“I wanted to change the world. Now I don’t bother to change my socks,” wails the unhappy Jim Dixon (Stephen Tompkinson), the hapless hero of “Lucky Jim” on “Masterpiece Theatre” (8 p.m., PBS), novelist Kingsley Amis’ satire of provincial academic life.

Just out of the army “de-mobbed” in British slang), Dixon joins the faculty of a remote university filled with high hopes. He plans to “make history by teaching it.” Reality throws cold water on such romantic notions. He is tyrannized by his eccentric department head Professor Neddy Welch (Robert Hardy) and pursued by a dotty, unattractive female colleague Margaret Peel (Helen McCrory) with the tenacity of one of Rommel’s blitzkriegs.

Dixon’s life seems thoroughly miserable and meaningless until he lays eyes on Christine Callaghan (Keeley Hawes, “Othello”), the shy but beautiful girlfriend of professor Welch’s son Bertrand (Stephen Mangan). “Lucky Jim” is filled with great comic types, most notably the clinging and delusional Margaret. Bertrand fancies himself as a really important avant-garde artist. He speaks of himself in the third person and sports a beret. For all of its humorous touches, “Jim” also manages to reflect a Britain just emerging from wartime scarcity and rationing. Jim and his colleagues dwell in near-freezing conditions, and he husbands his cigarettes like rare jewels.

Tompkinson is quite good as the cranky, rebellious Jim, a thoroughly reasonable man silently seething in a world of petty authoritarians, pretentious fops and the bland mediocrity of the status quo and its defenders. Amis’ debut novel made quite a sensation when it appeared in 1954. He was quickly lumped in with the “angry young men” generation of disaffected British authors. By the time he died in 1995, Amis had become one of that nation’s most respected writers, and had earned a knighthood in the process.

 Do you miss the Olympics? “Junkyard Wars” (7 p.m., TLC) kicks off a weeklong festival of amateur competition and heavy metal mayhem. Tonight the Law Dawgs, a band of K-9 cops from Modesto, Calif. take on a motorcycle gang called the Ghost Mountain Riders to see who can build the biggest monster trucks. Tuesday night’s project calls for a portable bridge. On Wednesday, a father and two sons from California take on an Oregon man and his two daughters in a challenge to create heavy artillery cannons. The “games” culminate on Saturday with the “Building Basher” competition. Two teams see who can make a mobile machine capable of pulverizing a reinforced concrete wall measuring 100 feet long, 12 feet high and one foot thick. Let the crushing begin! All of these episodes originally aired last Fall.

 Brooke Shields hosts the one hour documentary “Fear No More: Stop Violence Against Women” (9 p.m., Lifetime), a profile of five women victims who were inspired by their trauma to become activists. Playwright and activist Eve Ensler provides additional narration.

Tonight’s other highlights

 Richard Lewis and Laraine Newman guest star as the parents of Matt’s new girlfriend on “7th Heaven” (7 p.m., WB).

 On a New York-focused episode of “Antiques Roadshow” (7 p.m., PBS), items include a signed copy of James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

 After being mimicked by Ray and Debra, Frank and Marie return the favor on “Everybody Loves Raymond” (8 p.m., CBS).

 Sully challenges a powerful Russian mobster (Roy Scheider, “Jaws”) on “Third Watch” (8 p.m., NBC).

 Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman star in the 1998 romantic fantasy “Practical Magic” (8 p.m., ABC).