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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Graeme Virtue, Ellen E Jones, Jack Seale and Phil Harrison

TV tonight: Ross Kemp learns the truth about his shipwrecked ancestor

Actor Ross Kemp standing at a harbour wearing a flat cap and overcoat.
What links Ross Kemp with the Napoleonic wars? Watch Who Do You Think You Are? to find out (BBC One). Photograph: BBC/Wall to Wall/Stephen Perry

Who Do You Think You Are?

9pm, BBC One
In Ross Kemp’s family, the legend goes that Pop, his great-grandfather, was shipwrecked during his time in the merchant navy. As he follows his family tree, Kemp sifts fact from fiction. The actor also wants to know why his great-uncle Albert was known by the family as a “bad man” who was blacklisted from pubs – and learns the sad explanation. Then, he discovers the four-time great-grandfather who served in the Napoleonic wars. Hollie Richardson

Dad’s Army at the BBC

7.30pm, BBC Two

As part of the VE Day commemorations, this special – narrated by Toby Jones – harks back to the imperial phase of Dad’s Army, when the beloved cast were often out on manoeuvres across the BBC. The trove of clips include a Morecambe and Wise dance-off, an encounter with Lulu and a 1970 visit to Buckingham Palace. Graeme Virtue

Stacey & Joe

8pm, BBC One
What does Christmas mean for the family of reality TV veterans at Pickle Cottage? Panto commitments, of course. Joe has a starring role this season, while Stacey is shooting a TV ad. Let’s hope they can make it home in time to reconnect with the kids on a visit to the Christmas tree farm. Ellen E Jones

Night Coppers

9pm, Channel 4
The series that shadows Brighton police on the beat returns. The first night sees the team racing to find a desperate person on a cliff edge, a suspect who allegedly threw a passenger out of a vehicle, and a group suspected of violently attacking someone with a crowbar. HR

Joe Lycett’s United States of Birmingham

9pm, Sky Max
Lycett moves his cheerful travelogue to Birmingham, Iowa, where not much is happening – but the house from Grant Wood’s American Gothic is in a town a few miles away and it would be churlish not to visit. Plus, Birmingham itself offers elderly community volunteer Harry, who is a sharp comedy partner for our host. Jack Seale

Matlock

9pm, Sky Witness
Kathy Bates continues to excel in the seemingly tailor-made role of Madeline Matlock in this legal drama. Olympia is faced with a tricky conflict of interest as a woman seeks assistance with a complex divorce settlement. The company soon realises it’s closely connected to figures on the other side of the litigation, too. Phil Harrison

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