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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Graeme Virtue, Ali Catterall, Hannah Verdier and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: Cormoran Strike is back – and he’s cracking his first cold case

Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger in Strike: Troubled Blood.
Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger in Strike: Troubled Blood. Photograph: Laurence Cendrowicz/BBC/Bronte Film & TV

Strike: Troubled Blood

9pm, BBC One

“We found parts of his victims in the sink, in the bath, in the fridge.” That’s the report from the lucky detective put on the case of a serial killer 40 years ago in Cornwall. Does it have anything to do with the unsolved disappearance of Margot Bamborough in 1974 that Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke) has just taken on? In this latest four-parter of the Strike series, Holliday Grainger is back as Robin Ellacott to help with the detective’s first ever cold case. She’s also finalising her divorce, which means the will-they-won’t-they situation with Strike might finally come to a head. Hollie Richardson

Junior Eurovision Song
Contest 2022

3pm, BBC One

Thirteen-year-old Freya Skye will make the UK proud with her entry, Lose My Head (an absolute banger, by the way) in today’s contest, now in its 20th year, in Armenia. She’s up against 15 other nine-to-14-year-old singers hungry to win pop’s campest accolade. HR

MasterChef: The Professionals

6.15pm, BBC One

This season’s stressful gelato royale has seen a starting lineup of 32 capable chefs carved down to a trio of finalists. Now they have just three hours to create a feast that will impress Marcus Wareing, Gregg Wallace and newbie judge Anna Haugh, whose mix of exactitude and empathetic support has also been a highlight. Graeme Virtue

Strictly Come Dancing

7.15pm, BBC One

Semi-final time, where our hot-hoofers must perform twice to have a chance of making it to next week’s grand final. With everyone bringing their A-game, it’ll really come down to who the public loves the most: can current favourites Hamza, Helen and Will win enough hearts and minds? Ali Catterall

The Handmaid’s Tale

9pm, Channel 4

June’s quest to be reunited with Hannah continues in all its twisted hell and there’s not much in the way of good news this week, with tension rising between her and Luke. Meanwhile, an incarcerated Serena is desperate for a way out, but are the arms of the Wheelers, currently neglecting baby Noah’s needs, even worse than prison? Hannah Verdier

Predators

9pm, Sky Nature

“A nature documentary, but with Tom Hardy narrating … ” The pitch for this new series must have been a pretty easy sell – Hardy could probably compel people to watch paint dry. But this five-parter is excellently produced and edited, with tonight’s opener following two cheetahs facing drought, wildfires and hyenas while on the hunt. HR

Film choice

Touch of Evil. 9pm, Sky Arts

Orson Welles and Charlton Heston in Touch of Evil.
Orson Welles and Charlton Heston in Touch of Evil. Photograph: Ui/Sportsphoto/Allstar

The channel’s film noir season continues with Orson Welles’s brooding, stylish 1958 crime drama. Set on the murky US-Mexico border, it opens with a fatal car bombing – revealed through a virtuoso three-minute crane shot. Mexican prosecutor Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston), honeymooning with his American wife Susan (Janet Leigh), is drawn into the case, and the orbit of corrupt US police captain Hank Quinlan (Welles). Quinlan is the diseased heart of the film, a near-Shakespearean tragic figure brilliantly realised by Welles. Simon Wardell

Rosie, 10pm, BBC Three

Despite being scripted by Roddy Doyle and set in his typical working-class Dublin milieu, this is definitely not a “ha ha ha” story. It’s a gripping drama about the despair of the hidden homeless, as Sarah Greene’s titular mother of four struggles to find accommodation two weeks after losing their house. While the father, John Paul (Moe Dunford), holds down a kitchen job, she drives from school to hotel to friends’ houses, increasingly desperate but trying to maintain a brave face for the kids. An achingly human tale with wider social resonance. SW

Live sport

Women’s Super League Football: Man City v Man United, 12.15pm, BBC One Followed by Aston Villa v Arsenal at 3.30pm and Chelsea v Reading at 6.30pm on Sky Sports Main Event.

Champions Cup Rugby Union: Sale Sharks v Ulster, 12.30pm, BT Sport 2 Followed by Ospreys v Leicester Tigers at 5.15pm.

Champions Cup Rugby Union: Saracens v Edinburgh,2.45pm, ITV1 At StoneX Stadium.

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