TV tonight: on the hunt for the gangs stealing Britain’s parcels

4 hours ago 6

Dispatches: Hunting Britain’s Parcel Thieves

8pm, Channel 4
There are some real grinches out there: a parcel is stolen in Britain every seven seconds. Reporter Tir Dhondy is on a mission to get to the bottom of the crimewave by hiding tracking devices in parcels and following stolen ones to challenge who took them. He also learns how gangs target delivery vans as part of their business model and gets access to a major police operation. Hollie Richardson

Celebrity MasterChef Final

8pm, BBC One
Who will be Celebrity MasterChef 2025? After five weeks of culinary competition, it’s down to the final three, each of whom is tasked with preparing a three-course meal for the judges. And don’t expect Grace Dent and John Torode to go easy on them, either. Fame is no excuse for an unseasoned side or an oversweetened coulis. Ellen E Jones

Christmas at Leeds Castle: A Winter Wonderland

8pm, Channel 5
This year’s theme is Peter Pan, which requires the castle being transformed into Neverland – complete with a 28ft tree that needs manoeuvring through narrow medieval archways. The cameras follow every near breakdown and small win as the staff prepare. HR

All Her Fault

9pm, Sky Atlantic
A whole episode of flashback explains exactly what the deal is with Carrie (Sophia Lillis) and why she’d want to kidnap the Irvines’ child. As a downbeat tale of desperation and sadness takes shape, the major twist of the series is on its way. Jack Seale

The Last Leg

10pm, Channel 4
There’ll be plenty of bad news happening in the run-up to Christmas to keep Adam Hills, Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker going as they mock the week that has been. Joining them in trying to find the cheer is reliably hilarious comedian Fatiha El-Ghorri. HR

The Graham Norton Show

10.40pm, BBC One
Hamnet is set to be an Oscars-magnet weepathon – and here its star, Jessie Buckley, tells all about the highly anticipated adaptation. Also on the red sofa are Jack Black and Paul Rudd with their horror reboot Anaconda, and comedian Michelle de Swarte. HR

Film choices

The Great Flood (Kim Byung-woo, 2025), Netflix
An asteroid has hit Antarctica and melted it. For the residents of a Seoul apartment complex, that means a race to the highest floor before tsunamis hit them all. This frantic end-of-the-world thriller may have you working out how long you can hold your breath, as Kim Da-mi’s scientist Gu An-na and her young son Jan-in (Kwon Eun-seong) struggle through the waters. But the presence of her AI tech firm’s security operative Son Hee-jo (Park Hae-soo) hints at a weirder plot twist to come. Simon Wardell

Shell (Max Minghella, 2024), Paramount+
In between seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale, Max Minghella directed his co-star Elisabeth Moss in another dystopian drama – this near-future horror about the pitfalls of chasing the perfect body. Moss plays Samantha, an actor who signs up for an anti-ageing skin treatment (derived, ominously, from lobsters). It’s run by a company owned by 68-year-old – though you wouldn’t know it – Zoe Shannon (Kate Hudson). In true The Substance fashion, it all goes badly wrong, as the film gives in to its B-movie sensibilities and becomes increasingly, entertainingly silly. SW

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie, 2025), 9.40am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
If this is the last we see of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, then it will prove a fine farewell. The eighth adventure for the undercover agent returns him to the seemingly impossible battle against AI force the Entity, which has gained control of most of the world’s nuclear weapons. But the ins and outs of the plot are beside the point when you get to witness exhilarating action sequences such as Ethan’s dive into a sunken Russian submarine or a vertiginous fight on a biplane. Arguably the best scene is earlier on, when US military and political bigwigs are given an increasingly comical recap of Ethan’s rule-breaking exploits down the years, plus all his colleagues who have died in the process. It’s a superb encapsulation of the absurdity of the whole M:I enterprise – and why we love it so. SW