On TV tonight, Louis Theroux is sitting down with Dame Judi Dench for his next interview, The Great British Bake Off is down to the quarter-finals, Kate & Koji star Jimmy Akingbola explores Britain's care system in Handle With Care and US medical drama The Good Doctor returns for its sixth season. 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
Louis Theroux Interviews... Dame Judi Dench, 9.15 pm, BBC Two
This week, in the second interview of his series, lucky Louis gets to know one of Britain’s finest-ever actors, Dame Judi Dench. The stage and screen legend, 87, invites Louis to her Surrey home, where they discuss her 60-year career, her family, her debilitating eye condition and her reluctance to retire. They also spend time with her daughter, Finty, and grandson, Sam, film a TikTok together and Louis is a guest of honour at Judi’s autobiographical show, I Remember It Well, in London’s West End. With her warmth and sense of humour, it’s little wonder Dame Judi is a (reluctant) ‘national treasure’.
★★★★★ NH
Jimmy Akingbola: Handle With Care, 9 pm, ITV
Of the nearly half-a-million kids in care, more than 40 per cent are Black, yet Black foster families are rare, resulting in white families raising children from other ethnic backgrounds. Kate & Koji actor Jimmy Akingbola was one. Aged just two, he was taken from his Nigerian parents and fostered by a white family, the Crowes. Now based in LA, east Londoner Jimmy returns home to explore how growing up in care shaped him. This one-off film is personal, profound and uplifting as Jimmy examines how unconditional love is color-blind. As his foster mum, Gloria, explains so beautifully, ‘A kid’s a kid. Doesn’t matter what colour they are. He was just Jimmy.’
★★★★★ VW
The Good Doctor season 6, 9 pm, Sky Witness and NOW
It’s action stations as the sixth season of the medical drama begins [in the UK], picking up the cliffhanger of the brutal attack on Chief of Surgery Audrey and nurse Dalisay in the middle of Shaun and Lea’s wedding day. The hospital locks down as the team operate on the pair, but the trauma of trying to save those he works closely with proves triggering for Shaun (Freddie Highmore) — allowing invested fans to learn more about his childhood. Meanwhile, attacker Owen takes hostages, and one character’s life could change for good.
★★★ NT
The Great British Bake Off 2022, 8 pm, Channel 4
The fact it’s the quarter-final is enough to instill terror in the bakers’ hearts, but it’s also the always-tricky Pastry Week, and while Prue (with a glint in her eye!) vows to be ‘really ruthless’, Paul wants ‘baking nirvana’. No pressure! For the Signature, it’s sweet vol au vents, before a Technical with a jaw-dropping 29 ingredients. Then, for the deceptively cute Showstopper, the bakers create a 3D scene inspired by their favourite children’s story – all made from pies! Whose ‘flakiness’ will see them off, and who will ‘filo’ the love and make it to the semi-final?!
★★★★ CC
Best box set to watch on TV tonight
The Devil's Hour, Prime Video
Social worker Lucy Chambers springs awake at 3.33 am every morning – a time known as the ‘devil’s hour’. In this nail-biting six-part thriller with a supernatural edge, Jessica Raine plays Lucy, a haunted and overburdened mother who has recently separated from her husband. Lucy is also struggling with the demands of caring for her schizophrenic mother and her troubled eight-year-old, Isaac, who she takes to see a child psychiatrist (Meera Syal). Meanwhile, a murder is being investigated by DI Ravi Dhillon (Nikesh Patel) and DS Holness (Alex Ferns), one with bizarre links to Lucy’s visions and connected to a murder-obsessed stranger, Gideon, played by Peter Capaldi. SMA
Best film on TV tonight
Robbie Coltrane Tribute, from 11.20 pm, film4
Cult classic Nuns on the Run kicks off a double bill starring Robbie Coltrane, who died last month, aged 72. Eric Idle and Coltrane make an amusing team in this caper about gangsters who steal a million and seek sanctuary from rival gangs within a convent. The result is really quite funny, as the pair don habits to become Sister Euphemia of the Five Wounds and Sister Inviolata of the Immaculate Conception. Janet Suzman has fun as the head nun coping with her new sisters’ drinking and gambling. The great gangster drama Mona Lisa, in which Coltrane plays the reliable best friend, follows (1.10am). ★★★ DQ
Live Sport
- Women's Rugby League World Cup: England v Brazil, (k-o 2.30 pm), BBC Two
- Gymnastics World Championships, 7 pm BBC Three
- Champions League: Liverpool v Napoli, Marseille v Spurs and Rangers v Ajax, from 7 pm, BT Sport 2, 3, 4
Soaps on TV tonight
EastEnders, 7.30 pm, BBC One
Emmerdale, 7:30 pm, ITV
Hollyoaks, 6.30 pm, Channel 4
Home and Away, 6 pm, 6.30 pm, Channel 5
If you watch just one thing on TV tonight…
Don't miss Louis Theroux Interviews on TV tonight — an hour with Judi Dench is always unmissable telly!
Not found anything you want to watch on TV tonight? Check out our TV Guide.
Happy viewing!
