Tonight's television schedule offers a compelling mix of true crime investigation, comedy finales, and gripping drama, providing viewers with a diverse range of programming to choose from.
Charmed By the Devil: A Journalist's Unprecedented Access
At 9pm on Sky Crime, the documentary Charmed By the Devil takes a deep and unsettling look into one of America's most shocking crime sprees from the 1970s. The film centres on the case of Doug Gretzler, who was imprisoned in 1973 for murdering seventeen people across a brutal twenty-day period, with his accomplice Willie Steelman.
What makes this documentary particularly unique is its focus on journalist Laura Greenberg, who became the sole confidante of the killer. Greenberg conducted an astonishing 350 prison visits, accumulating over 500 hours of recorded conversation with Gretzler. The documentary uses these unprecedented interviews to question and explore the complex and disturbing motives behind the murders, offering a chilling psychological portrait.
Comedy Conclusions and Legal Dramas
Meanwhile, on BBC One at 9pm, the secretive sitcom Can You Keep a Secret? reaches its concluding episode. Starring Dawn French and Mark Heap, the finale neatly ties up the various loose ends involving blackmail and suspicious deaths. The episode features a standout comic moment from Mark Heap, whose character develops an unusual taste for spoonfuls of dry cocoa powder.
Channel 4 continues its revisitation of a major pop culture legal battle with the third episode of Michael Jackson: The Trial at 9pm. This instalment sees the prosecution laying out its case in the 2005 child molestation trial, featuring testimony from Jackson's maid about events in 1993 and a shocking revelation from the accuser's mother.
Medical Marvels and Spy Fiascos
For those interested in remarkable medical procedures, Channel 5 airs the series finale of Surgeons: A Matter of Life or Death at 9pm. The episode features gruelling but awe-inspiring scenes as surgeons perform a delicate operation to detangle a tumour from a nerve in a patient's brain, showcasing the life-saving potential of modern surgical science.
BBC One's spy comedy Black Ops concludes its series at 9.30pm with a Carnival-themed episode. The enthusiastic but bumbling MI5 wannabes Dom and Kay, played by Gbemisola Ikumelo and Hammed Animashaun, find themselves embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens the Notting Hill Carnival, leading to a finale full of giddy mishaps and intrigue.
Valentine's Specials
Rounding off the evening, Channel 4 presents a Valentine's special of First Dates at 10pm. The episode features former Gogglebox star Daniel on a date with a paramedic, alongside other hopefuls including a Girls Aloud superfan and a dentist with a passion for rapping, all looking for romance in the restaurant.
