WHAT’S ON TV TONIGHT: I’M A CELEBRITY IS BACK, CREEPY DRAMA SUMMERWATER BEGINS, AND MORE
Matt Smith gives a standout performance in Sky Atlantic’s anticipated adaptation of Nick Cave’s novel The Death of Bunny Monroe, plus there’s more exciting new dramas with Wild Cherry on BBC One and Summerwater on Channel 4, and the return of Netflix’s A Man on the Inside, BBC One’s Daddy Issues and English Teacher on Disney+.
Here’s the rundown of what to look forward to and catch up on this week.
What’s on TV tonight?
I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
ITV1/ITVX, 9pm
The jungle drums are beating, and that can mean only one thing: call the agents, unfreeze Ant & Dec, sauté the kangaroo anus – I’m a Celebrity… is back. Tonight, 10 celebrities of varying fame will descend on the Australian jungle of Murwillumbah, New South Wales, for the reality staple’s 25th series.
The most intriguing name this year is Jack Osbourne, the son of the late Brummie rock legend Ozzy Osbourne, who died in July. A classic in the genre of “celebrity with something interesting to talk about that we’re all waiting for them to talk about”. Joining Osbourne is an eclectic cast including the likes of EastEnders star Shona McGarty (AKA Whitney), football pundit Alex Scott, comedians Eddie Kadi and Ruby Wax, Emmerdale star Lisa Riley, rapper Aitch, former model Kelly Brook and Spandau Ballet’s Martin Kemp.
A promising line-up, although there are a few names that will be unfamiliar to many: YouTuber Angry Ginge, for instance, is likely to be unknown to you but has amassed over a million followers online. A sign of an increasingly fragmented media landscape – and a testament to I’m a Celebrity’s ability to pull it all together.
b'Landman
Paramount+
The first series of this starry Yellowstone-esque oil-boom drama ended with Billy Bob Thornton’s weary-but-committed landman Tommy being handed the reins of a giant Texan oil company. Today’s return deals with the messy aftermath of former president Monty’s (Jon Hamm) death and introduces Sam Elliott as Tommy’s father.
Riot Women
BBC One, 9pm; all episodes are already available on iPlayer
Sally Wainwright’s raucous drama comes to a close tonight with the titular menopausal rock band making their first proper recording. Where the finale truly sings, however, is the moving reconciliation between the troubled Kitty (Rosalie Craig) and her long-lost son Tom (Jonny Green).
Summerwater
Channel 4, 9pm; all episodes will be available to stream today
Tensions simmer between the paranoid residents of a Scottish holiday park in this slow-burning six-part drama, adapted from the novel by Sarah Moss and stripped across this week. It is handsomely performed (especially Valene Kane’s turn as the bitter Justine) but suffers from a terminal lack of propulsion.
King of Lies: Football’s Greatest Con
Sky Documentaries, 9pm
In 2009, a con man called Russell King led a takeover of Notts County football club funded by a non-existent deal to mine North Korean gold. This jaw-dropping documentary recounts the surreal scheme, which hoodwinked manager Sven-Göran Eriksson into joining the club and led Notts County into financial ruin.
Jools Holland’s New Orleans Jukebox
BBC Four, 9.30pm
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the documentary Walking to New Orleans, which followed Jools Holland on a musical journey across the heartland of jazz and blues. This special two-hour repeat is peppered with modern-day reflections from Holland, who reminisces upon highlights such as his jam session with legendary blues pianist Fats Domino. SK
What’s on TV this week?
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
Monday 17 November
Celebrity MasterChef
BBC One/iPlayer, 9pm
After the controversy concerning MasterChef earlier this year, the BBC must be hoping this new series of the celebrity version of the cooking competition will be more palatable to viewers. It was filmed after presenter Gregg Wallace had left the franchise but while John Torode was still attached to the show (he has also since departed), and restaurant critic Grace Dent joins him as co-presenter. Over the next few weeks, 15 celebrities will display their culinary skills and tonight’s first batch of five contestants are singer Antony Costa, Paralympian Gaz Choudhry, drag artist Ginger Johnson, actress Katie McGlynn and reality star Uma Jammeh, who are all basic home cooks.
