How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)
9.30pm, BBC One
Alan is back from a year in Saudi Arabia and on top (or excruciating) form to host “Britain’s first ever documentary about mental health”. Yes, that’s what he’s claiming with this six-part look at the state of the nation’s wellbeing (with Lynn in tow), as well as his own experiences. That said, he reckons he has a great life with partner Katrina, who is “one of the fittest women over 40 in Norfolk”. Hollie Richardson
The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
8pm, Channel 4
Jo Brand and Tom Allen are joined by Bake Off superfans Lorraine Kelly and AJ Odudu to indulge in chocolate week. They’ll be sampling viewers’ home bakes and chatting to the latest baker to leave the tent. What did cause that final meltdown? Ellen E Jones
The Paper
9pm, Sky Max
It’s the last double bill of the local newspaper mockumentary and, somehow, the Toledo Truth Teller has been nominated for a journalism award. Before the big night, though, Ken serves peppermint toilet paper as ice-cream to kids, and Esmeralda is having sex dreams about Barry. HR
Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping
10pm, Channel 4
The duo’s return to sketch comedy is hit and miss (what’s the sweary Aussie drama all about?). But when they get it right it is pure gold: this penultimate episode features more trauma mining at the Repair Shop-esque Weeping Shed, before Channel 4’s lawyers offer the writers’ room some advice. Hannah J Davies
Peacemaker
10.10pm, Sky Max
Season two of the high-octane superhero satire reaches its penultimate episode, and even volatile meathead Chris Smith (John Cena) is beginning to twig that the parallel dimension where everyone loves Peacemaker may not be as idyllic as it seems. Some tangled feelings about his long-lost brother could also be a problem. Graeme Virtue
The Graham Norton Show
10.40pm, BBC One
Taylor Swift’s new album launches today – and she’s on Graham’s couch to talk about it. Sitting in her world-dominating shadow are Cillian Murphy, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith and Domhnall Gleeson, while Lewis Capaldi performs Something in the Heavens. HR
Film choices
Steve (Tim Mielants, 2025), Netflix
Hot on the heels of their Magdalene laundries film Small Things Like These, actor Cillian Murphy and director Tim Mielants keep things tragic and intense with a drama adapted by Max Porter from his own novella Shy. However, rather than focusing on conflicted teenager Shy (played with wonderful nuance by Jay Lycurgo), Porter gives us a day in the life of Steve (Murphy), the stressed headteacher of Shy’s underfunded residential school for troubled boys. It’s an unrelenting experience, as the camera circles tightly round the kids – lippy, defensive, smart, angry – and the committed but overworked staff. Murphy is superb as a good man at the end of his tether. Simon Wardell
Beyond the Borders (Marco Perego, 2023), Paramount+
The disparate lives of a Mexican woman who illegally enters the US and a US immigration enforcement agent become entangled in Marco Perego’s hot-button thriller. It’s a noble attempt to bring humanity to the issue, with Zoe Saldaña’s Esmee facing exploitation by traffickers, while Ice officer Shipp (Garrett Hedlund) tries to negotiate an “us or them” attitude among his colleagues while retaining his sense of decency. A missing child Esmee failed to protect during the border crossing, plus Shipp’s new girlfriend (Adria Arjona), complicate matters further. SW
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (Michael Morris, 2025), 6am, 2.10pm, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
Nine years after her last diary entry, Helen Fielding’s comic heroine returns. But there’s little Y-fronted slapstick humour here (though Hugh Grant’s ageing Lothario Daniel is back on witty form), as she’s now a widow. Mark was killed four years ago in Sudan, so Renée Zellweger’s ostensibly flustered-but-actually-talented TV producer is juggling grief and two fatherless kids. Then she starts an unexpected relationship with Leo Woodall’s buffed 29-year-old Roxster. A franchise ageing not-so-gracefully with its audience. SW
