Family Feud, Ten, 6pm

The revival of Family Feud on Ten is shaping up to be one of the year's surprise successes, incontestable proof that some of TV's best ideas aren't exactly rocket science. Remove the Twitter and Facebook logos, and today's FF could be a facsimile of the original with its garish set, cornball antics, hyperventilating guests hoping to drive home in a new car but having to settle for a CD voucher instead, and questions inane enough to make the drunk who boarded the train thinking he was at the TAB appear vaguely sensible. People, it's 2014 and Family Feud is back.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, SBS One, 9.30pm

This new comedy from the creators of Parks and Recreation was catapulted into the zeitgeist when it beat out Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory to win best comedy series at January's Golden Globe ceremony. Essentially a workplace sitcom, it does for the cop genre what Scrubs did for the medico show. With a knowing wink and easy charm to burn, it delivers a cast of endearing and eccentric characters who fluke and bumble their way through sleuthing, dating and other modern manners. At the centre is man-child Detective Jake Peralta, played by Saturday Night Live alumni Andy Samberg, and newly arrived captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher, who nicely references his better-known role in Homicide: Life on the Street). It relies on rapid-fire, hit-and-miss gags, pratfalls, guest cameos (look out for Fred Armisen in the first of tonight's two episodes) and an inordinate amount of likeable silliness.

Q&A, ABC, 9.35pm

What would that great unlocker of the mysteries of the human mind, Hercule Poirot, make of the so-called maverick MP and Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce? Would he twirl his moustache, or pull a funny face (hang on, hasn't someone already done that)? The prospect isn't too far-fetched, given the oft-derided but not-to-be-underestimated politician will be one of the panelists at the Q&A desk alongside David Suchet, arguably the best-remembered of many towering actors who have played Agatha Christie's fictional creation. ''Who murdered Australian democracy?'' may well be Tony Jones' opening gambit in what promises to be an unpredictable episode of the weekly current-affairs show, alongside Mark Butler, Madonna King and Louise Adler.

PAUL KALINA

PAY TV

Lyndey’s Baking Secrets, Lifestyle Food, 8.30pm

A familiar face behind the kitchen counter, due to her stint on Channel Nine’s daytime cooking show, Fresh, and her self-titled Taste of ... series on Channel Seven, Lyndey Milan is every home cook’s best friend and saviour. Radiating kindness and geniality, she all but winks at the camera while demonstrating how simply and swiftly rustic meals can be assembled, sharing time-saving tips that truly are ingenious.  Gentle mood music accompanies montages showing the dishes actually cooking, as Lyndey glides from oven to bench-top carrying such mouth-watering concoctions as banana and caramel sticky pudding, and beef and red wine pies. A field trip to the Australian Patisserie Academy in Sydney to see how the professionals make fiddly little eclairs makes Lyndey’s homemade fare look even easier.

The Amazing World of Gumball, Cartoon Network, 5pm

This strange animation, a British-American collaboration that melds the two-dimensional with the three, concerns the schoolyard antics of Gumball Watterson, a 12-year-old cat, and his adoptive brother, a goldfish named Darwin.  Full of gross-out jokes in the style of Ren and Stimpy, Gumball no doubt appeals immensely to its target audience – boys aged between eight and 28.

BRIDGET MCMANUS

MOVIES

Tell No One (2006), SBS Two, 1am (Tuesday)

With his second turn as a director, French actor Guillaume Canet made a pithy, attentive thriller that uses tension and immediacy to overcome any nagging concerns about the plot. Eight years after the brutal murder of his wife, Margot (Marie-Josee Croze), a crime for which he was initially the suspect, Parisian paediatrician Alex Beck (Francois Cluzet) receives an email directing him to an internet camera feed of an unknown public location, where his wife stands before his disbelieving eyes. Canet has made a romantic thriller – Alex’s obsession to uncover the truth is fuelled by his unrequited love, and Cluzet plays him as a man both scared and more alive than he’s been in years. The source material – Harlan Coben’s paperback – was set in New York but in the translation Canet provides a nuanced portrait of the French capital, particularly when Alex’s quest takes him onto a housing estate and his understanding of the values in French society are rearranged.

The Illusionist (2006), Thriller Movies (pay TV), 10.30pm

The setting is Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, the centre of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with the subject the power to maintain an illusion. Neil Burger’s film turns on the comparative strength – and will – of Eisenheim the Illusionist (Edward Norton) and Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti), the unassuming police inspector who serves as the functionary of Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell). Eisenheim was the illicit teenage love of the Duchess Sophie (Jessica Biel) and his return to Vienna distracts her at the point where she is expected to marry Leopold, despite his overbearing manner and reputed quick temper. To deprive the future emperor of whatever – or whoever – he wants is a form of sedition and it is Uhl who must persuade the magician to stand aside or be prosecuted. The moments that matter in The Illusionist are those shared by Norton and Giamatti, two fine but contrasting actors playing very different outsiders.

CRAIG MATHIESON