My Mother and Other Strangers
9pm, BBC1
Life during wartime, as seen through the eyes of a slightly strange, precocious child. These and other familiar, if not unpleasant, tropes are what you can expect here, as we observe the Coyne family in rural Northern Ireland. Tensions simmer gently between locals and swaggering locally stationed USAF troops, while matriarch Rose has her head turned by the courteous Captain Dreyfuss (Mad Men’s Aaron Staton). John Robinson
Planet Earth II
8pm, BBC1
Week two of Attenborough’s epic follow-up, and it’s all swish jump cuts, dramatic rock music and laboured commentary on animals tearing each other to shreds. Just kidding – Planet Earth remains the classiest, best-shot wildlife doc around, focusing this week on the various species that call the mountains their home, from the expected (snow leopards, grizzly bears) to the more unexpected (flamingos). Plus, a top paraglider mimics the flight of a golden eagle. Hannah J Davies
Will Britain Ever Have a Black Prime Minister?
9pm, BBC2
Fronted by David Harewood – the Brit best known for his role in Homeland – the PM angle is a clever one, used to explore the continued challenges faced by black Britons. With some sobering stats that get worse and worse as we progress up the ladder from pre-school to parliament, we see how the white and wealthy continue to perpetuate their own privilege while other races fall victim to unconscious bias. Essential viewing. David Stubbs
Humans
9pm, Channel 4
The absolutely top-notch second series gets even better this week, with multiple plots and shocks. Techy human daughter Sophie is hiding a defunct synth in her room, but her dad Joe is bound to realise something’s going on – he’s hanging round the house more since he lost his job to the androids. His wife Laura, meanwhile, is offering legal representation to rogue synth Niska who’s accused of murder, but can she prove she’s not a machine? Hannah Verdier
The Selfless Sikh: Faith on the Frontline
10.30pm, BBC1
“We need to be careful,” says British Sikh Ravi Singh. Considering he’s in northern Iraq and sticks out in his turban, this is an understatement. A calm, centred presence, Singh is here bringing aid to families forced to flee Isis, and thus fulfilling the Sikh ideal of “seva” or selfless service. Marking the birthday of Sikhism’s founder, Guru Nanak, cameras follow his efforts to help people with extremely harrowing backstories. Jonathan Wright
Harry Hill’s Tea-Time
6pm, Sky1
As this week’s guest Deborah Meaden discovers, resisting Harry Hill’s tide of daftness is futile. Tonight’s surreal simulacrum of shiny-floor show hysteria incorporates a gay wedding for dogs (“a first for Sky, I believe,” says Hill, dryly) and an unhinged rendition of Pulp’s Disco 2000. Its closest relation is probably the finely calibrated mayhem of Shooting Stars, and while it never reaches that show’s levels of inspired chaos, it’s still a quirky Sunday evening offering. Phil Harrison
Robbie Coltrane’s Critical Evidence
10pm, Crime And Investigation
The horrifying story of a headless torso discovered in a suitcase during maintenance of a Birmingham canal in 2014 is told without the usual tabloid sensationalism of cable shows of this ilk. Environmental science and a forensic hydrologist are employed in trying to discover the origins of this grim and truly grisly crime. The necessity of Robbie Coltrane’s involvement remains a mystery, however. Ben Arnold
Film choice
The Day After Tomorrow (Roland Emmerich, 2004) 8pm, E4
They kept warning but nobody listened; now, global warming has unleashed a tsunami and a new ice age on the world, New York in particular. It’s another epic city-trashing destructor movie from a director who already had Independence Day and Godzilla to his name. Dennis Quaid’s scientist is a solid hero, braving the blizzard to rescue his son (Jake Gyllenhaal); and there are thrills galore – look out for the lethally quick big freeze. Paul Howlett
Watchmen (Zack Snyder, 2009) 10pm, W
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s cult comic book series gets lovingly recreated, set in a gloomy, parallel 1980s where a group of disbanded ex-superheroes are being assassinated – the beginnings of a world-threatening conspiracy. Steeped in noirish sepia imagery and gory violence, it’s a complex and gripping deconstruction of the American superhero. PH
Monsieur Lazhar (Philippe Falardeau, 2011) 1.30am, Film4
Monsieur Lazhar is an Algerian asylum seeker who arrives to teach at a Montreal school rocked by the suicide of one of the staff. Mohamed Fellag’s Lazhar is a study in compassion as he guides his 11-year-old charges through a troubled time, while tactfully dealing with the by-the-rulebook principal Mme Vaillancourt (Danielle Proulx). It’s a film of rare insight about grief, guilt and the art of teaching. PH
Live sport
Test Cricket: India v England 6am, Sky Sports 2 The final day’s play in the first Test of the five-match series.
Rugby League: England v Australia 1.45pm, BBC1 Can Wayne Bennett’s home side put an end to 21 years of losses against their old rivals?
Tennis: ATP World Tour Finals 2pm, BBC2 Sue Barker presents coverage from day one of the competition in London.
