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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Katie Rosseinsky, Ellen E Jones and Jack Seale

TV tonight: Michael Sheen and Sharon Horgan star in devastating family drama

Michael Sheen as Andrew and Sharon Horgan is Nicci in Best Interests
Life and death in the balance … Michael Sheen as Andrew and Sharon Horgan is Nicci in Best Interests. Photograph: Kevin Baker/BBC/Chapter One

Best Interests

9pm, BBC One

Written by Jack Thorne (Help, Kiri, The Virtues), this devastating four-part drama is about a family torn apart over making a decision that no parent should have to make. Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen play married couple Nicci and Andrew, whose youngest daughter Marnie (Niamh Moriarty) was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when she was a baby. As the series opens, we see the pained parents going to court separately. Flashbacks to six months earlier fill in their story and show what happened when, after Marnie contracted a severe chest infection, doctors advised that she be allowed to die. The cruel core question: in whose best interest would this be? Hollie Richardson

Sarah Beeny vs Cancer

9pm, Channel 4

“I’ve spent 40 years waiting to be told I have breast cancer,” Beeny, whose mother died of the disease at the age of 39, admits at the start of this moving documentary. She explores how medicine has advanced since then and charts her own experience, from asking her family to cut off her hair pre-treatment (“It looks really edgy!” her teenage son tells her) to attending chemo sessions. Katie Rosseinsky

Panorama: Electric Cars – Is It Time to Buy?

8pm, BBC One

Sales of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned in the UK by 2030, and yet with only one in 30 cars on the road being battery powered, there doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency among drivers about the impending change. Richard Bilton asks if we’re prepared for the electric revolution. HR

Springwatch

8pm, BBC Two

Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan are in Dorset this week, saying hello to the new fledglings at RSPB Arne. In Durlston Country Park, Megan McCubbin looks to be having too much of a good time in an Isle of Purbeck nature reserve, which is springing to life. HR

A scene in Belfast in 1981 … Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland
A scene in Belfast in 1981 … Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland. Photograph: Robert Dear/BBC/Keo Films/Associated Press

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland

9pm, BBC Two

The late 1980s were a time of mistrust and suspicion in Northern Ireland, as police and army stepped up their infiltration of paramilitary organisations. In part four of James Bluemel’s gripping documentary series, shocking footage of funerals targeted by gunmen recreates the rising tensions, while present-day interviews reveal that the fear is far from allayed. Ellen E Jones

The Idol

9pm, Sky Atlantic

The hype warned of a taboo-splintering sexfest, but last week’s opener of this US drama was just honkingly pompous dialogue and stilted flirting right out of a straight-to-video 80s erotic thriller. Perhaps it’ll get going now as ennui-laden pop star Jocelyn acts up on the set of her new video. Jack Seale

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