Here's our TV tonight picks for Sunday, July 20 (for more information about what's on TV, see our TV Guide)...
Karen Pirie season 2, ITV1, 8 pm (box set ITVX)
After unearthing police corruption in Karen Pirie’s debut in 2022, Lauren Lyle’s plucky Scottish cop has been promoted to Detective Inspector in this new three-parter, adapted by actor and star Emer Kenny from Val McDermid’s crime novel "A Darker Domain". Karen’s assigned an unsolved case from 1984 - the kidnapping of Catriona Grant, heiress to an oil fortune, and her baby son Adam. Decades on, the body of a dead man, with links to the kidnapping, is discovered. Karen needs a result, but will her inexperience hinder her progress? Guest-starring Taggart’s John Michie, this second outing is intriguing, exciting and funny. Karen Pirie season 2 is what a crime drama should be.
The Veil, C4, 9 pm (box set channel4.com)
If it’s a thrilling espionage thriller you’re after, then look no further than this spy drama, previously on Disney Plus, starring Elisabeth Moss. She plays undercover MI6 handler Imogen Salter, who is tasked with transporting potential ISIS commander Adilah El Idrissi (Yumna Marwan) from a snowy Syrian refugee camp to the French secret services in Paris. Adilah is suspected of planning a terror attack on the West, but she continues to protest her innocence. Can Imogen unravel the truth? Expect plenty of edge-of-your-seat knife fights and shoot-outs…
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, BBC1, 9.25 pm (box set iPlayer)
It’s rare for a TV drama to capture the spirit of a Booker Prize winner, yet director Justin Kurzel has impressively bottled the ethereal power of Richard Flanagan’s novel. Set along three timelines, it tells the story of Lt Col Dorrigo Evans, a reluctant war hero who can’t escape the memories of an intoxicating love affair and the agony of his time working on the Burma Railway as a Japanese POW. Ciarán Hinds is excellent as the older Dorrigo, but it’s the performance of Jacob Elordi as the young man from his memories that’s truly bewitching.
Jimmy Doherty’s Big Bear Rescue, C4, 8 pm
We wonder how Jimmy Doherty has room for all the waifs and strays he’s gathering at his wildlife park, but he’s not one to turn away a homeless animal. Tonight, he rehomes gorgeous Diego from Sweden. The brown bear was rescued as a cub so is used to humans, and he even enjoys a bedtime story, but he’s not so keen on Brunhilda, a Romanian rescue…
