If you are still resisting siren calls to put the heating on, be warned that last defences may crumble when watching Endurance: Race to the Pole with Ben Fogle (Channel 5, Monday, 9pm). An hour of sub-zero temperatures and endless snow would give anyone the chills.

Fogle and his friend and fellow explorer Dwayne Fields set out to follow in the footsteps of Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen as they took on one of the great challenges of the age.

If that was not daunting enough, the pair opt to keep it real and wear the same clothes, eat the same food, and use the same kit as their early 20th century counterparts.

That means boiled wool jackets and long johns in place of light, high-tech performance gear, a linen tent, and reindeer skins instead of cosy sleeping bags. As for the food, how appetising do dry biscuits in beef fat sound?

But at least Fogle will have some hounds to keep him warm on those three dog nights, right? No such luck. Unlike in Shackleton and co days, no non-native species are allowed in Antarctica. This also means Fogle and Fields are hauling their own kit.

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The trek soon tests the friends to their limits. It is not just the physical exhaustion caused by trudging across the ice. The sheer monotony wears them down. Then there are the moments of genuine terror as the landscape reminds them who is boss. It is no mean feat to dampen Fogle’s spirits, but Antarctica has a pretty good go.

In the first of three episodes the pals follow the route taken by The Discovery Expedition, 1901-04. Gruelling as that trek turned out to be, there was far worse to come before the race to the Pole was over.

Fogle is always good value and the addition of Fields works well. Fogle and Fields: sounds like a law firm, or better still the title for a new series.

Remember the kerfuffle when it was announced that All Creatures Great and Small (Channel 5, Thursday, 9pm) was making a comeback? Now returning for a fourth series, the newcomer has become a firm fixture in the schedules.

As the new run begins the war is bedding in and familiar faces are absent from the veterinary surgery and village. Chief among them is Tristan, off doing his duty for king and country.

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In the village a battle of wills is taking place between James and a young lad devoted to his dog. The vet thinks the animal is ill and wants to treat it, the boy fears he will never see his pal again. Should the authorities be called in, or should James, as the kid says, mind his own business?

It’s the kind of storyline the “new” All Creatures does so well. Issues are tackled - rural poverty, loneliness, the position of women in society - but with a light touch and genuine feeling. All Creatures - it’s Call the Midwife with added animals. No higher compliment could be paid.

Street Gangs (BBC Scotland, Wednesday, 10pm) is not the easiest proposition to sell. An hour and a half hearing from youngsters in hoodies and balaclavas about gang life? The prospect has “haud me back” written all over it.

Not so fast, though. Street Gangs is a programme where the presenter makes a world of difference. Graeme Armstrong is a successful author and a former gang member. Consider the talk talked and the walk walked.

He got out of gang life by going to university but maintains contacts through his work. Armstrong has heard that there is a return to gang culture going on, particularly in Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow. He wants to find out if that’s true and if so what can be done about it.

As he talks to current gang members it is clear some things have changed since his time, the tech for a start. Camera phones and social media make it easier to arrange battles, and footage of fights and attacks are shared as a way of humiliating victims further.

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It would heartily depressing save for Armstrong and his determination not to write off these youngsters. In one moving scene he goes back to his old school to see the inspirational teacher who made all the difference. “They had no stake in saving my life,” he says of that teacher and others who believed in him, “but they did it anyway.”

According to Google, the new series of Have I Got News for You (BBC1, Friday, 9pm) will be the 65th. That makes Gogglebox, its arch rival in the slot before catch-up came along, seem a mere whippersnapper with 22 series to its name.

I have an on-off relationship with the comedy quiz. On a bad night it can be blokey and boring, but with the right chair, a fair wind, and a busy news week, the show finds its groove again. No word yet on who will be teaming up with Merton and Hislop, but the job of keeping a vague semblance of order goes to the hugely capable Victoria Coren Mitchell.