Breaking the Silence Live
8pm, Channel 4
Coming live from Manchester Royal Infirmary, this documentary brings together a group of profoundly deaf people – ranging in age from 32 to 78 – who have chosen to have cochlear implants fitted. We will witness the moment they are switched on and the recipients’ reactions. In some cases, they might immediately be able to hear speech clearly; in others, mere whistles and beeps that will resolve later. For all, it will be life-altering. David Stubbs
What Britain Earns With Mary Portas
9pm, Channel 4
Portas finds a good vehicle for her trademark brusque nosiness: salaries, a subject people in Britain usually like talking about so long as it doesn’t involve revealing their own. But with Portas prodding them, workers at various points on the income scale discuss their earning/spending power. Those who slog for long hours in self-employment grey areas – such as running a shop or driving an Uber – are, predictably, the worst off. Jack Seale
Russia: A Century of Suspicion – A Timewatch Guide
9pm, BBC4
From its enormous losses fighting for the allies, through the cold war to today, Russia remains hard to fathom. The history of the nation Churchill called “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” is told through footage from the BBC’s extensive archives. It includes The War Game, a docudrama imagining the result of a nuclear attack on Britain, banned for 20 years after being deemed too scary for public consumption. Grace Rahman
Imagine – The Triumphs and Laments of William Kentridge
10.45pm, BBC1
Alan Yentob contemplates the career of South African artist William Kentridge as he finishes work on Triumphs and Laments, a frieze that will cover 500 metres of the walls of Rome’s river Tiber, and comprise colossal figures hewn from the mould and moss that have accumulated over the eventful centuries of the Eternal City. The real value, however, is in Kentridge’s thoughtful contemplations on his homeland, and the value of the artistic response. Andrew Mueller
MasterChef: The Professionals
8pm, BBC2
“I fancy a bowl of pasta,” says Gregg Wallace, his mouth almost visibly watering as Monica Galetti announces a carby skills test. But how will the challengers fare with just 15 minutes to copy her tagliatelle? In other tricky business, Marcus Wareing issues a taramasalata challenge. After some cracking signature dishes and intense facial expressions from the judges, it’s crunch time: only three chefs can make it to the quarter-final. Hannah Verdier
The Killing Season
9pm, Crime And Investigation
On the heels of such true-crime sensations as Serial and Making a Murderer, episodes one and two of a gritty new docuseries with an eye-catching exec producer credit: Alex Gibney. It follows documentarians Joshua Zeman and Rachel Mills on the trail of a still-at-large Long Island serial killer, who is merely the tip of the iceberg: horribly, it appears there may be hundreds of killers roaming the US, targeting sex workers. Ali Catterall
8 Out of 10 Cats
10pm, More4
The lowbrow HIGNFY has a new guise these days. Rejuvenated teams seem to be at the root of this – goodnight Sean Lock, who remains on the Countdown version of the show – but with Jimmy Carr remaining, unsympathetically as ever, in charge. Rob Beckett and Aisling Bea now captain the teams as the panel roam ineptly among the week’s most popular news items. Tonight’s guests are Thomas Turgoose and First Dates maître d’ Fred Sirieix. John Robinson
Film choice
In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950), 11.20am, More4
If you were looking for Humphrey Bogart’s best performance you might well choose his electrifying Dixon Steele, a boozy, bad-tempered Hollywood writer given one last shot at redemption through the love of Gloria Grahame’s Laurel, a starlet across the street. “I was born when you kissed me. I died when you left me,” he says, because in Ray’s brilliantly sour film noir, the chances of true love always look slim. He is accused of murdering Martha Stewart’s hat-check girl, and lost love dogs the movie; Grahame, then Ray’s wife, left him soon afterwards. Paul Howlett
Little Voice (Mark Herman, 1998), 11.50pm, BBC1
Tatty Scarborough is one star of this screen version of Jim Cartwright’s play about a conversationally challenged young woman who also has a belting singing voice; another is Jane Horrocks, who sounds the absolute spit of Marlene Dietrich, Shirley Bassey and Judy Garland. And Michael Caine, as the sleazy agent Ray Say, puts in a beautifully nuanced performance. Paul Howlett
Live sport
Uefa Youth League football: Leicester Under-19s v Club Brugge Under-19s Coverage of the Group G match. 2.45pm, BT Sport 2
Champions League football: Monaco v Tottenham Hotspur Action from the matchday five Group E contest, which takes place at the Stade Louis II. 7pm, BT Sport 2
NBA: New York Knicks v Portland Trail Blazers NBA action from New York’s Madison Square Garden. 12.30am, BT Sport 1
