Thursday’s best TV: Ambulance; Million Pound Menu

Ambulance
9pm, BBC One

The Saturday night before Christmas is always a gruelling shift for the West Midlands Ambulance Service. But on top of the usual colourful catalogue of tipsy callouts, a deadly incident in central Birmingham switches everyone into crisis mode. Witnessing frontline staff hurtle towards what, according to fragmented reports, could easily be an ongoing terror attack demonstrates why this documentary strand recently won the Bafta for best factual series. It is capable of being both heartwarming and heart-stopping in the same minute. Graeme Virtue

Million Pound Menu
9pm, BBC Two

More budding restaurateurs aim to satisfy the appetite of investors and prove that their acumen matches their artistry. Tonight’s hopefuls are chophouse Hollings and The Cheese Wheel, looking to transfer to the high street. The meals seem mouth-watering, but will they generate a six-figure tip? Mark Gibbings-Jones

Humans
9pm, Channel 4

As season three of this dystopian fable continues, so does the contrasting Humans dynamic: between a lot of programmatic charging about in the plot, and a rather deeper reflection on how we treat our own kind. Tonight, Mia tries to rent a flat, Karen and Sam have a near-miss, and Niska makes a discovery. John Robinson

Urban Myths
9pm, Sky Arts

It cannot possibly match Kevin Eldon’s inspired Amish rendering of the incident but this episode of the likable comedy recreates the teatime TV clash between tired-and-emotional presenter Bill Grundy and John Lydon’s combustible young band the Sex Pistols. Anarchy on Thames, a 30-minute doc about the incident, which arguably kickstarted punk, follows. Phil Harrison

Hiroshima
9pm, PBS America

The bombing of Hiroshima may be the single most discussed action in the history of warfare. It was always going to be difficult for this two-parter to add much, and indeed it doesn’t – but it’s a serviceable recollection of the story, and the dramatised reconstructions aren’t too hammy. Andrew Mueller

Missions
10pm, BBC Four

The French sci-fi wanders on, going deeper into ideas of time-warping destiny before throwing in a bit of 2001-style rogue AI for luck. However, despite all the genre nods, it’s still a talky workplace drama about people keeping secrets, revealing them or being angry about all the secretiveness. There’s no air in it. Jack Seale

Click here to watch a trailer for Red Lights.

Film choice

Red Lights (Rodrigo Cortés, 2002), 1am, Film4
Cortés’s chilly thriller has Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy as a pair of paranormal-activity investigators who set out to expose blind superstar of the occult Simon Silver (Robert De Niro, channelling a little of his Louis Cyphre in Angel Heart) as a fraud. It doesn’t quite sustain the tension, but still solid entertainment. Paul Howlett