Surf Report

SERIES

Expanding its own franchise, A&E; premieres “Biography Close-Up” (8 p.m. A&E;) with a look at the TV and film career of “Derek Zoolander” himself, funny man Ben Stiller.

Life during wartime: the impact of the Second World War on one British family provides the drama as “Masterpiece Theatre” (9 p.m. KCET, KVCR) presents Part 1 of a five-part adaptation of Elizabeth Jane Howard’s “The Cazalets.” Hugh Bonneville and Ursula Howells star.

MOVIE

Mel Gibson is “The Patriot” (8 p.m. HB0), a farmer and family man in Colonial-era South Carolina who gets swept up in the American Revolution, in director Roland Emerich’s 2000 epic.