TV tonight is this David Attenborough's last ever nature series?

12 Mar 2023

Wild IslesSunday, 7pm, BBC One

David Attenborough is bringing it home for what is reportedly going to be his final series filmed on location. Over five beautiful episodes, the 96-year-old shows off the natural riches of the British Isles and the role they play in the survival of species across the world. He kicks things off with some big players: killer whales patrol the kelpy waters off Muckle Flugga; golden eagles breed in the Caledonian forest (which is now only 1% of its original size); and – bringing the drama – beloved puffins go head to head with the cunning black-headed gull over an eel lunch on the Farne Islands. It’s a wonderfully on-brand final bow for the nation’s favourite naturalist. Hollie Richardson

Endeavour8pm, ITV1

There’s an appropriately funereal mood for this last ever episode, as the cryptic crossword-loving Morse (Shaun Evans) investigates a number of unusual death notices in the Oxford Mail, leading him to a local undertaker’s and some moody reflections on mortality. But take heart: every end is a new beginning, and that’s particularly true of prequels. Stick around for a special documentary, Morse and the Last Endeavour, at 10.20pm. Ellen E Jones

The Gold9pm, BBC One

The deft 80s-set thriller reaches its penultimate episode, and all those involved in the Brink’s-Mat blag are feeling the squeeze, even slick lawyer Cooper. As the taskforce tightens its net, there is a crash course in walkie-talkie etiquette from Jennings, while boss man Boyce hightails it to Zurich to take on Swiss banking privacy laws. Graeme Virtue

We Need to Talk About Cosby9pm, BBC Two

In the second episode of this documentary, “America’s dad” continues to gain the love and trust of audiences in the 70s through hugely popular kids’ educational shows such as Picture Pages and Fat Albert. But women who were allegedly drugged and raped by Cosby share their testimonies about what was happening behind the scenes. HR

Tartuffe9pm, BBC Four

Asif Khan and Natalia Campbell in Tartuffe.
Asif Khan and Natalia Campbell in Tartuffe. Photograph: Geraint Lewis/BBC/Method in Motion

Written by Goodness Gracious Me’s Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto, here’s a recording of the cuttingly funny adaptation of Molière’s classic Tartuffe put on by the RSC in 2018. Now set in Birmingham, it follows a British Pakistani family, their Bosnian cleaner Darina and the holy man Tartuffe, who has put their household under his spell. HR

Oscars 2023: The 95th Annual Academy Awardsmidnight, Sky Arts

To the Dolby Theatre in LA, where the 95th Academy Awards features a fairly open race for the big prizes: late momentum behind Everything Everywhere All at Once has made it an apparent lock for best picture, but the major acting gongs are closely contested. Jack Seale

Film choice

To Leslie, 5.55pm, 2.50am, Sky Cinema Premiere

To Leslie on Sky Cinema Premiere.
To Leslie on Sky Cinema Premiere. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

The controversy over the (successful) campaign to get the film’s star, Andrea Riseborough, an Oscar nomination has taken away from what should be universal praise for her lacerating performance. In Michael Morris’s touching drama of redemption, she plays self-destructive alcoholic Leslie who, after frittering away a $190,000 lottery win, finds herself homeless. Hoping to reconnect with the teenage son she abandoned, she falters and fails, but then meets Marc Maron’s motel manager Sweeney. He seems like a soft touch but his gentle persistence offers her a way out of her cycle of harm. It’s not as hard-edged as it could have been, but in Riseborough’s hands it’s utterly compelling. Simon Wardell

The Third Man, 2.40pm, BBC Two

Carol Reed’s riveting 1949 thriller reunites Orson Welles with his Citizen Kane co-star Joseph Cotten in a ripped-from-the-headlines tale of black marketeers in bombed-out postwar Vienna. It features one of the most distinctive cameos in cinema from Welles, but it’s really Cotten’s film. His pulp fiction author Holly Martins finds himself in one of his wild west plots when he arrives in the city to discover his old friend, Harry Lime, has just died. Alida Valli adds heart as Lime’s actor lover but it’s a bracingly cynical drama, all askew angles and subterranean intrigue. SW

Live sport

Premier League Football: Bournemouth v Liverpool, 11.30am, BT Sport 1 At Vitality Stadium. Crystal Palace v Man City is at 5pm on Sky Sports Main Event.

Six Nations Rugby Union: Italy v Wales, 1.25pm, ITV1 From Stadio Olimpico. Followed by England v France at 4.15pm.

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