Here's our TV tonight picks for Sunday, August 10 (for more information about what's on TV, see our TV Guide)...
Ridley, ITV1, 8 pm
We’ve been waiting three years for the return of the singing (ex) detective - as long as it’s now been since poor Ridley (Adrian Dunbar) lost his wife and daughter in an arson attack. So it’s great to have him back, again assisting his former protégée DI Carol Farman (Bronagh Waugh). The first episode of the four-part series sees them hunting a gang who raid a jewellery store owned by Harry Bentham (John Michie). After a related person is then murdered, they must act quickly to discover who’s behind the whole operation. Julie Graham returns as Annie, Ridley’s business partner of Marling’s jazz club, and guest stars include John Henshaw and Christine Bottomley. Ridley season 2 is four parts and will also land on ITVX as a box set.
Cooking with the Stars, ITV1, 7pm
It’s round two and Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, Hugh Dennis, Kelly Hoppen and Shaun Wright-Phillips are in the studio kitchen. Mentors Poppy O’Toole, April Jackson, Michael Caines and CWTS reigning champion Shelina Permalloo have devised some varied menus that feature real challenges – not least hollandaise sauce and linguine from scratch – and someone has to bang the gong urgently.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, BBC1, 9.15 pm
Lt Col Dorrigo Evans (Jacob Elordi) and Amy Mulvaney have spent just a few short days together, yet the lovers are savouring every stolen second. Their passionate affair is brought to a juddering halt, however, when Dorrigo learns that he’s shipping out to fight the Japanese, leaving a devastated Amy unravelling in torturous fashion. It’s a masterful performance from Odessa Young as Amy, and just when you think you’ve seen the episode’s defining moment, another arrives in the jungles of the Pacific, in a tale of human courage and brutality that will live long in the memory.
Parenthood, BBC1, 7.15 pm
As this delightful series turns its attention to ocean-dwelling animal parents, we learn that while many marine creatures abandon their young at birth, the ones that do stick around to care for their offspring are a genuinely dedicated bunch. We witness a bottlenose dolphin teaching her calf life skills through play, orcas carrying out practice hunts, and a Banggai cardinalfish father fasting so that he can keep his eggs safe in his mouth. But there’s danger in store, too, as a Cape gannet fledgling finds herself under threat from some famished Cape fur seals, and a super-cute otter kit in the Shetlands gets himself lost when his mum heads off to look for food…
