TV tonight: our highlights for Monday 13th July

TV tonight Long Lost Family: What Happened Next

Long Lost Family is just one of the gems on today...

There are more catch-ups with reunited relatives in Long Lost Family: What Happened Next, enter the world of extreme dog grooming in Well Groomed on Sky Documentaries, and one man tells his story in Once Upon A Time in Iraq on BBC2. 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

Well Groomed, 9pm, Sky Documentaries

TV tonight Well Groomed — There must be something in that tea

This feature-length documentary, set in the competitive world of dog grooming, follows a year in the lives of four women in the US who are prepared to do whatever it takes to have their canines crowned top dog at the country’s biggest dog show in Pennsylvania. You’ll either be shocked or in awe as the pampered pooches are dyed, snipped and sculpted to look, in some cases, like turkeys and characters from Alice in Wonderland! Slightly surreal but fascinating fun.

★★★★ ST

Long Lost Family: What Happened Next, 9pm, ITV

Sometimes it’s not easy to build a relationship after a lifetime apart and these LLF reunions don’t always end happily. Almost five years ago the programme reunited Robert, from Ayrshire, with his biological father Mladen, from Croatia. But it was hard to maintain a long-distance relationship and they hadn’t spoken for almost a year when Mladen died in 2017. Then there’s the story of Nicholas, who found his half-sister, Cayley (both pictured top), and mum Jacqueline. But there’s sad news when another half-sister, Antoinette, who Nicholas is yet to meet, becomes seriously ill…

★★★ HD

Once Upon A Time in Iraq, 9pm, BBC2

TV tonight Once Upon A Time in Iraq — Iraqi Waleed Neysif

Waleed Neysif grew up in Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime, dreaming of the America he’d seen in films. Then, in 2003 when he was 18, US tanks rolled into Baghdad… His story is told in the first episode of this series, which explores the Iraq War through the eyes of journalists, soldiers and civilians. Within weeks, Iraq was in a chaotic power vacuum and Waleed had a job as a translator, witnessing the realities of war.

★★★★★ HD

Best box set to watch on TV tonight

Strike, seasons 1-3, BBC iPlayer

TV tonight Strike — Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger star

The detective novels of JK Rowling, which she wrote under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, have been turned into thoroughly entertaining crime drama series. There are excellent performances from Tom Burke as brooding war veteran turned private detective Cormoran Strike and Holliday Grainger as his sardonic but trusted receptionist and assistant Robin Ellacott.

Best film to watch on TV tonight

Joan of Arc, 2.55pm, BBC2

Ingrid Bergman is inspired and inspiring in this superb Hollywood epic about the divinely driven Maid of Orleans and her triumphs against the English in the Hundred Years War. Bergman and director Victor Fleming put everything into this fine film, but it failed at the box-office due to its length.