Stories of fear, resilience and survival take centre stage in a moving BBC documentary tonight, while BBC One’s visually inventive drama Mint continues to deepen. Elsewhere, Rooster reaches its finale and The Dog House returns with another round of emotional introductions.
Children of the Blitz
Children of the Blitz
9pm, BBC Two
Eighty five years after the end of the Blitz, this reflective documentary gathers testimony from people who lived through the bombing campaign as children. Their stories move between terror, confusion and moments of unexpected warmth, from families sheltering underground to parents trying to reassure frightened children during air raids.
What gives the programme its weight is the ordinariness of the memories. There are no grand speeches or dramatic recreations dominating proceedings. Instead, it focuses on lived experience, particularly from London and Liverpool, where communities adapted to nightly uncertainty while trying to maintain some sense of normal life.
The result feels personal rather than historical in the abstract. Small details linger long after the credits.
MasterChef
MasterChef
8pm, BBC One
The final week of the heats arrives with plenty of ambition in the kitchen. Contestants attempt everything from fillet steak and seafood chowder to intricate desserts and heavily layered lamb dishes, knowing that one mistake could end their run.
Grace Dent and Anna Haugh remain a compelling judging partnership, balancing warmth with blunt honesty. As ever with MasterChef, confidence can disappear quickly once the clock starts ticking.
The Dog House
The Dog House
8pm, Channel 4
Woodgreen Pets Charity opens its doors once again for another series of canine matchmaking. This week introduces Zeus the shih tzu, Wolf the selective malamute and Pipet, a nervous retriever still struggling after a traumatic fireworks display.
The format remains reassuringly simple. People arrive hoping for companionship, dogs look mildly confused by the cameras, and somewhere in the middle genuine connections form.
It is gentle television in the best sense.
Mint
Mint
9pm, BBC One
BBC One’s increasingly distinctive drama continues to blur emotional realism with stylised visuals. Arran and Shannon grow closer, while Cat and Dylan drift further apart in ways neither fully understands.
The camerawork and colour palette still give the series an unusual atmosphere, somewhere between contemporary drama and performance art. It will not work for everyone, but it is difficult to accuse Mint of blending into the background.
Virgin Island
Virgin Island
9pm, Channel 4
The latest episode pushes further into intimacy and vulnerability as participants explore themes around dominance, submission and personal confidence through guided exercises and discussions.
Virgin Island continues to divide opinion. Some viewers see it as exploitative, others as unusually open about subjects television often handles poorly. Either way, it remains one of the more talked about reality formats currently airing.
Rooster
Rooster
10pm, Sky One
Steve Carell’s comedy drama reaches its finale tonight. Across the series, Rooster has balanced sarcasm and emotional vulnerability surprisingly well, largely thanks to the chemistry between Carell and Charly Clive.
The closing episode sees Katie finally draw boundaries with her parents while Greg faces difficult decisions about where his life goes next. It has been one of Sky’s quieter successes this year, less flashy than many streaming dramas but far more grounded.
Film choice: Sisu
Sisu
9.30pm, Film4
A minimalist but highly effective action thriller set in 1944 Lapland. Jorma Tommila plays a solitary gold prospector whose discovery attracts the attention of retreating Nazi soldiers, with predictably violent consequences.
Sisu is brutal, stripped back and oddly funny in places. Dialogue is sparse, but the atmosphere does most of the work. It feels closer to a survival western than a conventional war film.
Live sport tonight
MasterChef may dominate early evening viewing, but sport remains strong elsewhere.
- Premier League football coverage continues across Sky Sports with Spurs versus Leeds United.
- Tennis from the Italian Open runs through the afternoon and evening on Sky Sports Tennis.
- NBA and NHL play-off coverage continues overnight on TNT Sports and Premier Sports.
Watching TV securely while travelling
Streaming habits increasingly follow people wherever they happen to be, whether that means catching up on BBC iPlayer during a commute or watching Sky Sports coverage from a hotel abroad. Public WiFi networks can make that less predictable, particularly when services restrict access based on location.
Using a VPN such as Liberty Shield can help keep connections private while also maintaining reliable access to UK streaming services when travelling internationally. It is often less about bypassing restrictions than simply making viewing more consistent across devices and locations.