Sharon D Clarke leads Channel 5’s rural murder mystery Ellis while Cheltenham Festival racing and Champions League football dominate the evening schedule.
Tuesday night television mixes crime drama, documentary storytelling and a healthy dose of sport. Sharon D Clarke returns as the determined DCI Ellis in Channel 5’s investigative drama, while BBC Two continues Katya Adler’s thoughtful European travel series.
Elsewhere, BBC Four’s Storyville strand explores a striking real life story from China, and Netflix carries the Bafta winning biographical film I Swear.
For sports fans, it is a busy day with the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival and a strong Champions League schedule later in the evening.
Ellis
9pm, Channel 5
Sharon D Clarke returns as DCI Ellis, the sharp and unflappable detective who is sent into struggling police investigations across rural northern England.
This week’s case centres on the murder of a respected local businessman. At first the crime appears straightforward, but Ellis and DS Chet Harper soon uncover a tangle of long held grudges within the small community.
The drama leans heavily on the familiar pleasures of village secrets and simmering resentment. Clarke remains the show’s anchor, bringing quiet authority to a character who understands that the most obvious story is rarely the real one.
Sort Your Life Out With Stacey Solomon
8pm, BBC One
Stacey Solomon and the team arrive at the Kings’ home to begin another emotional clear out.
With more than a thousand greeting cards, hundreds of ornaments and a collection of miniature pigs filling the house, the scale of the task is daunting. The family are also dealing with the challenges of early onset dementia, which adds a deeper emotional weight to the decluttering process.
The series continues to balance practical organisation advice with compassion for the families involved.
Aldi vs M&S: Battle of the Brands
8pm, Channel 4
Kate Quilton explores one of the most unusual supermarket rivalries in Britain.
The legal dispute between Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake and Marks & Spencer’s Colin the Caterpillar became a strange cultural moment in 2022. This programme revisits that story while asking a broader question about whether supermarket imitation products really match the originals.
Along the way Quilton compares recipes, ingredients and branding strategies as she tries to decide which retailer comes out on top.
Europe on the Edge With Katya Adler
9pm, BBC Two
Katya Adler continues her journey across a continent facing growing uncertainty.
This episode focuses on Germany, a country wrestling with defence spending, migration tensions and political shifts on the far right. Adler speaks with residents about a nation that often appears uncertain about its place in the modern world.
Later the programme moves to Barcelona during Catalonia’s national day celebrations, where political divisions remain close to the surface.
The Summit
9pm, ITV1
The adventure competition approaches its final stretch with only six climbers remaining.
As the group climbs deeper into the mountains the tension between contestants begins to rise. Dockers attempts to form a secret alliance while a minor incident involving missing chocolate pushes the already strained group dynamic towards breaking point.
Storyville: Mistress Dispeller
10pm, BBC Four
The Storyville documentary strand presents a striking and unusual story from China.
When marriages break down through infidelity, some couples turn to professional mediators known as “mistress dispellers”. Their role is to intervene in the affair and persuade the third party to leave.
The film follows one such case in remarkable detail. Along the way it offers a wider glimpse into changing relationships and social pressures in modern China.
Film of the night
I Swear
Netflix
Kirk Jones’s Bafta winning biographical drama tells the story of John Davidson, a man living with Tourette syndrome.
Robert Aramayo leads the film with a performance that captures the tension between frustration, humour and resilience that defines Davidson’s life. The story follows his difficult teenage years as his symptoms emerge and the mentors who help him recognise his potential.
Maxine Peake and Peter Mullan provide strong support in a film that balances difficult subject matter with moments of warmth.
Live sport today
Sport begins early with day one of the Cheltenham Festival from 12.45pm on ITV1, featuring seven races from one of the biggest meetings in the horse racing calendar.
Champions League football dominates the evening schedule. Galatasaray host Liverpool at 5pm on TNT Sports 1, followed by Atlético Madrid v Tottenham at 7.45pm.
Meanwhile Newcastle face Barcelona at 6.30pm on Prime Video, giving viewers several major European ties across the night.
Watching UK TV while travelling
British streaming platforms such as BBC iPlayer, ITVX and Channel 4 normally restrict access outside the UK because of programme licensing agreements.
Travellers often discover that the programmes they usually watch suddenly become unavailable once they leave the country.
A UK based VPN can allow viewers to connect through a domestic server and access the services they already subscribe to while abroad. Some providers focus specifically on reliable UK connections for streaming.
LibertyShield offers UK-based servers, and readers can try the service with a 48-hour free trial, allowing them to test whether their preferred platforms work across their devices before committing.