Talking Heads is just one of the gems on today...
Killing Eve's Jodie Comer gives another killer performance in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads, BBC2 looks back at classic Wimbledon matches and highlights, and a moving documentary opens up A Doctor's Diary on Italy's Frontline at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 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
Wimbledon, 1.30pm, BBC2
We may not be getting live action from the All England Club, but Clare Balding brings us some classic matches every afternoon for the next two weeks, so it’s the perfect excuse to indulge in some strawberries and cream. Then join Sue Barker in the evening with guests Tim Henman and Boris Becker in the studio, and Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe via video link, to reminisce about SW19 over the years.
★★★★ LP
Talking Heads, from 8.45pm, BBC1/BBC iPlayer
‘I shot a man last week… in the back.’ It’s a weirdly appropriate opening line for Jodie Comer, aka assassin Villanelle in Killing Eve, as she stars in Her Big Chance, a Talking Heads originally performed by Julie Walters. Jodie plays deluded actor Lesley, who regales us with the story of a film project which, she repeatedly tells us, didn’t quite live up to her time as an extra on a Roman Polanski movie. Jodie is superb, but the real star is Alan Bennett’s dialogue, hilariously highlighting the difference between her version of events and what actually happened. Followed straight after by Lucian Msamati in Playing Sandwiches. Continues until Thursday.
★★★★ IM
Italy's Frontline: A Doctor's Diary. 9pm, BBC2
Francesca Mangiatordi is an A&E doctor in northern Italy. This moving film follows her and her colleagues at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning in March, every bed in the hospital is taken and patients are dying with no one by their side, but the medics work flat out. A difficult watch but a fitting tribute to dedicated medical staff like Francesca.
★★★★★ JL
Best box set to watch on TV tonight
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, seasons 1-7, All 4
Joss Whedon’s seminal series set the gold standard for supernatural shows, with Sarah Michelle Gellar getting the role of her life as Sunnydale High student Buffy Summers, who embraces her destiny as a vampire slayer.
Best film to watch on TV tonight
12 Years A Slave, 9pm, Film4
A brutal true story, director Steve McQueen’s extraordinary movie is based on the 1853 memoir by Solomon Northup, a black man born free, but who was kidnapped and enslaved for an agonising 12 years. It’s not an easy watch, with beatings and whippings at regular intervals, but it is a necessary one. Chiwetel Ejiofor is stunning as Northup, with Michael Fassbender giving a terrifying portrayal of a slave master. Despite all of the brilliance in front and behind the camera, this is Ejiofor’s movie.
Live sport
- Football: EFL League Two Play-Off Final 7pm (k-o 7.30pm), Sky Sports Football
Soaps on TV tonight
- Emmerdale, 7pm
- Coronation Street, 7.30pm
- Hollyoaks, 6.30pm
If you watch just one thing on TV tonight…
Don't miss Talking Heads on TV tonight – great writing, great actors
Not found anything you want to watch on TV tonight? Check out our TV Guide.
Happy viewing!
