TV tonight: a major new culture wars drama from the great Russell T Davies

1 hour ago 4

Tip Toe

9pm, Channel 4
A harrowing scene on a regular residential street in Manchester ropes you into this new drama by Russell T Davies. It then rewinds a few weeks to tell the lively story of how the main characters – Canal Street bar owner Leo (Alan Cumming) and electrician Clive (David Morrissey) – ended up in such an awful situation. With the executive producer and director of It’s a Sin working with Davies again, the team have created a powerful, nuanced and urgent look at the modern state of culture wars in LGBTQ+ communities. As one of Leo’s friends from the gay club puts it: “I used to walk into a room and go: ‘Ta-da!’ Now I tiptoe, just in case …” Hollie Richardson

The Mother of All Cons

9pm, BBC Two
“It is the wildest, most bizarre story …” The bewildering subject of 2023’s hit investigative podcast Believe in Magic is unpicked in this documentary. In 2016, a teenager with a brain tumour and her mum were at the heart of a charity backed by One Direction. But as the charity continued to raise more awareness and money, people started asking questions about what was going on behind the scenes. HR

Death Valley

8.15pm, BBC One
When runner Ben Williams dies from a morphine-laced curry on the set of a fantasy TV series, suspicion falls on leading actor Olivia and Ash, a disgraced on-set medic with access to opioids (“If you want something stronger than an aspirin, he’s your man”). DI Janie and John Chapel investigate a case of bad korma as this cosy crimer continues. Ali Catterall

Dear England

9pm, BBC One
An evocative flashback to Euromania 1996 this week, with a younger Gareth Southgate having a post-penalties changing room chat with John Major. Back in 2021, Southgate (Joseph Fiennes) is dealing with the racism levelled at the England squad, before preparing for the moral quagmire of the Qatar World Cup. HR

The Assembly Unseen

10pm, ITV1

This gift of a series continues to give: episodes in the season just gone had enough questions left over for an extra episode. Groups of autistic, neurodivergent and/or learning disabled people fearlessly ask impertinent questions of Stephen Fry, Nicola Sturgeon, Lenny Henry, Aitch, Anna Maxwell Martin and Rylan Clark. Jack Seale

The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer

10.45pm, ITV1
Silver fox Sam Neill returns as defence barrister Brett Colby for another season of the Aussie courtroom drama that suggests jurors have as much to hide as the accused. This double bill sees Colby reluctantly take on a murder trial with links to a notorious cold case: the unsolved slaying of two teens in 1968. Graeme Virtue

Film choice

The Nice Guys, 10.30pm, BBC One

Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in The Nice Guys.

This roisterous 2016 caper fits neatly into the sunny, starry, sleazy world of California crime fiction that gave us LA Confidential – and in lead Russell Crowe has a pleasing link to that film. But being a Shane Black movie, it’s also much funnier, with Crowe’s world-weary heavy-for-hire Jackson and Ryan Gosling’s bumbling private eye/single dad Holland a comic double act to cherish. The plot involves the death of a porn star and the search for a missing young woman (Margaret Qualley) in a wonderfully evoked 1970s Los Angeles of power, corruption and lies. Simon Wardell