, but having children out of wedlock is still taboo and divorce is unheard of. Used to facing prejudice, this is a community that lives alongside but detached from mainstream society. It is a world of contrasts, living by centuries-old religious and cultural traditions but at the same time embracing the gaudier extremes of the celebrity- and fashion-obsessed times in which we live.

Big Fat Gypsy Weddings
From Sunday, 13 May at 18:00. Series continues every Sunday at 18:00.

Big Fat Gypsy Weddings paints a visually arresting portrait of the secretive, extravagant and surprising world of gypsies and travellers in Britain today. The series explores the extraordinary rite-of-passage celebrations and events – including weddings, communions and christenings – to provide a window into the world of the gypsy and traveller community. Each episode offers an insight into the community’s attitudes toward gender roles, education, and its perception of the non-gypsy or traveller world. Through the experiences of the unforgettable cast of characters, the series explores the remarkable rituals, traditions and beliefs held by this minority group to tell the story of 21st century gypsy and traveller life in Britain. Big Fat Gypsy Weddings tells intimate stories on an epic scale, laying bare an exotic unseen Britain that exists right under the very noses of the general public.

Service!
From Thursday, 17 May at 20:00. Series continues every Thursday at 20:00

Great service matters almost more to Michel Roux than great food. He believes waiters and sommeliers are the unsung stars of the restaurant world, and is on a personal mission to train eight young people as front-of-house superstars. Good service involves discipline, care for others and self confidence, learning to serve others will mean developing essential life skills. The trainees will receive the best tuition, learning the skills needed to run service in some of Europe's best restaurants, and Roux hopes they will discover that front-of-house service offers a brilliant career.

Roux's trainees experience the brilliance of Michelin-starred service before cutting their teeth in the busy world of a high street restaurant, including serving more than 100 customers on a Saturday night, where Roux gets to see just what his new recruits are made of. Are they tough enough to take the pressure?

Restoration Roadshow
From Wednesday, 16 May at 10:00. Series continues every day at 10:00.

Antiques expert Eric Knowles and a team of antiques restorers invite members of the public to a roadshow set within the grounds of some of the UK’s most beautiful stately homes. The public bring along their damaged heirlooms and attic treasures in the hope that they can be restored. Items are appraised and valued before restoration, and viewers discover the back story and history of the item, plus the reason the owner would like to see them returned to their former glory.

The restorers set to work and viewers learn many of the tricks of the trade about caring for antiques and will witness the highly skilled forensic process involved in restoring damaged items. As a side story, we also find out about a major restoration that has been going on at the stately location. Finally, the restored pieces are revealed to their owners, who decide whether they want to keep them or sell them at auction. The idea is that the antiques which go to auction will hopefully make a bigger profit than they would have made from being sold damaged.

BBC Entertainment (channel 120 on DStv):

Derren Brown: The Experiments
From Sunday, 6 May at 20:25. Series continues every Sunday at 20:25.

The award-winning illusionist returns to our screens with The Experiments, a four part series designed to illustrate how easily our behaviour can be manipulated. Each episode features a mixture of stunts, suggestion, and thought-provoking entertainment combined with tried and tested psychological experiments. Throughout the series, Brown investigates hypnosis, turns himself into a game show host, attempts to convince someone to confess to a crime they didn’t commit, and discovers what it is exactly that makes someone lucky or unlucky. Brown is back to his old tricks as he attempts to fool more unsuspecting members of the public and push the boundaries of perception, but this time has he gone too far …?

Deal or No Deal
From Monday, 7 May at 17:00. Series continues every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Monday at 17:00.

Every game of Deal or No Deal has the potential to end with the player £250 000 better off … or going home with just 1p. The drama inherent in the show’s format explains why it’s a worldwide smash hit, and this specially selected run of episodes collects together some of the most tense and surprising encounters between players and the Banker. Presented by Noel Edmonds, Deal or No Deal features 22 players, one of whom could win up to £250 000. There are 22 sealed boxes, but only one question: deal - or no deal? The chosen contestant picks one box which potentially contains their prize. They then spend the duration of the show opening the remaining boxes, one by one, revealing the money they contained.

When a box is chosen to be opened, the box – and the cash sum inside it – is then out of play. The aim of the game is to try and pick boxes that contain the lowest amounts of money, adding hope that the contestant’s box contains a high amount of money and in turn provoking The Banker to offer the contestant a better deal. If a contestant chooses to accept The Banker’s offer by saying 'Deal', the game is still played out in exactly the same way to determine whether the contestant dealt at the correct moment, or whether had they keep on playing they would have in fact walked away with a greater sum of money. With each player bringing their own unique personality to their game, no two shows are alike, but the drama of each is always excitingly unpredictable.

Above Suspicion: Deadly Intent (season three)
From Monday, 14 May at 20:00. Series continues every Monday at 20:00.

