TV Tonight: our highlights for Wednesday, August 18
Jay's Yorkshire Workshop is just one of the gems on TV tonight.

On TV tonight, Jay Blades kicks off his feel-good new show on BBC2 called Jay's Yorkshire Workshop, have some sunglasses on hand as iconic makeover show Changing Rooms begins a new revamped series on C4 and the Strictly judges finish their travels in bonnie Scotland in Craig and Bruno's Great British Road Trips on ITV. 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
Jay's Yorkshire Workshop, 8pm, BBC2
In this delightful show, Jay Blades runs a West Yorkshire workshop making lovely wooden gifts for locals who have done good deeds. The first deserving recipients are care home staff who moved in with residents during the pandemic, a man who donated part of his liver to a stranger, and a woman who helps families with disabled children. As if that’s not touching enough, there’s also the joy of seeing the volunteer apprentices hone their skills as they help make the gifts and share their own poignant stories.
★★★★ CC
Changing Rooms, 8pm, C4
Crack open the orange paint and grab the MDF, Changing Rooms is back! Proving how robust the format is, little has changed for this revamp apart from the channel. It’s still two sets of neighbours making over a room in each other’s homes with the help of a designer, and the reveals are as dramatic as ever. We start in Swansea, where design duo 2LG (aka Jordan Cluroe and Russell Whitehead) plan a drag-themed makeover, while Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen’s design concept is ‘forever peacocky’. Keep an eye on your TV’s brightness control…
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★★★★ SP
Craig & Bruno's Great British Road Trips, 8pm, ITV
The last leg of their driving tour takes Craig Revel Horwood and Bruno Tonioli to Scotland, where Craig embraces his 22 per cent Scottish ancestry and wears his family tartan kilt with pride! On the edge of Loch Lomond the pair try the traditional sport of hammer throwing and a spot of Scottish dancing. They also visit the Glencoe Mountain Resort and spot one of Scotland’s big five animals – the red deer. Their journey ends at the magnificent Inverlochy Castle Hotel, where they toast their travels and friendship with a wee dram of whisky as they bob about on the loch in a rowing boat.
★★★ JL
Best box set to watch on TV tonight
Modern Love, 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
The Old Man and the Gun, 9pm, Film4
A classy, hugely engaging tale, based almost entirely on fact, about elderly gentleman bank robber Forrest Tucker, played with quiet panache by Robert Redford. Set in 1981, it’s the story of how dogged detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck) attempted to bring Tucker to justice, although this is not really a crime thriller, more of a gentle but entertaining romp. Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover and Tom Waits also fill out the impressive cast in this elegant elegy from writer-director David Lowery, who recently helmed Disney’s live-action Peter Pan & Wendy, due for release next year.
Live Sport
- ITV Racing, York, 1.30pm, ITV
- British Open Snooker, 12.45pm & 6.45pm, ITV4
Soaps on TV tonight
- Emmerdale, 7pm, ITV
- Coronation Street, 7.30pm & 8.30pm, ITV
- Hollyoaks, 6.30pm, C4
If you watch just one thing on TV tonight…
Don't miss Jay's Yorkshire Workshop on TV tonight – feel good telly at its best.
Not found anything you want to watch on TV tonight? Check out our TV Guide.
Happy viewing!

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.