What’s on TV tonight: MasterChef: The Professionals, Storyville: The Eternal You and more

Tuesday 29 October

MasterChef: The Professionals 
BBC One/BBC Two Wales, 8pm
The show that challenges chefs who have been in the industry for some time (two years full-time, minimum) to take their first steps towards gastronomic stardom returns for another epic run. The kitchen has been given a refresh, but the format remains much the same with judges Marcus Wareing, Monica Galetti and Gregg Wallace putting 32 contenders through their paces three nights a week in heats, before the intense semi-final and final rounds. In tonight’s opener, the first four competitors face the usual two-part challenge, starting with the fiendish skills tests which really do tend to winnow out the less experienced. 

Two of them take on the task set by Galetti (to make a carrot schnitzel and serve it with a white bean hummus and Middle Eastern zhoug sauce) with the others tackling Wareing’s dessert-based challenge (baking pastry beignets served with lavender sugar and whipped orange cream). After that, the chefs have the opportunity to show off their personal style and talent by cooking a two-course signature meal for the judges in just 90-minutes. With a potentially career-making win at stake, there’s a pressure-cooker atmosphere from the start. GO

Between the Covers
BBC Two, 7pm; not Wales
Sara Cox is back with a new series of her celebrity book club. Tonight’s guests are comedians Adrian Edmondson, Alan Davies and Sara Pascoe and actor Taj Atwal, and the “book club choice” they’ll review is Chris Whitaker’s missing-person thriller, All the Colours of the Dark.

Mary’s Foolproof Dinners
BBC Two, 7.30pm; not Wales
Returning for a second run, Mary Berry’s first student is Alan Carr, who loves home-cooked food but lives on takeaways. Parma ham and cheese parcels, honey-mustard chicken and beef chow mein are among the dishes she tries to help him master. 

The Martin Lewis Money Show: Live
ITV1, 8pm
In light of the winter fuel payments cut for pensioners and the energy price cap rise, the first show of the new run focuses on energy, highlighting the best money-saving offers available and other pound-stretching tips. There will be a look at some of the more likely impacts of Wednesday’s Budget on the pound in your pocket. 

A History of Royal Scandals
More4, 9pm
Historian Suzannah Lipscomb presents an entertaining second series on scandalous events involving British royals down the ages. Tonight, she reopens the case of the Princes in the Tower, questions whether William the Conqueror’s son was killed by his brother and gets to grips with Mary Queen of Scots’ role in the death of her husband, Lord Darnley. 

The Boy That Never Was
Alibi, from 9pm
Despite a powerful opening this four-parter, about a father (Colin Morgan) who believes he’s seen his missing son – presumed dead in an earthquake in Morocco three years earlier – on a station platform in Dublin, quickly descends into melodrama. Reminiscent of The Missing, but never as convincing, episodes one and two air tonight, the rest weekly. 

Storyville: Eternal You
BBC Four, 10pm
Is artificial intelligence set to bring people back from the dead? Not as living, breathing beings, but as uncannily accurate avatars intended to comfort grieving loved ones. This unsettling film examines how close some technologies already are to achieving this and, more pertinently, the ethical risks and potential misuses. 

The Book of Clarence (2023) ★★★
Sky Cinema Premiere, 5.45pm  
This bawdy Biblical comedy from Jeymes Samuel (and produced by rapper Jay-Z, among others) follows Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield), down-on-his-luck, debt-ridden and living in AD33 Jerusalem, who tries to cash in on the rise of Jesus by claiming to be another Messiah sent by God. Micheal Ward, Benedict Cumberbatch and James McAvoy co-star. 

