Whats On Tv Tonight: Dirty Business Highlights a Packed Week of Premieres
whats on tv tonight is dominated by Dirty Business, a three-part factual drama about sewage pollution that begins a run of high-profile debuts this week. The concentration of hard-hitting dramas and major streaming drops matters because multiple shows dealing with environmental harm, justice and missing-person mysteries arrive within days of one another.
Whats On Tv Tonight: Dirty Business — three-part drama about sewage and whistleblowers
Dirty Business is a three-part drama that dramatises a decade-long investigation into England’s water companies. David Thewlis and Jason Watkins play ex-police detective Ash and his neighbour, biology professor Peter, who are alarmed when fish start dying in the stream through their Oxfordshire hamlet and set out to investigate. Their inquiry leads them to a local sewage plant, where a worker becomes a whistleblower after witnessing raw sewage being discharged into waterways. The series intersperses the detectives’ probe with the stories of people whose lives have been harmed by the leaks. The show airs at 9pm on Channel 4 on Monday 23rd February. Watkins has described the drama as "human and grounded, " noting it is told through ordinary people who refuse to look away when something isn’t right.
Jane Andrews drama with Mia McKenna-Bruce and Natalie Dormer on ITV
A partly fictionalised royal crime drama inspired by Jane Andrews arrives at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX on Sunday 21st February. The series follows the dresser Jane Andrews, played by Mia McKenna-Bruce, and depicts her relationship with the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, who is portrayed by Natalie Dormer. That real-life saga culminated in a murder conviction that made headlines in 2001 and now forms the basis for this two‑episode retelling.
Streaming drops: Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+ dates and plots
Streaming platforms offer several headline premieres this week. Prime Video will release a Prime Video thriller on Friday 27th February in which Alice (Kaley Cuoco) searches for her boyfriend Tom (Sam Claflin) after he disappears on a train to Paris; the plot threads through intrigue and dangerous secrets. Netflix publishes the second half of Bridgerton series 4 on Thursday 26th February, resolving the part‑1 cliffhanger in which Benedict (Luke Thompson) asked Sophie (Yerin Ha) to "be my mistress?" — a choice that could ostracise him from his family if she accepts. Disney+ drops series 2 of a post‑apocalyptic political thriller on Monday 23rd February: the story is set in an underground bunker in Colorado three years after a doomsday event and follows US Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) as he searches for the truth behind the killing of the US President while also looking for a wife who may have survived.
Documentaries and documentaries‑style experiments on the schedule
The ’s AI season features a new three-part documentary in which a mathematician meets people whose lives have been altered by technology; it is presented as a highlight of the season. On a different note, Swiped: The School that Banned Smartphones is a two‑part experiment in which 12‑year‑olds give up their devices for 21 days; the film first aired on Channel 4 in December 2024 and is fronted by Matt and Emma Willis. Viewers are warned the two‑parter addresses a tragic level of death alongside screen withdrawals and targeted algorithms; it is recommended for parents of children aged 12 and under, though some are advised to preview it first.
True crime, shorts and other notable picks
True‑crime programming includes a documentary series tracing the crimes and lengthy police pursuit of Scottish serial killer Robert Black, who hunted very young girls across the UK — including Leeds, Edinburgh and Antrim — throughout the early 1980s. Prime Video’s Chasing A Killer: Gary Allen profiles a man who evaded conviction in 2000 and only felt the force of justice almost 20 years later. Other items on the list: a disturbing short about a reclusive teenager named Angus who catfishes his single mother and sees the prank hijacked by a dangerous hacker; a comedy‑drama starring Woody Harrelson about a disgraced minor league basketball coach who finds purpose training a team of adults with learning difficulties; a new adult animation set in Las Vegas with Adam Severence Scott voicing Lincoln Grub; and a film based on the real-life work of Gösta Engzell, a Swedish civil servant who used bureaucracy and patience to help Jewish people escape Nazi danger.
Cooking competition returns for a 21st series
A long-running cooking competition returns for its 21st series, bringing a new crop of chefs tasked with creating dishes under the show’s familiar pressures. The revival of the contest adds a lighter, skills‑based option to a schedule otherwise heavy with gritty drama and investigative storytelling.
What makes this notable is the clustering of environmental, legal and personal‑safety narratives across terrestrial schedules and streaming platforms in the same seven‑day window, sharpening audience attention on scandals and human consequences as much as on escapist drama.
