It doesn’t seem that long since Idris Elba was hoping that learning to box would turn around the lives of disadvantaged youngsters. Now, in the manner of bus clusters everywhere, along comes Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams (BBC1, Tuesday), in which he uses cricket to turn around the … well, you know the rest.

Both BBC programmes, both doing essentially the same thing, but to what end? I’m surprised the nation’s disadvantaged youngsters have any space left in their days for yet more celebrity coaching.

To be fair, Flintoff, a likeable sort who reportedly took no fee for the programme and indeed put in his own money, had his own doubts. Boy, did he have his doubts. As we know from his previous programmes dealing with bulimia and depression, he is not the most confident of souls to start with.

Maybe that was the point. If a working class kid like him could break into the elitist world of cricket (in the last Ashes series two thirds of the England squad were privately educated), then it was worth taking a closer look at what spurred him on.

Off he set for his home town of Preston and a council estate near where he grew up. The kids, if they were familiar with cricket at all, thought it was not for them. Football was their game. As the first of three episodes ended, Flintoff had his work cut out.

At first sight, Ghislaine Maxwell: The Making of a Monster (Channel 4, Tuesday-Thursday) looked like a documentary now surplus to requirements. With several films on the Epstein saga already out there, and massive coverage of the story over the past few years and recently, what more could be added?

For a lot of the time it was the same old talking heads and footage, although it did have some firsts, including the husband and wife managers of Epstein’s private island talking on camera, and a victim telling her story for the first time “in a public space”.

Some of the early years material was new to me (did you know Michael Crick was her tutor at Oxford? She was bright but would not do the work, her sense of entitlement already strong).

Erica Gornall’s film came into its own in the closing section, when talk turned to how much Maxwell had been a victim, if at all, and if so what had happened in her life to make her one. An explanation as to why she was attracted to domineering men was tiptoed around. With Maxwell herself saying nothing, what else could be done?

Late to the gathering it may have been, but one can only hope Gornall’s thoughtful film will not be the last on Epstein, Maxwell, and their grubby associates. There’s some way to go yet in this saga.

The Andrew Neil Show (Channel 4, Sunday) has had time to settle in to its new home, so time for a return visit. In the immortal words of Chumbawamba, Neil got knocked down, badly, with that GB News business. His move away from the BBC was meant to be a glorious new start. Instead, he found himself interviewing Neil Oliver. Could Paisley’s finest pick himself back up again on Channel 4?

He was on good form in his opening skit, mocking Nadine Dorries for mixing up rugby union and league. I don’t expect the Culture Secretary was watching. She was probably at Silverstone, catching the figure skating.

Sunday is a crowded market for political programmes, and Neil’s show, airing early evening, has a “last in the queue” factor to overcome. He has worked round this by simply transferring his old, late night BBC show to early evening Channel 4. Since the BBC should never have axed This Week in the first place, I don’t expect many viewers will mind.

The new gig makes a decent enough half hour’s viewing when he gets the right guests (George Osborne and Ed Balls, say), but he is missing a couple of Portillo-style sidekicks who can take him on and add some fresh analysis of the week ahead.

George Clarke’s Remarkable Renovations (Channel 4, Wednesday) started with a doozy of a project. Each episode usually features the transformation of one unused commercial building into a home. Paul, a pig farmer, and his wife Imogen had a pub to convert, and a butcher’s next door, plus a blacksmith’s and a slaughterhouse, all of them lying empty for 70 years and stripped back to the bricks.

For most families, building an extension brings enough strain for one lifetime. Paul and Imogen, though, were for the most part amazingly laid back throughout the two year build. Since this, too, is Clarke’s normal state he was right at home with them.

It took a Herculean effort, a lot of dosh, but the finished effort was beautiful and, all agreed, well worth it. For their next job, wonder if Paul and Imogen could knock up a couple of ferries?