TV Tonight: our highlights for Wednesday, June 16

TV tonight The Great British Sewing Bee host Joe Lycett

TV tonight will see The Great British Sewing Bee host Joe Lycett crown this year's champion. (Image credit: BBC)

On TV tonight there's the grand final of The Great British Sewing Bee, more drama in Before We Die, and an Horizon special looks at The Vaccine. Here’s what you shouldn’t miss on TV tonight.

Our hand selected recommendations for what's on TV tonight include three 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

The Great British Sewing Bee, 9pm, BBC1

‘Special occasions’ is the theme for a very special final. The finalists must create a little girl’s bridesmaid dress, but frustrations mount with a tricky fabric. Then the Transformation Challenge tasks them to produce festival outfits from old cushion covers, beaded curtains and lampshades, with dazzling results that draw in Patrick like a magpie! Meanwhile, there’s an emotional challenge in which they make a red-carpet outfit modelled by one of their friends. Expect tears, special appearances and the wow-factor in this fab finale.

★★★★★ TL

Before We Die, 9pm, C4

TV tonight Before We Die Christian — Christian is plagued by guilt in Before We Die. (Image credit: C4)

Up until now, Bianca’s been something of an enigma – is she an innocent in the midst of the Mimicas, or is she biding her time before showing herself to be as ruthless as the rest of her family? Tonight’s episode offers new light on that subject when, unconvinced by Davor’s cover story, Bianca conducts her own undercover investigation into what happened to Stefan – but what will she do with the information? Meanwhile, Christian is struggling to cope with his guilt, and his erratic behaviour is attracting unwanted attention, but he’s coming ever closer to finding out what ‘Krajina’ is all about…

★★★★ SP

Horizon Special: The Vaccine, 9pm, BBC2

‘We knew it was going to happen,’ says one scientist about the probability of a global pandemic at the outset of this documentary. ‘It was just a question of when.’ This Horizon special shows how teams all over the world raced to design, trial and manufacture vaccines within months, achieving something that normally would take many years. Over a timeline of COVID-19 and the progress of scientists to combat it, we see the different approaches adopted by different teams. Many collaborated with counterparts in other time zones, extending their already long working hours in the heroic effort to literally save the world.

★★★★ JP

Best box set to watch on TV tonight

StartUp, seasons one to three, Amazon Prime Video

Martin Freeman plays FBI Agent Phil in StartUp — Martin Freeman as troubled FBI Agent Phil. (Image credit: Prime)

Breeders star Martin Freeman shows, as he did in 2014's Fargo, that as well as comedy he can do edgy US drama complete with an authentic American accent. He plays an FBI agent with a dark side in this gritty tale of digital money laundering, first released in 2016.

Best film to watch on TV tonight

My Man Godfrey, 11am, Film4

One of the best examples of ‘screwball comedy’, this has all its hallmarks – fast-paced dialogue, a bunch of eccentrics and, although set during the Depression, at its heart a wealthy family inhabiting a shimmering art-deco world. Carole Lombard plays a rich young woman who finds a tramp (William Powell) on a toffs’ scavenger hunt and takes him home to be the butler. The title sequence alone is incredible to look at, and more sophisticated than many films made today, 85 years later.