Louis Theroux Interviews
9pm, BBC Two
Louis Theroux returns with his celebrity tête-à-tête series, starting with the two-time former heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua. The hour-long ringside chat is all smiles to begin with, but – reflecting on recent defeats and public reaction to his behaviour – the cracks of being under so much pressure soon begin to show: “It’s too much; gone are the days when it was for the fun.” Hollie Richardson
The Great British Bake Off
8pm, Channel 4
Dessert week is very retro this year, starting with the bakers putting their spin on creme caramel in the signature. They then tackle a classic treacle sponge in the technical, before going all out with a meringue bomb in the showstopper. There are only a couple more weeks left, so the pressure is on to make the final three. HR
Tony Robinson’s Marvellous Machines
8pm, Yesterday
As Tony Robinson points out, airport runways “are a bit like underpants – they have skid marks”. Meet Big Boy – the latest in rubber-removal technology, to prevent plane slippage. This and other unsung heroes, such as the road zipper (“without which, life might come grinding to a halt”), are inspected in a fun six-parter. Ali Catterall
Ancient Empires
9pm, Sky History
Alexander the Great kicks off a series about top conquerors, his exploits retold via solid dramatic reconstructions and enthusiastic expert testimony, including from the retired US general Wesley Clark and a gang of biographers. Our man Alex makes his name in Macedon before planning to stick one on the Persians. Jack Seale
The Australian Wars
9.05pm, BBC Four
Rachel Perkins, who has European and Indigenous Australian ancestry, explores “Australia’s great silence” – the battles fought on Australian soil that she says are left out of the history books – through dramatisations and discussions with experts. She starts the story with the British arrival in 1788. HR
Banged Up
9.15pm, Channel 4
“I was the stupid man who watched porn in parliament.” The former Tory MP Neil Parish is one of the six “celebrities” sharing a prison cell with former inmates in this bizarre reality series. This week, he joins HMP Shrewsbury and learns he is sharing a cell with an ex-international drug dealer who would rather “chop up people than trees”. HR
Film choice
William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, 1996), 10.40pm, BBC One
In fair Verona Beach we lay our scene … From the BBC’s exhaustive Shakespeare season comes the most purely entertaining film adaptation of the bard’s work yet. Baz Luhrmann transposes the tragic love story to a modern US coastal city full of colour and chaos. Backed by an on-the-nose pop soundtrack, Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes fall into a precipitous but convincing romance, depicted with chutzpah but respect for the language. Of the supporting cast, Harold Perrineau’s flamboyant Mercutio nearly steals the show from our star-cross’d lovers. Simon Wardell
Hit the Road (Panah Panahi, 2022), 11.25pm, Film4
A father, a mother and their two sons are taking a road trip into the mountains, where they will say farewell in mysterious fashion to the elder child. As it’s set in Iran, the political ramifications of his departure can be guessed, but Panah Panahi’s witty, wonderful drama revolves around family concerns: the pain of leaving and being left, the bond that will remain. It’s far from a sob story, though, epitomised by the incorrigible, chatterbox younger son (a delightful Rayan Sarlak). SW
Body of Water (Lucy Brydon, 2020), 12.15am, BBC Two
A committed performance from Siân Brooke adds complexity to Lucy Brydon’s debut feature, which follows a recovering anorexic who isn’t really recovering at all. Leaving a residential facility after seven months, Stephanie attempts to re-establish her relationship with her headstrong 15-year-old daughter, Pearl (Fabienne Piolini-Castle), and her longsuffering mother (Amanda Burton). Distressingly thin, but drawn to “pro-ana” websites, Stephanie finds even the simple act of eating a struggle that she can’t persuade herself to win. A painful but necessary watch. SW
