TV Times top picks for tonight
What’s on telly tonight? Here the TV Times team of expert reviewers highlight the best shows on Thursday 23rd August
Celebrity MasterChef, 8pm, BBC1
The oven is hot… the pans are set to boil… a new bunch of famous faces from TV, music and sport are bracing themselves for the heat of the kitchen as Celebrity MasterChef returns. Over the next six weeks, 20 celebrities will have their culinary skills tested under the watchful eyes of judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace. Hoping to impress in tonight’s first heat are actor Keith Allen, TV presenter Michelle Ackerley, former England rugby player Martin Bayfield, Union J star Josh Cuthbert and Carol Decker of 1980s pop band T’Pau. Best not to give her any china plates though, eh? Continues tomorrow. Rating: ****
Secret Life of Landfill, 9pm, BBC4
This is one show we can say with confidence is a load of rubbish. Dr George McGavin and material scientist Zoe Laughlin visit one of Britain’s 20,000 landfill sites and have a good old rummage to see what we get rid of tells us about our lives. The partners in grime also excavate historical landfills to uncover what our ancestors disposed of, proving we’ve always been a throwaway society. What ‘gems’ will they find? Rating: ****
Instinct, 9pm, Sky Witness
As campaign strategist Eli Gold in political drama The Good Wife, Alan Cumming stole every scene he was in, and now he gets the starring role in this new US series. He’s Dylan Reinhart, a former CIA operative turned psychology professor and author who’s drawn back into his old life when NYPD detective Lizzie Needham (Bojana Novakovic) needs his help. The duo investigate when a serial killer appears to be using Dylan’s first crime book as inspiration for a string of murders. The show has a nice light touch – Whoopi Goldberg guest stars as Dylan’s literary agent – while Cumming is, as always, magnetic, and he has a nice rapport with Novakovic. Rating: ****
More previews tomorrow.
