Smoggie Queens
10.10pm, BBC Three
“Cheers queers!” Phil Dunning’s comedy about an LGBTQ+ group of friends in Middlesbrough is side-splittingly funny. He plays Dickie, a fabulous if foul-mouthed drag queen whose friends are “drag” Mam (Mark Benton), “hun” Lucinda (Alexandra Mardell), lager-guzzling Sal (Patsy Lowe) and newbie Stewart (Elijah Young). In the first episode Dickie is dumped and amid the endless laughter there is also a lot of tenderness. Hollie Richardson
Cheap Flights: What They Really Mean for You
9pm, BBC One
The 60s marked the arrival of package holidays and European trips – and more than 200 million people now fly in and out of the UK every year – but does the climate crisis mean the days of cheap flights are numbered? This documentary will make you have a long, hard think, as Michelle Ackerley and Fran Scott put questions to airlines and the government. HR
Hunting Mr Nice: The Cannabis Kingpin
9pm, BBC Two
The second part of this biopic of Howard Marks is full of interviews with his associates and the police who hunted the cannabis smuggler. Brace yourselves for his most prolific criminal exploits (think 30 tonnes of Thai marijuana), arrest and celebrity – including a 1997 interrogation on TV by a BBC journalist. It’s every bit as staggering as you would expect. Alexi Duggins
The Colosseum: Blood & Sand With Dan Snow
9pm, Channel 5
If you weren’t entertained enough by Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel, here is the second part of Dan Snow’s tour around the Colosseum. He learns how the lifts and traps were set and how the sweat of fighters was seen as the ultimate aphrodisiac perfume. HR
The Day of the Jackal
9pm, Sky Atlantic
“Do we really still have no idea who this man is?” The pen-pushers at MI6 are struggling to keep up with Europe’s slipperiest assassin even after the botched operation in Tallinn. But how did the Jackal (Eddie Redmayne) become a disillusioned gun-for-hire in the first place? Flashbacks to Helmand in 2013 provide context. Graeme Virtue
The Synanon Fix
9pm, Sky Documentaries
Many cults that descend into violence were initially founded with good intentions; and so it is with Synanon, whose leader Chuck ended up spending $62,000 on guns and ammunition – at that point, the largest single firearms purchase in California history. This final part of the series charts Synanon’s unravelling (abduction, attempted murder) – and the aftermath. Ali Catterall
Film choice
Iron Monkey (Yuen Woo-ping, 1993), 6am, Sky Cinema Greats
The future Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping was on a hot directorial streak in the early 90s, with the likes of Tai Chi Master and Wing Chun. But he kicked off the run with this 1993 caper starring Donnie Yen as the real-life hero Wong Kei-ying, who teams up with a mysterious, masked, Robin-Hood-esque wealth redistributor to stick it to a pair of bullyboy governors. With the finest Hong Kong wirework, this slice of pure enjoyment has all the nimble, rooftop-prancing, skylight-crashing chops of a true action genius. Phil Hoad