Award-winning writer Lynda La Plante returns with a new instalment of her franchise Above Suspicion. DI Anna Travis (Kelly Reilly) is back after her promotion, reunited with DCS James Langton (Ciarán Hinds) and DCI Mike Lewis (Shaun Dingwall), who is heading his first murder case. A fatal shooting in a notorious drug dealer’s squat takes place in North London. The victim is Frank Brandon, an ex-police officer from the drug squad, and friend of James Langton. Travis and the team are soon at the scene trying to connect the presence of their ex-colleague with such desperate surroundings.

The team discover that Frank has recently married Julia Larsen, a glamorous, wealthy woman. The set up seems odd, and Travis, determined to find answers, strikes out on her own to discover that Julia had an ex-husband called Anthony Collingwood AKA Alexander Fitzpatrick, one of the most wanted men in the western world for drug trafficking. Operating under numerous aliases, he has eluded arrest for 20 years and there has been no sighting of him. Energised by her findings and with the body count mounting, it seems increasingly likely that the infamous drug baron is back in the UK. Langton and Travis pull together to stop this supremely dangerous killer before he gets to his next victim. Will they figure out Fitzpatrick’s plan in time or will he be the one that got away …?

The Omid Djalili Show
From Tuesday, 15 May at 22:00 and 22:30. Series continues every Tuesday at 22:00 and 22:30.

One of Britain’s best-loved and multi-award-winning stand-up comedians is unleashed as a performer and writer in his own comedy sketch show that mixes energetic stand-up with memorable sketches and characters. The show takes a grown up swipe at modern life in a multicultural society. It reflects and builds upon Djalili’s hugely successful stand-up persona: part political, part social commentary, part plain silly.

Each episode has a strand of features and characters that flow in and out of the show, including running jokes, sight gags, and a number of high impact one-off and returning sketches. In his stand up, Djalili talks about subjects that include Muslim fundamentalists, the environment, multi-tasking mums and marriage. Sketch characters include a wannabe actor desperate to impress anyone he meets, and a bouncer who releases his own instructional videos and a confused mafia boss.

Djalili is joined in the sketches by a number of familiar faces throughout the series. Having performed in movies such as The Mummy, Gladiator and the Bond film, The World is Not Enough, getting his own show seems the ideal opportunity for Djalili to call in one or two favours from his famous friends. Celebrity guests include Alison Steadman (Gavin and Stacey, Secrets & Lies), Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who) and Jill Halfpenny (EastEnders).

The Indian Doctor
From Friday, 18 May at 16:30 and 17:15. Series continues every Friday at 16:30 and 17:15.

The Indian Doctor tells the story of Dr Prem Sharma, a high flying Delhi graduate, who arrives in the UK in 1963 as part of the 'first wave' of Indian doctors wooed by then-health minister Enoch Powell. Sharma and his wife Kamini want to build a new life for themselves following a family tragedy. But, rather than finding a job as a high-flying consultant in London, Sharma finds himself in the Welsh coal mining village of Trefelin, where he quickly starts to realise things are not quite as they should be.

The Indian Doctor follows Sharma and his wife as they adapt to the Welsh way of life, but as the doctor integrates himself into his new society he is in for a shock or two when it comes to understanding, treating, and getting on with the locals.

CBeebies (channel 306 on DStv):

Numtums
From Monday, 14 May at 6:25 and 14:25. Series continues every day at 6:25, 10:25 and 14:25.

Numtums is a fun, energetic show which combines animation and live action with songs and numbers, giving pre-schoolers a foundation in numeracy. The show also helps children recognise the shapes of numbers and remember what order they should be in. The Numtums are ten cuddly creatures with numbers on their tummies, who love to dance, dress up, play, tickle, fly, and most of all count!

In this series, numtum number 1 turns cartwheels, numtum number 7 juggles seven teddy bears, and numtum number 10 draws a number ten in the air with her aeroplane. The numtums also go for a boogie at the disco, and stop their friends the flamingos from ruffling their feathers.

Waybuloo
From Thursday, 24 May at 19:00. Series continues every day at 19:00.

Waybuloo is unique in its exploration of emotions and relationships, taking children on a journey through stories of co-operation, friendship and enjoyment. The series blends together the magic of computer generated animation with live action footage of children in the vast world of Nara; a land of happiness, laughter and friendship that’s home to the Piplings.

The four Piplings have big, beautiful eyes, and are happy, loving and caring creatures. They are inquisitive and playful: Yojojo is full of fun, he’s mischievous and loves surprises. Lau Lau is creative and thrives when she’s dancing or painting. Nok Tok is practical and inventive, he’s happiest when he’s making things. De Li is thoughtful, caring and loves gardening.

The Piplings practice Yogo, a gentle form of exercise which is similar to yoga. The movements are often inspired by things that the Piplings see in Nara, such as birds, trees and narabugs. They do four Yogo poses at the beginning of each programme, and later when the Cheebies (children) come to Nara, the Piplings and Cheebies repeat the poses together. In these new episodes, Lau Lau finds a glittery Narmole, Yojojo has a disastrous trip in Nok Tok’s car when he drives it recklessly into the pitcher plant, and De Li’s plans to make plumpkin soup is thwarted when she discovers a caterpillar has made his home in it.