Machines of War
8pm, Yesterday
Trigger warning: this gung-ho new series is a sort of upbeat genealogy show for killing machines, zeroing in on the various tech breakthroughs required before weapons such as the tank or machine gun were perfected. First up is the Tomahawk cruise missile, that long-range bunker-buster synonymous with the first Iraq war. Its varied forebears include a 1917 aerial torpedo, a proto-ICBM called the Snark and, oddly, the jetpack from Thunderball. Graeme Virtue
Peaky Blinders
9pm, BBC Two
Many of the performances – most notably that of mafioso Adrien Brody – chew the scenery to dust. Even so, Peaky Blinders has become an assured, gripping and hugely entertaining drama. Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby is increasingly the still point at the centre of a bewildering swirl of violence and double-crossing. Tonight, he occupies himself with a couple of sidelines as the politics – both familial and ideological – intensify and the Italians ramp up their vendetta. Phil Harrison
The Channel: The World’s Busiest Waterway
9pm, Channel 4
The assertion of the title is borne out tonight. We learn from a longtime employee the extent of the growth in business conducted via the Channel tunnel, while another worker, surveying the number of HGV vehicles passing through it, compares himself to an air traffic controller. We see maintenance crews liaising, keeping the operation moving. What will Brexit mean for all this? Shame it wasn’t broadcast before the referendum. David Stubbs
My Son: The Serial Killer
9pm, Channel 5
The murder of five young women in Ipswich in 2006 by forklift truck driver Steven Wright was a profoundly troubling crime heavily covered by media; a final body was discovered with news crews already present at a site covering a previous discovery. There has since been a TV drama and play based on the events. This documentary offers new interviews with Wright’s father, and with Isabella Clennell, mother of Paula, one of the victims. John Robinson
Digging for Britain
9pm, BBC Four
The sixth series of this annual exhumation of Britain continues, in this episode heading north. As usual, the artefacts introduced by Alice Roberts are extraordinary – the detritus of Britain’s history retaining its power to bring centuries-old events back to life. From the Roman fort at Vindolanda: swords, writing tablets and assorted kitchenware. In Scotland, bronze age weapons wielded by some forgotten potentate. On Iona, traces of St Columba’s own hut. Andrew Mueller
Dian Fossey: Secrets in the Mist
9pm, National Geographic
Working from a remote rainforest camp, the Karisoke Research Center, Dian Fossey pioneered the close study of mountain gorillas. Beginning work in the 1960s, she transformed our understanding of the primates. This three-part series charts Fossey’s life, working back from her brutal murder in 1985 to reveal a “tall and ungainly” woman who, in truth, probably felt more at home among her beloved primates than with humans. Jonathan Wright
Detectorists
10pm, BBC Four
“Life is too cynical,” wrote Paul Weller in the Jam’s Tales from the Riverbank, yearning to return to the pastel fields of his youth, both life and death “carried in this stream”. The same romanticism, that dream of Arcady, powers this meditative, even transcendent series, which tonight finds Lance and Andy attempting, “like environmental ninjas”, to save a beloved tree from culling. The penultimate episode of a show that yields hidden treasures galore. Ali Catterall
TV fFilm choice
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (Robert Rodriguez, 2003) 1.05am, Sony Movie Channel
Antonio Banderas returns as the ineffably cool guitarist-cum-lethal gunman, up against hordes of sweaty, stubbled bad guys. The likes of Johnny Depp, Salma Hayek, Mickey Rourke and Willem Dafoe are vivid if two-dimensional presences and Rodriguez – as director, writer, photographer, editor and co-producer – provides maximum pyrotechnic bang for your buck. Paul Howlett
Live sport
Test Cricket: India v Sri Lanka 6am, Sky Sports Main Event. The final day from the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.
Snooker: UK Championship 1pm, BBC Two. Coverage of the eighth day at the Barbican Centre in York.
Uefa Champions League Football: Liverpool v Spartak Moscow 7pm, BT Sport 2. Can Liverpool get back on track and qualify after their implosion against Sevilla?
