TV Tonight: Our highlights for Wednesday, April 19
Race Across the World is just one of the gems on TV tonight.
On TV tonight, Race Across The World continues, there's a re-run of Manhunt: The Raoul Moat Story to coincide with the latest ITV drama, Matt Baker heads to America and How I Met Your Father returns. 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
Race Across the World, 9 pm, BBC One
‘There’s kinda one bear for every person,’ says a cheery bus driver in Churchill, Manitoba, the latest checkpoint to welcome the four teams on their race across Canada. Shortly afterwards, the competitors are on ice floes in the Arctic Ocean, where there are seals, polar bears and beluga whales, and their next stop is Thompson, ‘wolf capital of the world’.
Anyone complaining that this series is ‘just Canada’ rather than several countries seems to be missing the point. As the teams embark on the longest leg of the race so far – to Manitoulin Island on the Great Lakes – they’re looking for ways to boost their budget and for creative solutions to put them ahead of the others.
★★★★ JP
Matt Baker's Travels in the Country: USA, 9 pm, More4
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Florida is a state often associated with retirement complexes, Disney World and the Kennedy Space Center, but as Matt Baker’s journey around the USA continues, he discovers this week there’s also a vibrant rural tradition.
It was the birthplace of the American cowboy, he learns from a pioneering rancher re-wilding his land. Better known is that it’s an intensely productive state, where citrus like oranges and tangerines grow alongside guanabanas, supposedly the best fruit in the world. After that he’s off to Texas, where one of the attractions of the Lone Star State is the stupendous Caprock Canyons State Park.
★★★ SM
Manhunt: The Raoul Moat Story, 9 pm, ITV1
The three-part dramatisation The Hunt for Raoul Moat (shown Sunday to Tuesday) focused largely on the victims of the killer who ran amok in 2010 and the police operation to find Moat. But what about the ex-convict and bodybuilder at the centre of the media storm?
Now updated, this re-run of a 2020 programme fronted by Nicky Campbell mixes archive footage along with interviews with family members, journalists and people who witnessed his much-publicised flight from justice to construct a profile of the 37-year-old killer.
★★★ SM
How I Met Your Father, Disney Plus
The spin-off returns with Sophie (Kim Cattrall), in the year 2050, continuing to tell her son how she met his dad. Hilary Duff plays present-day Sophie, a Manhattan photographer who is negotiating the world of dating apps. The new season features cameos from Judge Judy, singer Meghan Trainor and, in the opening episode, Neil Patrick Harris, who portrayed playboy Barney Stinson in original series How I Met Your Mother.
RMC
Best box set on TV tonight
Obsession, Netflix
From the Regency romp Bridgerton to the saucy shenanigans of Sex Education, Netflix is developing a reputation for spicy television, and this four-part erotic thriller might be it's most lustful yet. The Stranger’s Richard Armitage and Happy Valley’s Charlie Murphy star in the intoxicating tale of top surgeon William Farrow, who becomes infatuated with his son’s fiancée, Anna (this adaptation of Josephine Hart’s novel Damage delves further into Anna’s story than the 1992 film starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche).
Filled with lies, deceit and plenty of bedroom antics, it’s a compelling look at the destructive power of forbidden desire.
★★★★ SMA
Best film on TV tonight
Hustlers, 9 pm, Film4
Shapely, good-looking women pole-dancing – there’s an obvious audience for this 2019 drama starring Jennifer Lopez as a veteran dancer and Constance Wu as the new kid on the block.
Though there’s plenty of bump and grind, it’s nowhere near as sleazy as it sounds, thanks largely to a female-empowerment sub-plot in which the dancers plan and pull off a hustle involving the wholesale fleecing of their male customers. Julia Stiles and Lili Reinhart help round out a talented cast and there are cameos by Usher, Lizzo and Cardi B.
★★★★ SM
Soaps
- EastEnders, 7.30 pm, BBC One
- Emmerdale, 7.30 pm, ITV1
- Coronation Street, 8 pm, ITV1
- Hollyoaks, 6.30 pm, Channel 4
- Home and Away, 6 pm, 5Star
Live Sport
- MOTD Live: Women's Super League: Manchester United v Arsenal, 7:05 pm (Kick-off 7:15pm), BBC Three
- EFL: Middlesbrough v Hull City, 7:30 pm (Kick-off 8.00pm), Sky Sports Main Event
If you watch just one thing on TV tonight…
Don't miss Race Across the World on TV tonight.
Not found anything you want to watch on TV tonight? Check out our TV Guide.
Happy viewing!
Lucy joined the WhatToWatch.com team in 2021, where she writes series guides for must-watch programmes, reviews and the latest TV news. Now she works for our sister site TechRadar in the same role. Originally from Northumberland, she graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Film Studies and moved to London to begin a career writing about entertainment.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic and has a huge passion for cinema. She especially loves horror, thriller and anything crime-related. Her favourite TV programmes include Inside No 9, American Horror Story, Stranger Things and Black Mirror but she is also partial to a quiz show or a bit of Say Yes to the Dress!