Dickens knew it, Channel 5 knows it, and the dogs in the street would doubtless agree - where there is a will, there is a great story waiting to be told.

Inheritance Wars: Who Gets the Money? (Channel 5, Sunday, 9pm) is a four-part documentary series, and is not to be confused with the four-part drama, The Inheritance (Channel 5, Monday, 9pm).

In the drama, three adult children are stunned when their father dies and leaves everything to a wife they knew nothing about. The documentary series promises “shocking true stories of families who have been dragged through the courts by grief and greed”.

The first case examined is that of the Rawlings brothers, Terry and Michael. Both boys grew up in Bermondsey with their parents. One day a pal of the boys’ came to stay and never left, eventually being adopted. While the adopted son remained with the parents and became their carer, Terry and Michael had on-off contact.

When the parents died, Terry and Michael discovered that they had been left nothing. The adopted son got the house and estate. Legal proceedings began that were to take almost a decade to conclude, and when they did it resulted in a change to the law.

READ MORE Strathclyde take on East Anglia on University Challenge

The sums involved in the Bernard Matthews’ case were bigger, but the emotions were just as raw. The turkey farmer from Norfolk had by his own admission a “complicated” personal life, involving four children (three adopted) and a partner he lived with in France. When Matthews died the adopted children were left out of the will and subsequently challenged it.

There are solicitors, barristers and journalists on hand to explain the sometimes complicated legal to and fro. They are joined by some of the protagonists, and a psychologist. It makes for a riveting hour. “Money makes people do terrible things,” says one contributor. I expect by series end that will be something many can agree on.

Four years ago, these pages were home to a glowing recommendation to watch a new documentary series called Rise of the Nazis. Featuring the best historians in their fields, plus individual stories brought to life in dramatic reconstructions, it had the makings of a standout piece of television.

So it proved through three series. Now the fourth (and presumably final) instalment arrives. Rise of the Nazis: The Manhunt (BBC2, Tuesday, 9pm) opens with British troops entering Belsen to discover the horrors within.

READ MORE: The women behind TV hit

The war over and peace secured (for now), the allies were divided over what to do with those senior Nazis still alive. Churchill was content to have them taken away and shot, says historian Professor Richard Overy. Stalin wanted a show trial. It was the Americans who pushed hardest for a western-style trial at Nuremberg to establish guilt and impose justice.

Episode one switches back and forth from the trial in Nuremberg of 22 of the highest ranking Nazis, and the more general manhunt being carried out by men such as Captain Victor Cross. The 32-year-old, who worked in trade before the war, initially had a suspect list stretching to 70,000 names. Cross made it a priority to go after Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz. Hoss’s wife said he was dead. In reality he was hiding out under a new identity. General Sir Mike Jackson takes up the tale of the captain and the commandant, which even after many a telling is still a jaw-dropper.

Don’t know about your neck of the woods, but around here it feels as though autumn has taken up residence. What better time to slip away for some Italian sun in Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby (BBC2, Sunday, 8pm).

Monica Galetti and Rob Rinder are off to Borgo Egnazia in Puglia. The opening shot is of the pair making their way through a maze of alleyways that look like they have been there forever. More like 13 years. This is not just a hotel, you see. This is a hotel that has been made to look like a village, complete with a centre and “suburbs”.

The ‘burbs are home to the biggest villas, with Madonna and the Beckhams said to be regular guests (though perhaps not together). The more standard accommodation, if you can affix such a label on something costing £2k a night in high season, consists of three-storey houses.

For more TV picks please subscribe

Rob is not sure at first about the idea of recreating a village. Is it going to feel like “Disney does Puglia”? There are more raised eyebrows when they go off for a day’s training on how to deal with guests, only to find the “guest” in this instance is a horse. It all makes sense in the end.

Politics is back after the summer, and so is Question Time (BBC1, Thursday, 10.40pm). Prepare to agree wholeheartedly with one panellist and find another appalling - it’s all part of the heated debate in a show that often makes the headlines the next day. No idea who the guests are going to be till the day of filming, but Fiona Bruce will be in charge of keeping order. First stop is Ipswich. Good luck everyone.