GROWING UP IN SCOTLAND: A CENTURY OF CHILDHOOD, BBC2, 9pm

THERE have been pleasant hints of nostalgia and cheer in this series, even when it was tackling subjects like the use of the belt in school, or the effect of slum housing on children’s health.

Maybe we’re hard-wired to look back fondly on childhood, and recollections of the sting on the palm or the dampness on the wall is leavened by memories of pals and games and gran slipping you some extra pocket money.

However, tonight’s episode, the last in the series, is rather more grim.

It looks at the hard topic of neglected or unwanted children and how they were cared for in the less forgiving climate of the early 20th century.

These days, children in difficulty might be offered play therapy, additional learning support or counselling, but we see that some Scottish local authorities sent such children to the distant islands where they would be neither seen nor heard.

This policy expanded to sending unwanted children off for adoption in Canada or Australia, sometimes without parental consent. Churches also played a part in these schemes which seem unthinkable today.

BREXIT: BRITAIN’S BIGGEST DEAL, BBC1, 11.15pm

LAURA Kuenssberg presents another Brexit analysis.

These programmes are like porridge or broccoli: you might not exactly go lunging for them, eyes agleam, but you know they’ll be good for you, so sit up nicely at the table and eat.

Here, Kuenssberg looks at the likely impact of Brexit as the deadline for Article 50 approaches and asks whether it’s best to do this thing swiftly – a clean break, like splitting up with a partner – or should we go through a long and painstaking divorce process which could eat up time, money and attention for years to come.