TV tonight: our highlights for Friday 9th October

The Right Stuff is just one of the gems on today...

Disney+ brings the stories of the US' pioneering astronauts to life in The Right Stuff, Sara Cox goes Between the Covers in a new book club, and Helen Skelton is spending Friday on the Farm. 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

Between the Covers, 7.30pm, BBC2

TV tonight Between the Covers — Sara Cox hosts a new book club

You’ll need a pen and paper for this series to jot down all the books you fancy reading! Radio 2 DJ and presenter Sara Cox hosts TV’s latest answer to a fun book club but ‘without the warm wine and crisps’. Each week she’s joined by four celebrities who bring along their all-time favourite book and their opinions on a whole host of recent releases. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Tom Allen, Phil Wang and Sara Pascoe are first up, while Graham Norton and Meera Syal feature later in the series.

★★★★ TL

The Right Stuff, Disney+

The moment man walked on the Moon is branded on our collective memory, but the tale of those who laid the foundations for that historic moment is just as captivating. Set in the late 1950s, this new eight-part drama follows NASA’s first astronauts as they race against their Soviet rivals to be the first humans in space. Characters like John Glenn and Alan Shepard leap straight out of the history books, but we also delve into the astronauts’ rich personal lives as their new roles make them overnight celebrities.

★★★★ SMA

Friday on the Farm, 9pm, Channel 5

TV tonight Friday on the Farm — Helen Skelton is back at Cannon Hall Farm

Devotees of Channel 5’s This Week on the Farm, the series following life at the Nicholson brothers’ Cannon Hall Farm in South Yorkshire, won’t want to miss the chance to catch up with the action in this new Friday-night slot. Presenters Helen Skelton and Jules Hudson return, with tonight’s first episode seeing shire horse Orchid arrive back at Cannon Hall from her summer holiday at a stud farm. There’s also a report from popstar turned pig farmer (now there’s a sentence that we didn’t expect to be writing) JB Gill on the harvest season at the UK’s largest greenhouse complex.

★★★ JP

Best box set to watch

Schitt's Creek, seasons one to six, Netflix

TV tonight Schitt's Creek — Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara star

This infectiously funny comedy series swept the board at the Emmys recently, winning nine awards, including all four acting categories for its stars Eugene Levy, Dan Levy, Catherine O’Hara and Annie Murphy. It centres on the formerly wealthy Rose family, who are forced to relocate to Schitt’s Creek, a town they once purchased as a joke. Now living in a motel, they have to try to get to grips with life without money and learn how to live together as a family.

Best film to watch on TV tonight

Carrie, 11.10pm, Film4

TV tonight Carrie — Sissy Spacek as Carrie

In adapting Stephen King’s debut novel, director Brian De Palma relies too heavily on split-screen during the climactic prom night bloodbath, but makes up for it with of the most perfectly timed jump-out-of-your-seat moments in screen history. Sissy Spacek brings an effective blend of vulnerability and fury to the title role and Piper Laurie earned an Oscar nod for her full-throttle performance as Carrie’s manic mum.