Mad Max 2 (1981) ★★★★★
ITV4, 10.10pm  
Mel Gibson reprises his role as Max the cynical ex-cop in this thrillingly intense sequel that proved to be that rare thing – better than the original (though 2015’s Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, definitely gives it a run for its money). Drifting through the Outback after a nuclear war, he finds a community menaced by a gang that aims to rob them of their oil. Can he defend them? The peerless George Miller writes and directs.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) ★★★★
BBC One, 10.40pm  
Francis Ford Coppola directs this surreal retelling of Bram Stoker’s classic vampire tale. Gary Oldman is excellent as Dracula, left heartbroken when his wife (Winona Ryder) dies. Centuries later in Victorian London, Dracula is still searching for his lost love. The Oscar-winning costumes more than compensate for Keanu Reeves’s atrocious English accent. Anthony Hopkins is among the wider cast.

Wednesday 30 October

Prince William: We Can End Homelessness
ITV1, 9pm
The Royal family’s latest partnership with ITV follows the Prince of Wales in his pursuit of eradicating homelessness in Britain. The Prince has long since dedicated himself to charitable work – from volunteering for overnight charity “sleepouts” to fundraising events and initiatives – along with other members of his family, including his wife, Catherine, the Princess of Wales and his father, the King. We Can End Homelessness focuses primarily on his work with Homewards, a five-year programme set in six locations across the UK and three towns in Dorset. 

Unlike Channel 5’s royal offerings, which tend to only feature gossip-loving talking heads, this has unbridled access to the Prince himself, who recruits a dedicated team, including former England footballer Fara Williams and TV presenter Gail Porter, to help families across the country. From moving scenes of him serving up Christmas dinner at homeless shelters, to encounters with people in the street, this offers essential insight to the future King’s moral compass – and the urgent need to solve Britain’s homelessness crisis. PP

Tú también lo harías
Apple TV+
Titled You Would Do It Too in English, this gripping Spanish drama follows a botched armed robbery in Barcelona and the web of deception that follows as detectives try to uncover who’s behind it. The first two episodes premiere today, then continue weekly.

Wizards Beyond Waverly Place
Disney+
Before she was one part of TV’s favourite crime-sleuthing trio in Only Murders in the Building alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short, Selena Gomez was the squeaky-clean Disney Channel star from Wizards of Waverly Place. The series, which ran from 2007 to 2012, centred on the magical Russo family as they juggled life in NYC with their powers. This family friendly spin-off catches up with the clan.

The Manhattan Alien Abduction
Netflix
This near-unbelievable documentary tells the story of Linda Napolitano, who says she was beamed up into a spacecraft hovering above NYC. Featuring an abundance of footage purportedly from the night itself, this film makes the question of whether it was an elaborate hoax or proof of alien life even knottier.

Witches: Truth Behind the Trials
National Geographic, 8pm
A fascinating six-part docu-series about the persecution of “witches” (spoiler: they were just ordinary women) throughout history begins today with a trip back to Jacobean-era Scotland, where King James VI spent much of his time poring over books about witchcraft. Historians offer their insight alongside various dramatic reconstructions.

Ludwig 
BBC One, 9pm
David Mitchell bids farewell to his bumbling imposter detective. In tonight’s terrific finale, John (Mitchell) must help prove Lucy’s (Anna Maxwell-Martin) innocence and decide, once and for all, if his pesky twin brother is actually worth all this trouble. 

Helmand: Tour of Duty 
BBC Two, 9pm
An essential watch: 10 years on from the end of the war in Afghanistan, Tour of Duty honours the Welsh Guards who were sent to the frontline of the Helmand Province in 2009 and suffered colossal casualties and life-changing injuries. Moving testimony comes both from soldiers and family members who lost their loved ones in the war. As Platoon Sergeant Steven Peters reflects, “It’s a brotherhood... that bond stays strong for a lifetime.” 

Midas Man (2024) ★★★
Amazon Prime Video 
Joe Stephenson’s biopic of Beatles manager Brian Epstein offers a new route into the much-told world of the Fab Five. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd (Wolf Hall) plays Epstein; the film charts how he became one of the most important figures in British pop music in the 1960s – through his work with the Beatles, Cilla Black and Gerry and the Pacemakers – before his sudden death in 1967, aged just 32. Emily Watson and Eddie Marsan are excellent in support.

