It’s Showtime!
9pm, ITV1
“Basically, what happened is: we got pissed, we got relentless and we ended up buying a horse.” This is the delightfully not-so-daft story of a group of ordinary blokes from Darlington who clubbed together to buy Showtime Mahomes for £8,000 – and the dark horse, quite remarkably, went on to beat the favourites to win at York races in 2022. Can he do it again? Getting to know the men as they prepare to find out is a real joy. Hollie Richardson
For the Love of Dogs With Alison Hammond
8pm, ITV1
Paul O’Grady has left some big shoes to fill, but Alison Hammond – the emerging queen of TV – is a confident choice to give it a try. In her first episode, she bottle-feeds a three-day-old puppy and falls for Nelly, a spaniel with a rare eye condition (as O’Grady probably would have done). HR
Changing Ends
8.30pm, ITV1
This double entendre-laden comedy, telling the story of comedian Alan Carr’s early life in Northampton, was on ITVX last year but now makes it on to terrestrial. As the son of a Fourth Division football manager, it was always likely to be a fraught journey – but young Alan (Oliver Savell) is brilliantly unapologetic and his parents are charmingly supportive. Phil Harrison
Michael Palin in Nigeria
9pm, Channel 5
Tireless adventurer Palin begins his new three-parter in Nigeria’s biggest and most bustling city: Lagos. There he delights school kids with a geography lesson before sombrely reckoning with the UK’s legacy of colonialism and slavery. Then it’s a flight north to Kano, where the 80-year-old former-Python meets a baby crocodile. Graeme Virtue
Danny Dyer: How to Be a Man
10pm, Channel 4
“Is there a war on masculinity?” asks Danny Dyer. “Fuck knows!” The actor is open and curious as he travels the UK to find out, in this nuanced two-part documentary – although, at one point, he says there will be people “screaming at the telly”. First, he reserves judgment when he meets a misogynist TikTok influencer. HR
Imagine … Pet Shop Boys: Then and Now
10.40pm, BBC One
The UK’s most successful pop duo have been making music for 40 years. As a new album emerges, almost four decades since West End Girls went to No 1, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe let cameras peek at the recording process, and the considerable logistics behind the accompanying global tour. The pair’s tart wit and left-field imagination abide. Jack Seale
Film choice
Dirty God (Sacha Polak, 2019), 11.15pm, BBC Two
Silver Haze director Sacha Polak and actor Vicky Knight’s first collaboration was this moving 2019 film. Knight plays single mother, Jade, who has extensive scarring after an acid attack by an ex-boyfriend. She tries to resume a normal life with her young daughter, mum Lisa (Katherine Kelly) and best friend Shami (Rebecca Stone) but struggles to adjust to her new physical reality, which leads her down some dark paths. A drama of brutal candour in which newcomer Knight gives her all. Simon Wardell
