Alan Carr's Epic Gameshow is just one of the gems on today...
Alan Carr wants contestants to Strike It Lucky in this week's Epic Gameshow, Clare Balding looks back at the Best of Crufts on C4, and Samuel L Jackson narrates BBC2 documentary I Am Not Your Negro. 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
- 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
Best of Crufts, 7pm, C4
Clare Balding narrates five one-hour specials all about the past 10 years of the best and biggest dog show on Earth. Each one has a different theme, beginning with an A-Z. While A stands for agility and B for breeds, watch out for the H, which is hero dogs and the amazing work medical detection dogs do, including sniffing out coronavirus. And, just in case you’re wondering, X is for X-factor, Y is Your dogs and Z is the zenith of Crufts and a look back at the winners of Best in Show.
★★★ JL
Alan Carr's Epic Gameshow, 7.30pm, ITV
This week’s revived epic game show is Strike It Lucky, which attracted huge audiences at the time – it began in 1986 and by the following year was in the top five most-watched TV shows. It was like the Love Island of its day, says Alan Carr, but with more clothes and less teeth. The original was popular because of host Michael Barrymore’s rapport with contestants, and Alan is brilliant at this. He’s less quick going up and down all the stairs (but quicker than the contestant who is 87 years old) and, as usual, he’s reviving all the catchphrases. Who remembers what a hotspot is not…?
★★★★ JP
I Am Not Your Negro, 9pm, BBC2
Recent events have made this award-winning 2016 documentary film more relevant than ever. Inspired by the writing of James Baldwin, it charts racism through the writer’s famously all-seeing eyes and takes in the lives and deaths of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. From 10.30pm, there’s another chance to see all three episodes of BBC2’s Black Hollywood: “They’ve Gotta Have Us”, talking to black movie pioneers including Diahann Carroll and Harry Belafonte.
★★★★ LP
Best box set to watch on TV tonight
Homeland, seasons 1-7, Netflix
Now that the spy thriller has finished, it is good to go back to previous series, especially the exhilarating first one when bipolar CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) began to suspect that Marine Sgt Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) had been ‘turned’ during his eight years missing in action in the Middle East.
Best film to watch on TV tonight
Big Hero Six, 5.20pm, BBC1
An excellent attempt by Disney to replicate the look and feel of Japanese anime, this has 14-year-old Hiro Hamada (voiced by Ryan Potter) team up with an inflatable robot called Baymax (30 Rock’s Scott Adsit). It plays out like a superhero origin story, and has a toughness (and darker side) that balances out the sweeter elements. A clever visual palette mixes East and West traditions in animation to create a certain freshness. Great fun.
Live sport
- Horse Racing: Royal Ascot 1.25pm, ITV
- Premier League Football: Bournemouth v Crystal Palace 7.15pm (k-o 7.45pm), BBC1
If you watch just one thing on TV tonight…
Don't miss Epic Gameshow on TV tonight – but watch out for those hotspots!
Not found anything you want to watch on TV tonight? Check out our TV Guide.
Happy viewing!
