{"id":679570,"date":"2026-01-07T09:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T09:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/679570\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T09:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T09:03:14","slug":"tv-tonight-dawn-french-and-mark-heaps-hilarious-new-sitcom-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/679570\/","title":{"rendered":"TV tonight: Dawn French and Mark Heap\u2019s hilarious new sitcom | Television"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Can You Keep a Secret?<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong>9.30pm, BBC One<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>A super-funny new sitcom created and written by Simon Mayhew-Archer (producer of This Country and Such Brave Girls) and directed by Simon Hynd (Ghosts, Motherland). Recently widowed Debbie Fendon (Dawn French, on top form) needs to confess a secret to her grownup son Harry (Craig Roberts): his oddball father William (Mark Heap) isn\u2019t actually dead. In fact, he\u2019s hiding in the house after his \u00a3250,000 life insurance came through. Will Harry keep the family secret? And what about the widows\u2019 club that\u2019s popping round to support Debbie? Expect kooky hijinks and stupidly hilarious one-liners as we find out whether they can get away with it. Hollie Richardson<\/p>\n<p>Patience<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong>9pm, Channel 4<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>Ella Maisy Purvis returns as autistic archivist Patience, assisting York police with their most baffling cases. But her new boss DI Monroe \u2013 a brilliantly bolshy Jessica Hynes, literally roaring into the show on a motorcycle \u2013 isn\u2019t exactly big on inclusivity. Perhaps a vampire-coded killing will provide a chance for them to bond. Graeme Virtue<\/p>\n<p>Digging for Britain<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong>9pm, BBC Two<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>Prof Alice Roberts starts a new series of archaeological finds in the north-west of Britain. Near Penrith, a team unearths one of the largest Roman cemeteries ever found in Britain, while in Bradford, artefacts from a compound where a Somalian community was paid to live and perform for the 1904 Bradford Exhibition are uncovered. HR<\/p>\n<p>Grantchester<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong>9pm, ITV1<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2018A hit with the parishioners\u2019 \u2026 Rishi Nair as Alphy in Grantchester. Photograph: ITV<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A sleepy period crime drama returns for season 10. Alphy (Rishi Nair) is a hit with his parishioners, and specifically with a local librarian \u2013 but the main characters\u2019 personal lives have to be put on hold once again when a protester against the commercialisation of Christianity apparently kills himself. Geordie (Robson Green) suspects rotten malfeasance. Jack Seale<\/p>\n<p>Surgeons: A Matter of Life Or Death<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong>9pm, Channel 5<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>\u201cI haven\u2019t got a life at the moment \u2026 it\u2019s crippling.\u201d Army veteran and amputee Luke is suffering with constant, excruciating nerve pain. Alongside tongue cancer patient Julian, his much-needed operation is sensitively \u2013 if graphically \u2013 captured in a new series filmed at University Hospitals Birmingham. Hannah J Davies<\/p>\n<p>The Murder of Laci Peterson<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong>11pm, Channel 4<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>On Christmas Eve 2002, a media frenzy was sparked in the Californian city of Modesto, when an eight-month pregnant 27-year-old, Laci Peterson, disappeared from her home. This six-part documentary explores the events that followed, with the police instantly suspecting her husband, who claimed his innocence. HR<\/p>\n<p>Film choiceCrashing out \u2026 Jacques Tati (centre) in Trafic. Photograph: Album\/Alamy<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong>Trafic (Jacques Tati, 1971<\/strong>) <strong>3.30pm, Talking Pictures TV<\/strong><strong><br \/><\/strong>The last film by Jacques Tati to feature his much-loved Monsieur Hulot character takes aim at our obsession with motor vehicles. He stars as a designer for a car firm who is attempting to get his latest model, a gadget-stuffed campervan, from France to a motor show in Amsterdam. There is a lot of Tati\u2019s trademark physical comedy revolving round the odd things we do while driving, including a delightfully balletic car crash scene, while the business world is depicted as a frantic mix of efficiency and idiocy. Simon Wardell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Can You Keep a Secret? 9.30pm, BBC OneA super-funny new sitcom created and written by Simon Mayhew-Archer (producer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-679570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115853014352847854","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}