TV Tonight: our highlights for Tuesday, July 13

TV tonight Emma Willis and Tom Allen host Cooking with the Stars

Hosts Emma Willis and Tom Allen. (Image credit: ITV)

On TV tonight, celebs get hot in the kitchen in new contest Cooking with the Stars, a familiar face returns to Holby, and Alan Titchmarsh is back with a Love Your Small Garden Special. 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

Cooking with the Stars, 9pm, ITV

TV tonight the Cooking with the Stars contestants — Who will be head chef? (Image credit: ITV)

ITV’s hot new cooking contest pairs stars with professional chefs, who pass on tips then pit the celebs against each other. Tonight’s first batch are as keen as mustard to show us what they’ve learned. Johnny Vegas takes on McFly drummer Harry Judd, while Strictly’s Shirley Ballas squares up to DJ Naughty Boy. They’ve an hour to impress mentors Rosemary Shrager, Nisha Katona, Joseph Denison Carey and Judy Joo, with the bottom two forced (or contractually obliged) to battle it out in a cook-off. Tom Allen and Emma Willis host.

★★★★ ER

Holby City, 7.55pm, BBC1

TV tonight Carole in Holby — A distressed Carole is back. (Image credit: BBC)

Aww, Carole Copeland. We haven’t seen Dom’s adoptive mum around Holby in a while and it turns out that’s because the pair have drifted apart. This week, Carole shows up after burning herself on the oven, but Sacha fears there might be more to these ‘accidents’. Carole’s saddened when she hears about Dom’s surgery and, when she receives a shock diagnosis of her own, orders Sacha not to tell Dom as he’s been through enough. We think we’re going to need the Kleenex as this storyline develops…

★★★★ VW

Love Your Small Garden Special, 8pm, ITV

TV tonight Alan Titchmarsh and Maxine in her garden — Charity worker Maxine and Alan in her narrow backyard. (Image credit: ITV)

Gardens have never been more appreciated recently, but what about those outdoor spaces that are little more than postage stamp-sized? Alan Titchmarsh and his Love Your Garden team come to the rescue in this one-off special, showing how small really can be beautiful. In London, Alan and Frances Tophill tackle charity worker Maxine’s narrow backyard, stuffing it with space-saving climbers, compact trees and low fences. Meanwhile, Katie Rushworth takes on a family-of-five’s cluttered new-build garden in Kent, using clever hidden storage areas to transform it into a multi-functional colourful play garden.

★★★★ RF

Best box set to watch on TV tonight

The Beast Must Die, BritBox

TV tonight Cush Jumbo and Jared Harris in The Beast Must Die — Cush Jumo and Jared Harris star. (Image credit: BritBox)

The Good Fight’s Cush Jumbo is very different in this taut thriller as a grief-stricken mother desperate to get revenge on the man (an excellent performance from The Terror’s Jared Harris) she believes killed her son in a hit-and-run accident on the Isle of Wight.

Best film to watch on TV tonight

Gravity, 8.35pm, BBC1/BBC iPlayer

TV tonight Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star as astronauts in Gravity — Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are out of this world. (Image credit: BBC1)

Film-maker Alfonso Cuarón (Roma) soars once again in this dizzying, mesmerising blockbuster in which astronauts Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are stranded in space after a terrifying accident, swirling around the Earth with precious little time to help themselves. This astonishingly beautiful-looking movie with its sumptuous vistas of our planet from afar is also palm-sweatingly tense, as Cuarón cranks up the anxiety, helped by fine acting from both leads. It’s a quietly brilliant disaster movie.