TV Tonight: Our highlights for Thursday, March 9

Crufts: a judge posing with a dog and a trophy

Crufts is back on TV Tonight. (Image credit: Channel 4)

On TV tonight, Crufts returns, we go undercover with an ambulance crew in a new Channel 4 doc, and a cold case is examined over on ITV. Here's what you shouldn't miss on TV Tonight.

Our hand-selected recommendations for what's on TV tonight include TV shows, a film, live sport and the latest trending need-to-binge-on-now box set
Keep up to date with the latest soap spoiler storylines on TV tonight with our daily soap synopsis
For more information about what’s on TV tonight see our TV Guide

What's on TV tonight

Our expert TV journalists have picked the best things on TV tonight...

Best TV shows on TV tonight

Crufts, from 3 pm, Channel 4

Furry friends take centre stage as the world’s greatest dog event showcases more than 18,000 canine companions in this four-day dog-tastic extravaganza. Presented by Clare Balding, Radzi Chinyanganya and Sophie Morgan, the feel-good show at the NEC Birmingham again sees dogs compete in various challenges, including agility, flyball, heelwork to music (our personal favourite for a bit of doggie dancing) and obedience categories. As well as exploring dog ownership in a cost-of-living crisis and Britain’s fast disappearing native breeds, there is also expert advice, from the best food to the best doggie toothbrushes to buy!

★★★★ RF

Undercover Ambulance: NHS in Chaos, 9 pm, Channel 4

Former East of England Ambulance Service worker Daniel Waterhouse — (Image credit: Channel 4)

The NHS is always under pressure in winter because of factors including cold weather and outbreaks of flu, but this winter has been unlike any other, with ambulance delays and patients on trolleys in corridors outside A&E departments. An ambulance crew member has been secretly filming the day-to-day work that he and his colleagues do for this Dispatches documentary. ‘People aren’t aware of how bad it is,’ he says.

★★★ JP

Cold Case Detectives, 9 pm, ITV1

Someone looking through a microscope — (Image credit: ITV)

This series follows the work of a cold case team in South Wales as they investigate a crime more than 60 years old – that of the abduction and murder of Carol Ann Stephens. The six-year-old went missing from her neighbourhood in Cardiff in 1959, and now a team including Detective Gerry Blake, who knew Carol personally, look back over the case hoping that developments in forensic science might help identify her killer. It’s painstaking work and a sad and upsetting story, but ultimately the team are hoping to get answers for Carol Ann’s family.

★★★ JP

Best box set on TV tonight

Daisy Jones & The Six, Prime Video

Cast of Daisy Jones and The Six — (Image credit: Prime Video)

Daisy and The Six frontman Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin), have a complex relationship with fame and drugs, as well as trying to resist their growing and undeniable connection to each other.

The book is told in a clever documentary style, switching back and forward in time with the band members (in the present) giving first-person accounts of their perspectives on the story of the band's rise and fall. Band members Graham (Will Harrison), Eddie (Josh Whitehouse), Karen (Suki Waterhouse) and Warren (Sebastian Chacon) discuss their time in the band and reveal what happened away from the ever-present cameras. The first three episodes are available now, and the rest of the season will drop on Fridays over the coming weeks.

Best film on TV tonight

Empire of Light, Disney Plus

Olivia Colman in Empire of Light — (Image credit: Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures)

Sam Mendes’ first film as writer-director is an ode to the magic of the big screen. Olivia Colman plays Hilary, deputy manager of a cinema in early 1980s Margate, who strikes up an unpredictable romance with new usher Stephen (Micheal Ward). The Oscar-nominated film (at times unsuccessfully) brings together the big themes of mental health, racism and sexual harassment, but it is at its most powerful when focusing on the simple joy of friendship. Colin Firth, Toby Jones and Monica Dolan are among a hugely watchable cast, but what really captivates is Roger Deakins’ cinematography, which makes the faded seaside glamour of Thanet look like the most glorious place on Earth.

★★★ NT