Pick of the day: Breathtaking
9pm, ITV1
As the official Covid inquiry grinds on, this powerful three-part drama looks at how frontline medical staff coped as government and NHS management dithered in March 2020. Adapted by the Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio and former doctor Rachel Clarke from Clarke’s book, it stars Joanne Froggatt as Abbey Henderson, a doctor in a big city hospital. Inter-cut with remarks made by Boris Johnson about “defeating” the virus, this opening episode finds the hospital acutely short of protective equipment (nurses wrapping themselves in big bags) and Covid testing restricted.
The Way
9pm, BBC One
Revolution is in the air in this unusual new three-part drama co-created by James Graham (Quiz, Sherwood) and Adam Curtis (HyperNormalisation, The Power of Nightmares), and marking the directorial debut of Michael Sheen. Given last month’s news about massive job cuts at Port Talbot steelworks, it proves somewhat timely as a strike at the Welsh steelworks featured here sparks unrest across the country. Members of the Driscoll family (played variously by Steffan Rhodri, Callum Scott Howells, Sophie Driscoll and Mali Harries) find themselves on opposing sides as a civil uprising threatens to engulf the country.
The Space Shuttle That Fell to Earth
9pm, BBC Two
“Columbia is in great shape,” the doomed shuttle commander Rick Husband reported once they had reached orbit. However, as the inside story of the 2003 disaster continues, we learn how Nasa analysed footage of a piece of debris striking the shuttle 81 seconds after launch, concluding it did not represent a risk. But upon re-entry, anomalies began being reported back.
Katherine Ryan: Parental Guidance
9pm, W
Aside from being a parenting guide, it’s now clear that this series is a type of semi-comedic reality show about Katherine Ryan’s home life along the lines of Meet The Richardsons. As Ryan’s mother, Julie, arrives from Canada to help with the childcare (a nanny and a stay-at-home husband not enough), Ryan herself visits an activist mother who takes her children on protests against fossil fuels. Burning rather a lot of fossil fuels, meanwhile, are the parents who take their children out of school to travel the world.
The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd
10pm, Sky History
The Ghostbusters and Blues Brothers star opens up a cabinet of curiosities to reveal the strangest true stories in human history. The first looks at how, during the Second World War, US President Franklin D Roosevelt launched a top-secret plan to attack Japan with an army of bats.
Ukraine’s War: The Other Side
10.45pm, ITV1
Western reporting from the Russian side of the war in Ukraine has been understandably sparse. Sean Langan, who is no stranger to dangerous war zones (he was famously abducted by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2008) managed to gain entry to the Russian-occupied Donbas region for this fascinating insight into life and death in cities like Donetsk. Greeted with universal suspicion, he meets civilians living under siege and Russian soldiers under a steady barrage of artillery and rocket fire.