TV Tonight: Dawn French and Mark Heap’s delightful new sitcom | television

Can you keep the secret?

9.30pm on BBC One
A hugely funny new comedy series created and written by Simon Mayhew-Archer (producer of This Country and Such Brave Girls) and directed by Simon Hynde (Ghosts, Motherland). Recently widowed Debbie Findon (Dawn French, at her best) needs to confess a secret to her adult son Harry (Craig Roberts): his strange father, William (Mark Heap), isn’t actually dead. In fact, he is hiding out at home after taking out £250,000 life insurance. Will Harry keep the family secret? What about the Widows’ Club that showed up to support Debbie? Expect bizarre and stupidly funny outcries when we find out if they can get away with it. Holly Richardson

patience

9pm on Channel 4
Ella Maisy Purvis returns as an autistic archivist, Patience, who helps York Police with their most puzzling cases. But her new boss, Dee Monroe — a brilliantly posh Jessica Hynes, who literally rides into the show on a motorcycle — isn’t exactly interested in inclusivity. Perhaps the vampiric coded killing would provide them with an opportunity to communicate. Graeme Virtue

Dig for Britain

9pm on BBC Two
Professor Alice Roberts begins a new series of archaeological discoveries in north-west Britain. Near Penrith, the team discovered one of the largest Roman cemeteries ever found in Britain, while in Bradford, artefacts were uncovered from a complex where the Somali community was paid to live and perform at the 1904 Bradford Fair. Human resources

Grantchester

9pm on ITV1

The dormant crime drama returns for season 10. Alfie (Rishi Nair) is a hit with his parishioners, specifically with a local librarian – but the main characters’ personal lives must once again be put on hold when a protester against the commercialization of Christianity apparently kills himself. Geordie (Robson Green) suspects corrupt wrongdoing. Jack Seale

Surgeons: a matter of life and death

9pm on Channel 5
“I don’t have a life right now…it’s crippling.” Luke, an Army veteran and amputee, suffers from constant, excruciating nerve pain. Alongside tongue cancer patient Julian, his much-needed surgery has been depicted sensitively – if graphically – in a new series filmed at Birmingham University Hospitals. Hannah J. Davis

The murder of Lacey Peterson

11pm on Channel 4
On Christmas Eve 2002, a media sensation erupted in Modesto, California, when 27-year-old Lacey Peterson, eight months pregnant, disappeared from her home. This six-part documentary explores the events that followed, as the police immediately suspected her husband, who declared his innocence. Human resources

Choose a movie

Traffic (Jacques Tati, 1971) At 3:30 p.m., the Talking Pictures Program
Jacques Tati’s latest film featuring the much-loved Mr. Hollow takes aim at our obsession with cars. He plays a designer for a car company trying to get his latest model, a van full of gadgets, from France to a car show in Amsterdam. There’s plenty of Tati’s trademark physical comedy revolving around the antics we do while driving, including a delightfully balletic car crash scene, while the business world is depicted as a frenetic mix of efficiency and foolishness. Simon Wardle