Head Over Heels In Rats
7.30pm, Channel 4
The Rattrays aren't your conventional 2.4 children family, as they're quick to point out themselves. How could they be when they call 25 rats – a number that swells during the course of this programme – their "children"? Directed by Jenny Popplewell, the documentary follows Kevin, Kate and their furry friends through the highs of new arrivals and the lows of losing one of their brood. Opening with the couple helping birthday girl Hops blow out the candle on her cake (Victoria sponge, if you were wondering), it's a unique and strangely heartwarming short about an unconventional couple. RD
Can't Take it With You
9pm, BBC2
Where there's a will there's a won't. Raymond wants to leave his farm to his sons, who work on it. His daughter hasn't worked on it, so isn't getting the farm. Wife Jane thinks this is unfair, and is in a real tizzy about it. "I'm in a real tizzy about this," she says. Meanwhile, their daughter bursts into tears. Elsewhere, Muslims Khalid and Sara want to do right by the Koran, but also by their children. Sir Gerry Robinson wades in to make everything OK. AJC
Embarrassing Bodies
9pm, Channel 4
Doctors Pixie, Dawn and Christian return for another series of offering advice to those with unusual conditions. Tonight, that means help for Russell, whose hernia protrudes so badly that he uses it as a hand rest when he's in easy chair recline mode; Hazel, who has two wombs and worries she won't be able to have children; and Jessica, her tonsils so big that she gets bits of food caught in them, tidbits she removes with cotton wool buds. As ever, the show's painful puns and annoyingly all-out alliteration are a high price to pay for increased health awareness. JW
Mark Knopfler Night
From 9pm, BBC4
In the 1980s, Knopfler and his band Dire Straits were rather unfairly cast as the villains of the musical piece, as if MTV, Margaret Thatcher, and the CD revolution were all specifically the fault of their adult-oriented rock. Passing time has predictably revealed the foolishness in this, and made Knopfler easier to see as the UK equivalent of someone such as Tom Petty: a wry, Dylan-obsessed craftsman whose material has become incrementally more personal. Tonight, a documentary traces his career, while a studio concert from Later in 1996 shows his chops in action. JR
The Tick
9pm, Syfy
Cancelled after nine episodes, this DIY superhero show makes a return that is both welcome and timely – with movies such as Kick-Ass and the underrated Defendor employing a similar schtick. The eponymous hero (hilariously played by Patrick Warburton, most famous as Seinfeld's Puddy) is a lunk-headed amnesiac stuffed into bright-blue bug costume who fights crime while issuing non-sequiturs. It was clearly too weird for mainstream TV but it's also far too funny and quotable – "Don't be an Adolph Quitler! – to have been taken from us. Two episodes tonight. PO'N
True Blood
10pm, FX
True Blood has always been gory, but this episode is quite something, particularly if you stick it out until the final, grisly scene. Warning aside, Sookie is still hunting for Bill, now with the added protection of handsome new werewolf Alcide, while Bill remains in the strangely polite captivity of the Vampire King of Mississippi. Sam's family drop by for a not entirely welcome visit, Jason attempts to use some of those Stackhouse brains to become a police officer and, in a meeting of the show's best characters, Pam and Jessica finally get a scene together. RN
