TV tonight: Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer go head-to-head in first televised debate
Let the debate begin … Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will face each other on ITV. Composite: Getty
Sunak v Starmer: The ITV Debate
9pm, ITVIt’s time for prime minister Rishi Sunak and opposition leader Keir Starmer to go head-to-head in the first televised debate in the run-up to the general election on 4 July. ITV News presenter Julie Etchingham will host the broadcast and fire questions in front of a live audience. Sunak and Starmer have said they’re looking forward to the debate but, given the somewhat bumpy start to campaigning, this could well be an excruciating hour of TV. Hollie Richardson
The Great British Sewing Bee
9pm, BBC One
Patrick Grant and Esme Young set challenges based around travel as the sewing contest continues. Nautical paraphernalia is repurposed into bags and there’s a made-to-measure challenge involving outfits inspired by the French Riviera. Wholesome fun. Phil Harrison
24 Hours in Police Custody
9pm, Channel 4
A Luton man is ambushed on his doorstep, shot three times and hacked with a machete – before his attackers flee the scene in a getaway car they later set fire to. Miraculously, he survives. But, with no witnesses, Bedfordshire detectives are relying on one possible clue: a bulky gold chain with a Tasmanian devil attached … Ali Catterall
Into the Amazon With Robson Green
9pm, Channel 5
The concluding episode of this cheerful South American travelogue sees Robson traversing the Anavilhanas archipelago – an outcrop of islands and lagoons that is full of rare and spectacular wildlife. He also learns to fish with a bow and arrow and meets an alarmingly large baby caiman. PH
Queenie
10pm, Channel 4
“You’re too much, Queenie!” This phrase is at the heart of this funny, smart comedy based on Candice Carty-Williams’s novel. Queenie is a Jamaican British twentysomething journalist navigating a range of cultural contexts and dating a white boy (“Why is this family so afraid of seasoning?”) – but her relatives have very different ideas about her problems. Dionne Brown is a sharp, warm lead; Sally Phillips and Joseph Marcell also star. PH
Tokyo Vice
10.40pm, BBC OneAnsel Elgort’s floppy-haired American journalist continues his investigations into the yakuza as the second season of this intriguing thriller approaches its endgame. Here, he’s taking a break and heading back to Missouri – but the story won’t leave him alone for long as a death within Chihara-kai causes turmoil and points the investigation in a new direction. PH
Film choice
Aquarela (Victor Kossakovsky, 2018), 11.35pm, BBC Four
He has subsequently made studies of a pig and concrete, but Victor Kossakovsky’s 2018 documentary has a more diffuse subject: water. From ice to ocean, waterfall to hurricane, this near-wordless film is an awestruck paean to the majesty and menace of our blue planet. When humans do appear, they are in peril or overwhelmed – in cars trapped in the ice or on a yacht battling stormy seas; a warning about our relationship with the natural world. But it’s also stunningly beautiful, with waves that look like molten tar and near-abstract blizzards of spray. Simon Wardell
The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani, 2022), 1am, Film4Just like Phantom Thread, Maryam Touzani’s delicate, touching drama uses the craft of dressmaking as a metaphor for the intertwined threads of love and desire. Taciturn Moroccan caftan-maker Halim (Saleh Bakri) and his more outgoing wife Mina (an exceptional Lubna Azabal) have a low-key but content life, although he has occasional sex with men in the local hammam. However, this unaddressed state of affairs faces disruption from Ayoub Missioui’s devoted new apprentice, Youssef, and Mina’s declining health. SW
The Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye, 1996), 2.50am, Channel 4
Cheryl Dunye’s groundbreaking 1996 work, the first feature by a Black lesbian director, is a whole lot more playful – and sexier – than its canonical status would suggest. It’s a mock documentary/drama about Philadelphia video-shop worker and aspiring film-maker Cheryl (played by Dunye), who decides to research the life of a lost Black film actor from the 30s known only for demeaning “mammy” roles. With vox pops, comic digressions, real-life chats with the likes of Camille Paglia and a romantic subplot featuring Guinevere Turner, it’s a freewheeling experience but makes its political points forcefully. SW