Pork Chop Hill (1959, b/w) ★★★★
5Action, 12.05pm  
Lewis Milestone, who was responsible for the great anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front, directs this solid, unfairly forgotten drama based on the true story of a battle in the later period of the Korean War. Gregory Peck stars as a gung-ho American who leads a unit attacking the Chinese-held Pork Chop Hill, while Rip Torn is professional as his concerned brother-in-law. This also marks Martin Landau’s film debut.

Ghostbusters (2016) ★★★★
BBC One, 10.40pm  
Paul Feig’s female-led reboot captures the spirit of the original with sparky jokes, great special-effects and sparkler-bright cast chemistry – this Ghostbusters has a hot-air-balloon-sized sense of fun. Bridesmaids’s Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy reunite to play a physicist and paranormal researcher who attempt to scientifically prove ghosts are real. Chris Hemsworth co-stars. 

Thursday 31 October

Ellis
Channel 5, 8pm
Award-winning actress Sharon D Clarke (currently also to be seen in Mr Loverman on BBC One) stars in this new three-part police procedural created by Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre with Paul Logue. Clarke plays DCI Ellis, a detective who is parachuted into murder investigations that have floundered for some reason. Not only must she bring fresh energy to a case but she also has to win over her new colleagues each time – not easy for a newbie in any workplace, but more difficult for a black female officer who, it soon becomes clear, is used to being underestimated. And Ellis, like all television detectives, must have character quirks; hers are a personal life we get only tantalising glimpses of and an almost Zen-like calm – even when she is dismissed as “DCI Lend a Hand” by an old-school cop whose investigation she is about to take over.

The three episodes are feature-length and in the first we see how the keen-as-mustard DS Harper (Andrew Gower from Outlander) becomes Ellis’s assistant – forming, as required by TV tropes, yet another odd couple – as they investigate the death of a teenager whose girlfriend has not been seen since he died. VL

The Diplomat
Netflix
The return of the glossy and entertaining series about US-UK relations starring Keri Russell as US ambassador Kate Wyler. The story picks up where the first series ended; the bomb in London has one fatality – and she doesn’t know if it’s her husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell). As more intelligence comes in, Wyler begins to suspect that the British Prime Minister (Rory Kinnear) may be involved in dirty tricks, but to what end? Allison Janney (The West Wing’s press secretary CJ Cregg) joins the cast of The Diplomat this season; she’s back in the White House but she’s much closer to power this time.

The Martin Lewis Money Show: Budget Special
ITV1, 8pm
Martin Lewis and his team crunch the numbers after Rachel Reeves’s Budget – the first Labour Budget since 2010 – to explain how it will affect your finances. He’s joined by financial experts to examine the nitty-gritty.

Ambulance
BBC One, 9pm
More from the men and women who work in the London Ambulance Service; this week, as well as responding to real emergencies, the call handlers have to deal with several nuisance callers.

A House Through Time: Two Cities at War
BBC Two, 9pm
David Olusoga’s excellent series telling human stories of the Second World War in London and Berlin continues. We reach 1940, and in Montagu Mansion one resident, Timothy Corsellis, has begun training as an RAF pilot but soon has doubts about bombing German civilians; while on Pfalzburger Strasse, we learn the fate of Jewish former residents, the Rosenfeld and Sallisohn families.

Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters
Sky Arts, 9pm
Using archive clips and talking heads, this sparky documentary delves into the history of Hammer Films, charting how from its inception in 1934 it “came to define the entire genre of horror cinema”. During its 1950s and 1960s heyday, it made international stars of actors including Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. 

Everyone Else Burns
Channel 4, 10pm
Passions run high as the congregation of apocalyptic Christians vote for a new leader – but the goings-on are less than spiritual as Fiona (Kate O’Flynn) flirts with Andrew (Kadiff Kirwan). 

