TV tonight: our highlights for Sunday 7th March

TV tonight Attenborough's Life in Colour
(Image credit: BBC/Humble BeeFilms/SeaLight Pictures/Grant Ordelheide)

Attenborough's Life in Colour is just one of the gems on today...

It's the final Attenborough's Life in Colour, Tori appears to be hiding something in Bloodlands, and a birthday party ends in death in McDonald & Dodds. Here’s what you shouldn’t be missing 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 
  • 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

Bloodlands, 9pm, BBC1

TV tonight Bloodlands

What’s Tori hiding?

As the hunt for Goliath continues, Brannick (James Nesbitt) ramps up the search for Keenan’s kidnapper in the hope it may lead to the serial killer. To find out more about a mystery woman involved in the case, Brannick calls at the hospital Keenan visited on the day he was abducted. While the receptionist can’t help Brannick, she’s alerted that surgeon Tori Matthews (Lisa Dwan) – who joined Brannick and his daughter Izzy at the rugby – should be informed if the police ask about Keenan. Wanting to know why, Brannick invites Tori to dinner. What’s her interest in Keenan – and can she help Brannick identify Goliath? With lots of twists and turns, this series is keeping us gripped! 

★★★ VW

Attenborough's Life in Colour, 7pm, BBC1

TV tonight Attenborough's Life in Colour

Master of disguise: The Cuban painted snail

The natural world never fails to amaze us. This conclusion to David Attenborough’s two-parter reveals that many species are masters of disguise, from zebras and Cuban painted snails whose vivid stripes baffle predators, to the Bengal tiger whose fur is almost imperceptible to colour-blind prey, chital deer. We also see savvy animals with a talent for mimicry, including the blenny, which changes the shade of its stripes, but the sneakiest is the whydah bird, which leaves its eggs to be raised by the waxbill, whose chicks are similar in some ways. Ingenious! 

★★★★★ VW

McDonald & Dodds, 8pm, ITV

TV tonight McDonald & Dodds

A girls’ weekend turns sour

When a birthday celebration ends in the death of one partygoer, McDonald and Dodds (Tala Gouveia and Jason Watkins) are called to investigate. Angela has travelled from Glasgow for a weekend in Bath with four friends, including best pal Doreen (Sharon Rooney). But when young rugby player Dominique Aubert is then found dead on a railway line – after drinking a lethal spiked cocktail – everyone’s a suspect. While McDonald untangles a web of mystery surrounding the women, Doreen takes an unusual interest in Dodds and the investigation… Also featuring John Thomson and former Corrie star Natalie Gumede, this is a thoroughly entertaining caper. 

★★★★ VW

Best box set to watch on TV tonight

Buried By the Bernards, season one, Netflix

TV tonight Buried By the Bernards

Funeral home sweet home

Unconventional is the only way to describe how the eccentric Bernard family run their budget-friendly funeral home business in Memphis. Larger-than-life characters and their warmth and humour is the emphasis rather than the sad business of death. 

Best film to watch on TV tonight

In the Loop, 12midnight, BBC2 (not NI)

In this big-screen spin-off from BBC’s The Thick of It, Peter Capaldi rips it up once more as the Prime Minister’s director of communications, enraged that minister Tom Hollander has told the media a Middle East war is ‘unforeseeable’. Targeting both British and US politics, this satire is hysterical and spot on.

Live sport

  • Premier League Football: Manchester City v Manchester United 4pm (k-o 4.30pm), Sky Sports Premier League/NOW TV

If you watch just one thing on TV tonight… 

Don't miss Attenborough's Life in Colour on TV tonight – more clever creatures

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

Happy viewing!