The Cry
9pm, BBC One
Don’t be put off by the exposition-heavy first half of the opener to this poignant adaptation of Helen Fitzgerald’s novel. Eventually, the drama takes off and Jenna Coleman excels in the role of Joanna, a mother forced to deal with the repercussions of a terrible event that occurs to her baby when she and her partner Alistair (Ewen Leslie) travel to Australia to campaign for custody of his teenage daughter from a previous marriage. It’s no easy task filling the slot vacated by Bodyguard, but this slow burner shows potential. Mike Bradley
The 80s Greatest
8pm, National Geographic
Huey Morgan narrates a fun but flimsy overview of a decade of excess. The opening double bill eulogises the US’s surprise ice hockey victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics before skimming through the rise of Reaganomics, with talking heads including Michael J Fox and Danny DeVito. Graeme Virtue
Vanity Fair
9pm, ITV
Gwyneth Hughes’s playful adaptation of the Thackeray classic recovers its gusto in a fizzing penultimate instalment that finds our antihero Becky flirting shamelessly with a noble benefactor. Watch as she demonstrates “how to live well on nothing at all” and keep an eye out for Jos Sedley’s outrageous pink satin breeches. MB
Farther and Sun: A Dyslexic Road Trip
9pm, BBC Four
Film-maker Richard Macer and his son Arthur, 11, both have dyslexia, a condition that affects one in 10 people in the UK. In this optimistic film, they look at whether the condition can be a strength as well as a weakness, meeting dyslexics Eddie Izzard and Richard Branson along the way. MB
The Circle
10pm, Channel 4
TV pretending to be social media, featuring people pretending to be other people except for those being themselves – at which point the philosophical question of how real we should consider the “self” comes into play. In short it’s a reality/popularity show where the premise is more worrying than even the contestants. Jonathan Wright
No Activity
10.30pm, BBC Two
Double bill of the Aussie comedy cop series, whose lack of procedural is wholly welcome, the emphasis being on the banal exchanges between its partners. First up, Stokes and Hendy chat Movember while staking out a kidnapped couple who, despite being tied up in a basement, aren’t too stressed to bicker. David Stubbs
Film choice
The Shining 10pm, Paramount Network
In a close-season mountain hotel, Jack Nicholson’s haunted novelist-turned-caretaker goes mad, terrorising his wife (Shelley Duvall) and son (Danny Lloyd). The brooding atmosphere lays heavy in Stanley Kubrick’s superbly crafted, visually striking, haunted-house horror classic. Paul Howlett
Today’s best live sport
Ryder Cup Golf, 9.30am, Sky Sports Golf
Final day’s action. Can Europe take back the title from the US?
Motor Racing: Russian Grand Prix, 12.05pm, Sky Sports F1
The Sochi Autodrom hosts the 16th round of the F1 season.
Premier League Football: Cardiff City v Burnley, 3.30pm, Sky Sports Premier League
Two struggling sides face off.