Film of the Week: Carrie (1976) ★★★★★
Great! Movies, 9pm
What better time to revisit Brian De Palma’s terrifying exposé of the dark side of American high-school cliques – and devout religion – than on Hallowe’en? Adapted from Stephen King’s first published novel – arguably still his best – the film follows societal outcast Carrie White (an Oscar-nominated Sissy Spacek), mousy, bullied by her classmates and relentlessly held back by her controlling, pious mother (Piper Laurie). When the most handsome and popular boy in school (William Katt) asks her to prom, Carrie can’t believe her luck – and sure enough, it turns out to be a callous joke dreamt up by the mean girls intent on humiliating her. Cue scarlet pig’s blood (it might be a classic, but nobody said the menstruation symbols were discreet), telekinetic revenge and a whole load of fire. Almost 50 years on, Carrie remains Hollywood’s most thrilling insight to the angst-ridden state of what it means to be a teenage girl. John Travolta and Amy Irving also star. Director Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House) is adapting a TV version for Amazon Prime Video – here’s hoping that it’s better than the dire 2013 reboot starring Chloë Grace Moretz. 

The Mummy (2017) ★★
ITV1, 10.45pm  
No, no, not “that” Mummy, starring a muscled and charismatic Brendan Fraser. Nick Morton (Tom Cruise), full-time grave-robber and plunderer of valuable historical artefacts, teams up with archaeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) to battle a long-dead Egyptian Princess (Sofia Boutella) whose powers have grown stronger in the grave. If they don’t put her back to rest, London will be reduced to ruins. Cruise fans will find something to enjoy.

The Omen (1976) ★★★★★
BBC Two, 11.05pm  
Never before has a child been so devilishly terrifying and nightmare-inducing as in Richard Donner’s seminal horror film. Dealing with the tragedy of their stillborn child, Robert and Katherine Thorn (Gregory Peck and Lee Remick) adopt an orphan called Damien (Harvey Spencer Stephens). Far from being the angel of their dreams, this sinister boy induces a host of tragedies, which leads Robert to question his son’s identity.

Enys Men (2022) ★★★★
Film4, 11.15pm  
Mark Jenkin’s Cornish psychodrama is a triumph: silently terrifying, stunning to look at, anchored by an excellent lead performance and expertly directed. Mary Woodvine plays The Volunteer, a lone woman who dedicates her life to researching rare flowers in Cornwall. When she becomes too obsessed with one flower in particular, she embarks on a metaphysical journey that quickly descends into madness. 

Friday 1 November

Music by John Williams
Disney+
A profile of a composer admired and adored by some of the most famously nice people in showbiz – Steven Spielberg, Chris Martin, Ron Howard – could make for indigestible hagiography and, aside from the very occasional “pain” (the early death of his first wife, hints of sacrifices made in his family life, a public run-in with his Boston Pops Orchestra), this is indeed as purely cheering and enjoyable a 105 minutes as you could spend. Director Laurent Bouzereau ticks off all the big hitters (Jaws, Star Wars, Schindler’s List et al) but also hears from the great man, formidably sharp, charming and indeed still composing at 92, on how he goes about his art.

Williams’s early years as the oldest son of a musical family are a fascinating snapshot of a life mesmerised by and then working within radio, television and cinema, where he established himself first as a notable jazz pianist and then a composer of instantly memorable movie scores and occasional forays into conducting and classical work. The anecdotes tumbling forth attest to a total mastery of the highest of fantasies and darkest of realities which have brought him 54 Oscar nominations – so far. GT

Paris Has Fallen
Amazon Prime Video
After Washington, London and Los Angeles, Paris was perhaps a logical next target for the first television outing of the bombastic, basic Has Fallen film franchise. Sean Harris offers a spin on his Mission Impossible villain as Jacob Pearce, a terrorist whose grievance is much more acceptable than his method of addressing it. An attack on a French government minister brings together the latter’s protection officer Vincent (Tewfik Jallab) and a canny MI6 agent Zara (Ritu Arya); can they stop the vengeance of Jacob Pearce? Not without plenty of fistfights and explosions, that’s for sure. 