Their first challenge is cooking with a secret ingredient; one competitor doesn’t know what haggis is, while another states confidently that, at least with chickpeas, he won’t give the judges food poisoning. Torode counters with: “At this stage of the competition, I’m just happy if it’s edible.” Then there’s the blindfold challenge in which they must identify various foods by touch and taste only, and finally they have one hour to cook a dish for their own street food stall. The second and third episodes follow tomorrow and on Thursday.
b'Animal Control
E4, 7.30pm
A new series of the workplace sitcom; animal wranglers Frank (Joel McHale) and Shred (Michael Rowland) are called to a bowling alley where a pack of raccoons have taken over – and found its bar. Shred, meanwhile, is still mooning over their boss Emily (Vella Lovell).
Robson Green: World’s Most Amazing Walks
U&Yesterday, 8pm; all episodes are already available on U
Our genial guide is in the Scottish Highlands – “with breathtaking views in every direction” – to walk the Great Glen Way. Along the 73-mile route, he reaches the Victorian engineering marvel, the Caledonian Canal, does some foraging with a local expert, and goes hunting for the Loch Ness monster.
The Forsytes
Channel 5, 9pm
The light but watchable period drama continues: at Forsyte & Co, the climbing Ceylon Gold share price casts doubt on Jolyon’s previous caution, and Soames now involves his wife, Irene, in his scheming.
Once Upon a Time in Space
BBC Two, 9pm; all episodes are already available on iPlayer
This fascinating series about the history of humans in space concludes with the closure of the US Space Shuttle programme, how Russia’s actions in Ukraine created tensions for multinational crews on the International Space Station, and the entrance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX into a new space race.
Men of the Manosphere
BBC Three/iPlayer, 10pm
The manosphere is a network of websites, blogs and chatrooms that focus on life from a male perspective – in response, we’re told, to a “masculinity crisis” of loneliness and disconnection. James Blake talks to three young men who have turned to it for lifestyle and money-making guidance, and finds that while some content, such as healthy living, is positive, much of it about relationships is disturbingly misogynistic. VL
Tuesday 18 November
The Black Swan
BBC Four, 9pm & 10pm
“Denmark is a country where we trust each other,” says journalist and filmmaker Mads Brügger at the outset of this gripping four-part documentary. Not anymore. Half the population of a country consistently named the world’s least corrupt watched The Black Swan in May 2024, and its impact shook both the nation’s complacent self-image and establishment figures who were prepared to take a bribe or turn a blind eye to criminality.
Our entry point is Amira Smajic, long-time lawyer and business advisor to the Danish underworld who, sick of the amorality and fearful for her young son’s safety, wants out – while burning every bridge on the way. She teams up with Brügger to open a new office, rigged with hidden cameras, where she feeds clients, ranging from violent biker-gang bigwigs to crooked accountants and shady politicians, more than enough rope with which to hang themselves. As they solicit her assistance in money laundering, invoicing fraud and the disposal of toxic soil (to name but three schemes), Smajic proves the nerveless if never wholly reliable protagonist to Brügger’s steady hand on the tiller. It is a superbly tense, alarmingly frank story with more twists and turns than The Killing.
Sundar Pichai: Running the Google Empire
BBC Two/iPlayer, 7pm
Four years after Amol Rajan failed to pierce the nice-guy carapace of Sundar Pichai, the Google CEO returns for another grilling on the BBC, doubtless fielding questions on privacy, AI and Donald Trump.
The Good Life
BBC Four/iPlayer, 8pm
While the greatest sitcoms bow out on their own terms, The Good Life is an exception: after a fine, unsettling finale in 1977 (and inevitable Christmas special), cast and crew were reunited for this 1978 coda in front of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, with Tom and Barbara (Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal) reconsidering their retirement plans. A footnote, but a charming one.
Cooper & Fry
Channel 5, 8pm
While Channel 5’s commitment to new drama is admirable, quality can be erratic: Cooper & Fry, adapted from Stephen Booth’s crime novels, is anaemic, unremarkable fare. Rob James-Collier and Mandeep Gill are the customary mismatched coppers with complicated personal lives, tackling a murder case mired in superstition and folklore, but this sags well before the end of its two-hour runtime.
Sandi Toksvig’s Hidden Wonders
More4, 9pm
While Bettany Hughes gets the sun-kissed gigs abroad (see Saturday), Sandi Toskvig and Raksha Dave are off to Hadrian’s Wall and the Roman site of Magna Fort, where archaeologists continue to make intriguing discoveries about the Roman Empire’s northernmost outpost.
