What’s On TV Tonight? Our Pick Of The Best Shows: Tuesday 5th December including a new David Jason show!

David Jason’s Secret Service Tuesday 5th December
(Image credit: Production Company)

TV Times tops picks for tonight

What’s on telly tonight? Here the TV Times team of expert reviewers highlight three of the best shows on telly tonight for Tuesday 5th December

David Jason’s Secret Service, 9.00pm, More4

David Jason, it turns out, is obsessed with spies. His love of espionage is at the centre of this new series in which he explores the history of British spying from the early 20th Century to the modern day. Episode one begins with the formation of the British Secret Service in 1909 by maverick spy master Sir Mansfield Cumming – code name C – who turned a group of amateurs into the country’s first secret agents. Five years later when World War One broke out, their spying was pivotal to the Allied victory. Belgian refugees were recruited as they arrived in Britain and Folkestone became a key battleground for British spy organisations. Rating: ****

The A Word, 9.00pm, BBC1

The A Word

They’ve spent weeks rowing about his “almost kiss” with Sophie, but now Paul and Alison are at loggerheads over Nicola using a film of Joe in an autism presentation, because for Paul, it brings his feelings about his son into starker focus… To add to the family’s woes, Alison is outraged when Rebecca reveals that she doesn’t want to go to university. Life’s not much easier for Maurice either – how does Louise really feel? Rating: ****

Holby City, times vary, BBC1

Paul McGann joins Holby City in December as respected surgeon Professor John Gaskell. And it seems he's arrived at the right time, as Holby faces its greatest threat yet...

It’s a dramatic week for Holby fans as tonight sees the first of a special two-parter that concludes on Thursday. We begin with Jac handing in her resignation, then go back in time 10 hours to work out why. The usually unemotional surgeon is terrified of a big operation she has to perform – her hand is shaking and her nerves are shot. What has happened to Holby’s ice queen? There’s also a new face on the wards, Professor John Gaskell, played by Paul McGann, who comes with a reputation for achieving what was thought to be impossible. But as medical history is made, lives saved and new beginnings created, there’s also a terrible darkness about to engulf the hospital… Rating: ****

More previews tomorrow

David Hollingsworth
Editor

David is the What To Watch Editor and has over 20 years of experience in television journalism. He is currently writing about the latest television and film news for What To Watch.

Before working for What To Watch, David spent many years working for TV Times magazine, interviewing some of television's most famous stars including Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland, singer Lionel Richie and wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough. 

David started out as a writer for TV Times before becoming the title's deputy features editor and then features editor. During his time on TV Times, David also helped run the annual TV Times Awards. David is a huge Death in Paradise fan, although he's still failed to solve a case before the show's detective! He also loves James Bond and controversially thinks that Timothy Dalton was an excellent 007.

Other than watching and writing about telly, David loves playing cricket, going to the cinema, trying to improve his tennis and chasing about after his kids!