Hope Street
BBC One, 2pm
The fourth series of the procedural introduces Derry Girls’ Tara Lynne O’Neill as Port Devine’s newest police inspector, who senses a connection between a kidnap and the reappearance of a dodgy copper. Superior daytime fare, well-performed and with a persuasive sense of community.

Secrets of the Lost Mines: Our Lives
BBC One, 7.30pm; not Scot
Another charming regional dispatch, Megan Roberts’s documentary has a touch of Detectorists about it in its portrayal of two mildly eccentric men searching for treasure. This time, it is not medieval hoards but abandoned metal mines that fascinate Ioan Lord and Al Tansey, who scour the Ceredigion hills in search of buried Victorian artefacts.

Susan Calman’s Grand Day Out
Channel 5, 8pm
Amiable schedule filler as always, Susan Calman’s latest travel series begins with a visit to the South Downs: cue amusing encounters with Winnie-the-Pooh, steam tractors, a colony of wallabies, 1066 and more.

The Cleaner
BBC One, 9.30pm
Greg Davies finds another fine comic foil in Sharon Rooney, playing Barbie the power-crazed housekeeper of a country pile which has recently played host to the unfortunate death of an estate agent. Racing against time to clear up before the lady of the house returns, Wicky uncovers a few secrets in a broad, entertaining episode.

The VP Choice: Vance vs. Walz
PBS America, 9.30pm
As one of the most consequential US elections in decades draws near, PBS examines the very different backgrounds, policies, temperaments and values of the two candidates for vice president – 60-year-old Governor Tim Walz and 40-year-old Senator JD Vance – and hears from those who’ve known them. 

Freedom (2024)
Amazon Prime Video  
Emily in Paris star Lucas Bravo leads Mélanie Laurent’s dramatisation of the life of notorious French robber, Bruno Sulak. Bravo portrays Sulak, who was often compared to a modern-day Arsène Lupin and became famous across France for a series of daring jewellery heists in the 1970s and 1980s. Yvan Attal plays the policeman determined to put him behind bars once and for all, while Léa Luce Busato is his love interest, Annie. 

Lee (2023) ★★★
Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm  
Kate Winslet is brilliant as the American Second World War photographer Lee Miller in Ellen Kuras’s handsome biopic (heavily, overtly influenced by Pablo Larraín’s Jackie). We meet the elderly Lee in her living room, as a Vogue journalist (Josh O’Connor) grills her about her life’s work. It’s a solid tribute to a trailblazer who put her life at risk to document humanity’s darkest days – but it could do with asking more probing questions.

Flight (2012) ★★★
Film4, 9pm  
Robert Zemeckis’s film, starring Denzel Washington as alcoholic pilot Whip Whitaker, is a long, earnest, sporadically excellent drama; much like the director’s best-known film, Forrest Gump. On a routine short-haul flight from Florida to Atlanta, Whip’s plane starts to tumble out of the sky – a dramatic sequence that will turn nervous fliers’ stomachs – and the pilot must fight to save the lives of those on board.

Testament of Youth (2014) ★★★★
BBC Two, 11.05pm  
Alicia Vikander gives an astute portrait of Vera Brittain, the Oxford student whose ideals are beaten into shape – or, you might say, bitterly forged – by the incessant heartbreak and trauma of the First World War. James Kent’s direction gives his film a restrained cinematic polish that feels appropriate: this is a soberly accomplished, never voyeuristic piece of work. Game of Thrones’s Kit Harington co-stars.

Television previewers

Stephen Kelly (SK), Veronica Lee (VL), Gerard O’Donovan (GO), Poppie Platt (PP) and Gabriel Tate (GT)