In My Own Words: Yinka Shonibare
BBC One, 10.40pm; all episodes are already available on iPlayer
This insightful series concludes with a profile of the titular British-Nigerian artist. Yinka Shonibare tells his story through archive footage that leaves him both moved and amused, looking back on childhood, paralysis, the world of the Young British Artists and his piece for Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth. GT
Wednesday 19 November
Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks
BBC Two, 9pm
JMW Turner may be one of Britain’s best-known artists but, despite being the undoubted star painter of his generation and commonly regarded as the “father of modern art”, surprisingly little is known of his personal life and psychological make-up beyond his paintings.
In this fascinating film a wide range of Turner enthusiasts – from the actor Timothy Spall who memorably played him in Mike Leigh’s 2014 film Mr Turner, to Turner Prize-nominated artist Tracey Emin, who felt his artistic legacy and influence from an early age growing up in Margate – set out to decipher and decode the clues to the great master’s personality that he left in his “private” sketchbooks. They are an extraordinary archive of 37,000 sketches, drawings, and watercolours – many of them never aired before – through which Turner recorded his experiences, obsessions and most intimate thoughts and feelings. The lasting creative impacts of early visits to areas of Wales and the Alps associated with the Romantic movement are particularly evident. Others who contribute are artist Sir John Akomfrah, Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones, Couple’s Therapy star psychologist Orna Guralnik and TV naturalist Chris Packham, alongside a line-up of leading art academics.
English Teacher
Disney+
Evan Marquez (Brian Jordan Alvarez) is back in class again for a second season of the sharply written sitcom set in the dysfunctional Morrison-Henley high school in Austin, Texas. This time, Principal Moretti (Enrico Colantoni) gets nervous over Evan’s efforts to organise a school play around the subject of Covid trauma.
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Sara Cox: Every Step of the Way for Children in Need
BBC One/iPlayer, 8pm
Following Radio 2 presenter Sara Cox’s epic efforts for last week’s fundraiser. Her Great Northern Marathon Challenge saw her trekking 135 miles across four counties from Northumberland’s Kielder Forest to Pudsey in Leeds – the equivalent of five marathons, five days in a row.
Grand Designs: House of the Year
Channel 4, 8pm
Kevin McCloud divides the 2025 RIBA longlist into four categories: holiday-style homes, transformations, exceptional craftsmanship and, tonight, homes built against the odds. They include innovative properties in Cornwall and the Outer Hebrides, a space-saver in London, an accessible home in Bedfordshire and a strikingly modern house on the South Downs.
Shetland
BBC One/iPlayer, 9pm
With both the murder and drugs investigations seemingly going nowhere, Calder (Ashley Jensen) and Tosh (Alison O’Donnell) are blindsided when things take a violent turn. Sandy (Steven Robertson), meanwhile, unearths some worrying evidence of corruption in the past.
BBC New Comedy Awards 2025: Final
BBC One/iPlayer, 10.40pm
Former winner Amy Gledhill hosts as the BBC’s comedy talent search reaches its climax. The six regional heat-winners, whittled down from 1,000 applicants from all corners of the UK, perform for judges Fatiha El-Ghorri, Harriet Kemsley and Adjani Salmon and an enthusiastic full-house at Bradford’s historic Alhambra Theatre. GO
Thursday 20 November
The Death of Bunny Munro
Sky Atlantic, 2am & 9pm; all episodes will be available on Sky/NOW today
The songs of Nick Cave are haunting hymns of horror and beauty. Cave’s brooding 2009 novel The Death of Bunny Munro is no different, and nor is this sublime six-part adaptation (available as a boxset) starring the superlative Matt Smith. He plays the titular Bunny, a strutting middle-aged lothario who considers himself God’s gift to the universe. The travelling salesman’s constant womanising comes to a head, however, after his long-suffering wife Libby (Sarah Greene) kills herself. Left with a son he barely knows, and with social services banging on the door, the two embark on a wild road trip across Cave’s adopted home of Brighton.
In lesser hands, Bunny would simply be repulsive. He is, after all, a grotesque creation; a selfish, arrogant, foul-mouthed sex addict who thinks only of his own desires. But what makes him so perversely compelling is Smith’s ability to sell Bunny’s superhuman charisma. It is the reason why seduction comes so easily. It is also the reason why his naive nine-year-old son Junior (Rafael Mathé) idolises him. A tragedy borne out in the absurd scene in which Bunny tries to give Junior away to Libby’s mother (Lindsay Duncan) at the funeral. The request does not go down well.
