The Game (BBC2, 9pm)

WHEN this series aired in the US on BBC America in the winter, actor Tom Hughes was dubbed "the next Benedict Cumberbatch".

After four episodes of this 1970s-set spy thriller, it is safe to say that the Rada-trained actor from Chester is building up his own admirers. Hughes perfectly fits his role as an MI5 spy who acts as a honeytrapper, a man with a Bond-like ability for seducing women for information.

The 29-year-old – who modelled alongside Emma Watson in a Burberry fashion campaign, and also starred in Ricky Gervais's Cemetery Junction – plays Secret Service officer Joe Lambe in this gripping series.

Hughes has revealed that he desperately wanted the part of Joe because the character explores the many different sides of a man.

"For quite a while I’ve been lamenting the lack of parts that have the same dexterity of conflict in the leading man compared to what we had in the 1970s. During that time there seemed to be an array of characters that dealt with all the sides of what it meant to be a man, from the pressure of being perceived to be strong to also dealing with the sensitivities of emotion. I found that Joe had every single facet in one character. I couldn’t have been more excited. It’s something I desperately wanted to do," he says.

Written by Being Human's Toby Whithouse, The Game is set in London in 1972, against a background of miners' strikes, and follows the team of agents as they try to uncover a highly significant Soviet plot called Operation Glass.

"I’m not a big watcher of TV and films, but I have caught Mad Men over people’s shoulders before and that has such an attention to detail, period detail, so you’re immediately transported to that time. It helps suspend your disbelief straight away. It’s the same as an actor when you walk on to a well-dressed set. The attention to detail on the set of The Game is amazingly good. I just have to put my suit on, my sideburns; I smoke a cigarette and walk on to the set," says Hughes.

In tonight's penultimate episode, a string of shocking revelations means that Wendy's undercover mission to pose as a visiting nurse to Philip Denmoor, a one-time British bomb squad specialist, who is now working with the KGB and believed to be building a bomb to be detonated in London, has become critical to the investigation.

The team are hoping the rookie agent can keep it together as she tries to get close to her target, who proves to be a tricky customer with links to not only the Soviets, but also the IRA.

Meanwhile, Joe is facing troubles of his own, with the mission's security seemingly under threat from a mole inside MI5 – so he and DC Fenchurch set a trap.

The Paul O'Gray show (ITV 5pm)

THERE was me about to sing the praises of the masterful chat show host when I learned that Ofcom are investigating O'Grady's decision to inhale helium from a balloon as a gag on TV last month. So, that means I'll just have to adopt a high-pitched tone to say that the equally forthright Frances de la Tour is tonight's main guest... and might actually discuss Rising Damp with her scouse questioner.

The Hotel Inspector: Abroad (C5, 9pm)

ALEX Polizzi pays a visit to La Casa Hotel in the village of Torrox Pueblo near Malaga in southern Spain, where a number of factors have led to a room occupancy rate of just 25 per cent. With little prospect of selling up and moving back home, sisters Sarah and Karen have no choice but to try to make the hotel work. A drop in tourist numbers and the collapse of the Spanish economy in 2012 have saddled the pair with debts, leaving Alex with a huge task on her hands to turn around their fortunes. Last in the series.