TV tonight: an essential record of the Covid contracts scandal

3 hours ago 5

The Covid Contracts: Follow the Money

10.15pm, ITV1

Thanks to the taxpayer-funded largesse of the government, lots of people did very well out of Covid. Many of them were connected to the Conservative party. This enraging documentary is a story of greed, in which established PPE providers were sidelined while previously unknown companies got rich. It’s also a story about lies; documents and emails reveal the extent to which the public were deceived about “VIP lanes” and the efficacy of the materials the government acquired. An essential record of a national scandal. Phil Harrison

Educating Yorkshire

8pm, Channel 4

More wholesome charm from Dewsbury, featuring the magnificently enthusiastic Ismaeel, who is so determined to launch a chess club he’s canvassing classmates in the playground. He has an ally in Mr Burton, who wonders if such a group might be a good outlet for autistic student Lewis. The kids are alright. PH

Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams: Ultimate Test

8.15pm, BBC One

Andrew Flintoff’s heroic charisma and sweet-natured vulnerability continues to work its magic. That said, the Manchester squad find their numbers dwindling in this episode and the Liverpool lads seem to be having second thoughts too. No such worries for the girls’ team: they’re playing their first game, against some posh kids. PH

Rob and Rylan’s Passage to India

9pm, BBC Two

These two can’t resist an “ooh-er-missus” moment, as they explore the great cities of Rajasthan, AKA “the Land of Kings”. Amid all the campery, there are occasional educational moments, such as when Rob, the relative aesthete of the pair, holds forth on matters ranging from EM Forster’s sexuality to the architecture of Jaipur. Ellen E Jones

Coldwater

9pm, ITV1

John and Fiona have some old friends visiting from London as this berserk drama set in rural Scotland continues. They’re very keen to prevent people from their previous life seeing how weird things have become. So the last thing they need is for Tommy to turn up to lunch, unannounced. PH

King & Conqueror

9.15pm, BBC One

The king is dead! After Edward croaks it in the opening three minutes, things heat up between the claimant to the crown from Happy Valley and the one from Game of Thrones. It’s a scramble for alliances, which hopefully doesn’t end as badly as Edward’s deathbed prophecy: “God is speaking, the devil is coming … England ablaze!” Alexi Duggins

Film choice

Riff Raff, out now, Prime Video

There’s a distinct whiff of Fargo to Dito Montiel’s blood-flecked crime drama. We’ve got the seemingly ordinary family with secrets: Ed Harris’s Vincent, spouse Sandy (Gabrielle Union) and her nerdy teenage son DJ (Miles J Harvey). There are the disrupters: Vincent’s ex-wife Ruth (Jennifer Coolidge), their errant son Rocco (Lewis Pullman) and his girlfriend Marina (Emanuela Postacchini), who spark revelations about Vincent’s former life. And there are the comic-relief mob killers, nicely underplayed by Bill Murray and Pete Davidson. But it’s Coolidge who is the film’s trump card: funny, profane, horny – and wonderfully disinclined to take the revenge plot in any way seriously. Simon Wardell