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TV tonight: colonial dramas in The Singapore Grip

The Singapore Grip

9pm, ITV

Based on JG Farrell’s satirical second world war novel of the same name, ITV’s period drama comes with a who’s who of TV casting: David Morrissey, Charles Dance, Luke Treadaway and Jane Horrocks. Set in Singapore in the 1940s, at the time of the Japanese invasion, we follow a British trading family as they attempt to keep hold of their colonial enterprise while the world around them erupts into war. Morrissey stars as businessman Walter Blackett, who must reckon with his partner Mr Webb (Dance) and his failing health. Ammar Kalia

Extinction: The Facts

8pm, BBC One

Following 2019’s UN report, which revealed that almost one million animal and plant species are currently threatened with extinction, David Attenborough fronts this documentary exploring what human actions have done to damage the natural world and what we can now do to try to stem future losses. AK

Strike: Lethal White

9pm, BBC One

While the beating heart of this downbeat crime drama remains the anguished relationship between Tom Burke’s Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger), the climax of their latest case manages plenty of twists and turns. Robin takes one for the team while Tegan reveals key evidence. Phil Harrison

Louis Theroux: Life on the Edge

9pm, BBC Two

Part two of the documentary doyen’s trip down memory lane, which packs more emotional heft than you might expect from what is essentially a clip show. This episode is all about “the dark side of pleasure”, from investigations into America’s opioid crisis to Theroux’s stint with gangsta rappers. Hannah J Davies

Plague Fiction

10pm, BBC Four

If you still believe in literature’s responsibility to document the present, at some point it must tackle Covid-19. Here, Oxford professor Laura Ashe speculates on how it might do that by examining writing associated with the Black Death, from Pepys’s diaries all the way back to 14th-century accounts. Jack Seale

Moscow Noir

10.55pm, Channel 4

A slick, money-fuelled thriller starring Young Wallander’s Adam Pålsson as Swedish expat Tom Blixen, a young man lured to the opulent post-communist boom of 1999 Moscow. A risky deal between shady oligarchs and millionaires soon sets him on a predictable if entertaining fall from grace. AK

Film choice

Gully Boy, 11.55pm, Channel 4

Mumbai slacker Murad (Ranveer Singh) lives in an overcrowded family apartment, yearns for childhood sweetheart Safeena (Alia Bhatt) and dreams of becoming a hip-hop star. Armed with the rapper name Gully Boy, and going viral with a video, his dream just might come true in Zoya Akhtar’s edgy drama. Paul Howlett

Live sport

Premier League Football: West Bromwich Albion v Leicester City, 1pm, Sky Sports Main Event. Tottenham Hotspur v Everton follows at 4pm.

Formula 1: Tuscan Grand Prix, 2.05pm, Sky Sports F1. Ninth round of the season’s racing at Mugello Circuit.

Premiership Rugby League: Saracens v Exeter Chiefs, 4.15pm, BT Sport 1. Allianz Park hosts the sides.