TV Tonight: our highlights for Monday, August 16

TV tonight: Sister and brother searchers Moira and Steve.
Sister and brother searchers Moira and Steve. (Image credit: ITV)

On TV tonight, more families are reunited in Long Lost Family on ITV, a stranger with a secret arrives at Button House in Ghosts on BBC1 and another batch of celebs try to impress judges John and Gregg as Celebrity MasterChef continues on BBC1. 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

Long Lost Family, 9pm, ITV

TV tonight Lisa and her found brother Nick.

Lisa and her found brother Nick. (Image credit: ITV)

Seeing siblings come together after decades apart is always emotional viewing – and this week’s two searches will definitely tug at the heartstrings! Steve, 55, from Watford, who was adopted as a baby, has forged a strong bond with his half-sister, Moira, after meeting nearly 30 years ago. But when their mother, Mavis, passed away in 2020, Steve and Moira received bombshell news that they also had an older sister, Caroline, and they are desperate to trace her… Meanwhile, 50 years after she was adopted, Somerset-based Lisa Irvine is poignantly reunited with her thrilled big brother, Nicholas… 

★★★★ CC

Ghosts, season 3, 8.30pm, BBC1

Tv tonight Thomas Thorne (MAT BAYNTON), Alison (CHARLOTTE RITCHIE), Lady Button (MARTHA HOWE-DOUGLAS)

There's a surprise for Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) in tonight's fun episode. (Image credit: BBC)

It never rains but it pours for Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) and Mike (Kiell Smith-Bynoe). While poor Mike flounders in his new job selling life insurance – despite plenty of advice from The Captain and Headless Humphrey! – Alison and the ghosts are stunned when a stranger (Jessica Knappett) arrives at Button House with bombshell news... Elsewhere, there are lovely scenes as we flashback to Julian’s difficult first moments as a ghost, plus Mary brilliantly gets obsessed with Loose Women and there’s a dance routine courtesy of Kitty and Pat that might put Strictly to shame! 

★★★★ CC

Celebrity MasterChef, 9pm, BBC1

TV tonight Sewing Bee’s Patrick swaps his suit for an apron

Sewing Bee's Patrick Grant swaps his suit for an apron. (Image credit: BBC)

Trying to avoid getting into a stew this week are presenter Melanie Sykes, model Penny Lancaster, comedian Nabil Abdulrashid, ex-TOWIE star Megan McKenna and The Great British Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant. We’re so used to seeing Patrick in a suit presiding over hems and stitches in the sewing room, it’s a treat to watch him cooking in his ‘casual’ wear. But, as someone used to doing the judging, how will he fare being on the receiving end of Gregg and John’s feedback? Continues tomorrow and Friday. 

★★★★ TL 

Best box set to watch on TV tonight

Modern Love, Amazon Prime Video

TV tonight Tobias Menzies and Sophie Okonedo

Tobias Menzies and Sophie Okonedo star. (Image credit: Amazon Prime Video)

Prepare your heartstrings to be well and truly tugged as this anthology show about love in its many different guises returns for a second series of eight stand-alone short films. Stars such as Kit Harington, Sophie Okonedo and Tobias Menzies explore a range of relationships in tales full of happiness and heartbreak. The sentimentality is delivered in thick layers, yet the format is a refreshing change of pace from the drawn-out dramas that fill so much of the TV schedule. 

Best film to watch on TV tonight

Peterloo, 9pm, Film4

On 16 August 1819, 60,000 people demonstrated at St Peter's Field, Manchester, for parliamentary reform. Into this peaceful crowd waded the Salford Yeomanry and the 15th Hussars with sabres drawn. Writer-director Mike Leigh's excellent drama tracks the four years up to that fateful day, a tale of class divide, unemployment and famine. Rory Kinnear is excellent as reformer Henry Hunt, while the massacre is a masterclass – spontaneous, squalid and sorrowful.

Live Sport

  • Test Cricket, England v India, 10.15am, Sky Sports Main Event/NOW
  • British Open Snooker, 12.45pm & 6.45pm, ITV4

Soaps on TV tonight

If you watch just one thing on TV tonight…

Don't miss Long Lost Family on TV tonight – more intriguing and emotional stories.

Not found anything you want to watch on TV tonight? Check out our TV Guide

Happy viewing!

Joanne Lowles
Freelance writer and editor

Joanne Lowles has been writing about TV since 2002. After graduating from Cardiff University with a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism, she worked for All About Soap magazine covering the ups and downs of life on the cobbles, the square and the Dales. 


Next came nearly 10 years at TV Times magazine as a writer and then deputy features editor. Here she spent many happy days interviewing the biggest names in entertainment and visiting the sets of some of our most popular shows including Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife and Strictly Come Dancing


With a love of nature and wildlife she’s also interviewed the leading experts in this area including David Attenborough, Chris Packham and Steve Backshall. She’s also travelled the world visiting Mongolia, Canada and South Africa to see how the best in the business make the most brilliant natural history documentaries. 


Freelance since 2013, she is now is a digital writer and editor for What to Watch, previews the best on the box for TV Times mag each week and loves being constantly surprised, entertained and informed by the amazing TV that she is lucky enough to watch.