A Man on the Inside
Netflix
The second series of Michael Schur’s heartening comedy finds budding private investigator Charles (Ted Danson) going undercover as a professor at a university with a saboteur problem. It rarely hits the heights of Schur’s The Good Place, but Danson is so charming that it hardly matters.
Celebrity Race Across the World
BBC One/iPlayer, 8pm
Tonight, the celebrities must make their way across the entirety of El Salvador before entering Honduras to reach the third checkpoint. It is a tough journey for presenter Tyler West, who is struggling with food poisoning. Anita Rani and her father, Bal Nazran, meanwhile, are enjoying their lead.
Inside The Tower of London
Channel 5, 8pm
The Tower of London’s iconic poppy display creates a striking moat of blood-like red around the fortress. Tonight’s edition of the long-running documentary follows Chief Yeoman Warder Rob Fuller as he prepares the 30,000 ceramic poppies in the run-up to the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
Cancer Detectives: Finding the Cures
Channel 4, 9pm
Cancer is the supreme adversary of mankind. This inspiring three-part documentary follows a selection of trailblazing scientists who are trying to make the disease a horror of the past. The most exciting research is a vaccine that could possibly stop cancer before it starts.
Play for Today: Big Winners
Channel 5, 9pm
The Play for Today revival concludes with the poignant story of an elderly couple whose world is turned upside-down by winning the lottery. The money makes them realise that they can finally start living their lives. For Sue Johnston’s Edith, that means asking for a divorce. SK
Friday 21 November
Daddy Issues
BBC One/BBC Three, 9.35pm; all episodes will be available on iPlayer today
From The White Lotus to Toxic Town to Film Club, it has been a year high on both quality and quantity for Aimee Lou Wood, with no let-up on either to the very end. This second series of Danielle Ward’s odd-couple sitcom Daddy Issues is just as warm, silly and sensitive as the first, even if episode one might perhaps be more aptly titled Mummy Issues.
Single mum Gemma (Wood) is finding the early, sleepless months of motherhood are nothing compared to her struggles with her own mother Davina (Jill Halfpenny, replacing Susan Lynch from series one), a self-absorbed monster prone to oversharing, passive-aggression and dalliances with people called “Sausage Man”. Davina has replaced Gemma’s well-meaning, wet-blanket dad Malcolm (David Morrissey, cast wonderfully against type) as flatmate – a situation suiting no one, as Malcolm is back in his “sad man bedsit” with David Fynn’s failed incel Derek. Meanwhile, Gemma reluctantly keeps Mr Right, Xander (Arian Nik), at arm’s length while she sorts out her own life and, perhaps, everyone else’s. The first stage in this Sisyphean mission: get Davina out of the flat.
One Shot with Ed Sheeran: a Music Experience
Netflix
Very much not the anticipated next move for director Philip Barantini in the wake of Adolescence, this brings his patented single-take style of filmmaking to bear on Ed Sheeran as he wanders New York, serenading unsuspecting, arguably undeserving passers-by on the streets and subways.
The Invisibles
Channel 4 online
The latest addition to Channel 4’s Walter Presents strand is a workmanlike French policier with an absurd premise: a maverick cop in charge of the eponymous unit of randoms (army veteran, forensic artist, washed-up boxer, actual duchess) whose particular sets of skills help solve murder cases. Their first few include a burnt body and a teenager whose bones are sealed in a wall.
Sara Davies’s Christmas Craft Off
ITV1/ITVX, 2pm
No sooner has she left Dragons’ Den than Sara Davies bags herself a daytime telly gig, here challenging – and offering tutelage to – three celebrities who must decorate a room in a stately home for an upcoming festive event. Low stakes, high camp TV.
Unreported World
Channel 4, 7.30pm
The clash between locals priced out of the rental market and landlords letting to holidaymakers for a decent profit is even more pointed in Tenerife than in British coastal towns. Under Spanish law, after 48 hours a court order is needed for eviction, which can take years to secure. Anja Popp meets the private eviction agents, as well as squatters and landlords united only in desperation.
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Empire with David Olusoga
BBC Two, 9pm; all episodes are already available on iPlayer
David Olusoga examines how migration was carried out by the British Empire – Africans transported across the Atlantic, Indians travelling to the Caribbean and Africa, convicts taken to Australia – and its impact on the lands and inhabitants, both new and long-established. GT
Television previewers
Stephen Kelly (SK), Veronica Lee (VL), Gerard O’Donovan (GO), Vicki Power (VP) and Gabriel Tate (GT)
2025-11-15T12:10:50Z
