TV tonight: our highlights for Saturday, August 23, including Casualty

Iain Dean looks at Jacob Masters with a wrinkled brow as they chat in the back of an ambulance.

(Image credit: BBC STUDIOS.)

Jump to:

Casualty
Annika
Bettany Hughes' Lost Worlds
Great Gardens of Europe

Here's our TV tonight picks for Saturday, August 23 (for more information about what's on TV, see our TV Guide)...

Casualty, BBC1, 8.25 pm

Paramedic Jacob Masters in uniform, looking stressed as he stands in the ambulance station's staff room. — (Image credit: BBC STUDIOS.)

If you’ve been following the morphine thief storyline closely and are keen to know who the real culprit is, you will not want to miss tonight’s episode, as their identity is revealed. Meanwhile, accused of a crime he didn’t commit, Jacob (Charles Venn) isn’t taking the investigation into him lying down. His (former?) bezzie mate Iain (Michael Stevenson) is by his side every step of the way, although their bromance is still broken. Iain’s marriage to Faith is on pretty shaky ground, too… Elsewhere, Nicole’s attempts to help vulnerable Cassie flee from Holby end in tragedy and open a Pandora’s box on her own painful past in the process.

Annika, BBC1, 9.10 pm

Nicola Walker in character as Annika, standing in a powerboat in the harbour wearing a navy windbreaker and a red lifejacket — (Image credit: UKTV)

When a block of ice containing a body is discovered between the islands of Islay and Jura, Annika (Nicola Walker) and Michael (Jamie Sives) head to the Inner Hebrides, where they’re joined again by Harper Weston (Doctor Who’s Varada Sethu), who’s now been transferred to the Marine Homicide Unit. Just as Annika and Michael have found a way to talk about their daughter Morgan, Annika gets sidetracked when she realises that her ex Jake (Paul McGann) is at a conference on Islay. What follows is another entertaining episode of the police procedural, with the usual quirks thrown in – including an unusual tattoo, George Orwell’s 1984 and a brief foray into Call the Midwife territory for Annika.

Bettany Hughes' Lost Worlds, C4, 8.10 pm

For her latest series, Bettany Hughes uncovers the mysteries and legacy of the Nabataeans, an extraordinary desert people who flourished in a kingdom with the capital city of Petra (in southern Jordan) between the 4th century BC and 1st century AD. ‘They were the engine of ancient civilisation, but have been largely written out of history. I wanted to show just how important they were’, says Bettany. In Hegra (in modern-day Saudi Arabia), using the latest archaeological techniques, the historian reveals a desert city once a bustling hub of Nabataean life, uncovers tombs containing human remains and employs a drone to capture artwork from thousands of years ago that has never been seen before.

Great Gardens of Europe, 5, 6.20 pm

If you’re looking for an opportunity to escape and unwind, there are few better ways than a trip to beautiful green spaces – without even having to leave your sofa. This new series does what it says on the tin and shows us some of Europe’s best gardens. This first episode begins near Amsterdam with the site of one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world, Leiden’s Hortus Botanicus. As well as exploring its fascinating history, including its role in making tulips popular across the Netherlands, the programme also takes viewers around the gardens to see some of the exotic species in the tropical greenhouses, as well as centuries-old trees.