TV tonight: Raquel Welch's son and showbiz friends tell her real story

The Guardian

26-07-2025

9pm, Sky Documentaries
Raquel Welch was a single mother with two small kids when she pulled up in Hollywood. She is best known as the biggest sex symbol of the era but this celebratory film whizzes through her life to tell her full story: from feeling pressure to hide her Latina roots to that famous fur-bikini poster, her complicated relationship with feminism, two Golden Globe wins and suing MGM for $10m for replacing her with a younger actor. Her son and showbiz friends share their memories. Hollie Richardson
6.20pm, BBC One
Get ready to shout answers at the telly as Marvin and Rochelle Humes guide another three teams through the fun and fizzy pop quiz. Only the fastest duo will make it to the Chart Rundown round, where naming 10 bangers in quick succession could win them £10,000. Graeme Virtue
6.30pm, Channel 4
Will the Yorkshire Shepherdess, Amanda Owen, and her family manage to turn their abandoned farmhouse into a 21st-century home? We're now into the second series of their attempt, with separated husband Clive being laid low by a hip operation and the process being extended by planning permission to make the house bigger just having been granted. Alexi Duggins
8pm, Channel 5
If you've ever been interested in the Princess Royal's equestrian career, well … here's a whole 90 minutes dedicated to telling you all about it. She once competed in the Olympics – the first royal to do so! – and is the president of the Riding for the Disabled Association. HR
9pm, ITV2
Having spent the summer narrating both the US and UK versions of Love Island, Iain Stirling is surely due a break of his own. It's not quite time for a Jet2 holiday yet, though – there's still one more week of contractually obligated fun in the sun, starting with this compilation. Hannah J Davies
Midnight, ITV1
The cat-and-mouse thriller about a random group of strangers being framed for a violent kidnapping continues. There are potential answers in New York but can the amateur fugitives keep it together long enough to escape the UK? The fact that their plan requires reliable train wifi does not bode well. Graeme Virtue
Rumours, 1.15pm, 10.15pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
A few weeks ago, Prime Video gave us Heads of State. A rollicking, deliberately dumb action movie about the US president and the British prime minister, Heads of State looked as if it was going to be the weirdest political film of the year. Turns out it wasn't even the weirdest of the summer, because here is Rumours. With three writer-directors, including Guy Maddin, it's a film about a G7 summit that finds itself being terrorised by marauding bog-zombies and, odder still, a giant brain. The fact that Cate Blanchett plays the German chancellor and Charles Dance the US president makes it stranger still. Highly silly and very funny, it's not something you are likely to forget in a hurry. Stuart Heritage
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, 2pm, BBC One
Last year's vaguely nightmarish Harold and the Purple Crayon is an example of the pitfalls of attempting to stretch a children's picture book to feature length. With that in mind, 2022's Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile is a miracle. Based on a slight 1965 kids' book, Will Speck and Josh Gordon's film is an unexpected delight. There is a crocodile, he can sing, and all hell breaks loose. Not only are the songs (by The Greatest Showman's Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) genuinely good, but Javier Bardem gives one of the performances of his life as Lyle's unreliable owner. SH
Fallen Leaves, 9.45pm, BBC Four
As is to be expected – nay required – from the master of dour, deadpan humour, in Aki Kaurismäki's latest romantic comedy his two lonely, Helsinki-based central characters struggle to express their feelings. The potential match of Ansa (Alma Pöysti) and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) is further stymied by him losing her number, his struggles with alcoholism and their shared inability to hold on to a job. Not a laugh-a-minute plot description, admittedly, but being immersed in the director's peculiarly Finnish world makes you wish the pair the best of an imperfect life. Simon Wardell
International Rugby Union: Australia v British & Irish Lions, 9.30am, Sky Sports Main Event The second Test at the MCG.
Test Cricket: England v India, 10.15am, Sky Sports Cricket Day four of the fourth Test at Old Trafford in Manchester.
Cycling: Tour de France, 10.45am, TNT Sports 1/1pm, ITV4 The penultimate stage of the men's race, a 184.2km route from Nantua to Pontarlier.
Cycling: Tour de France Femmes, 4pm, TNT Sports 1 Stage one, 78.8km from Vannes to Plumelec, with Giro winner Elisa Longo Borghini among the favourites.
World Matchplay Darts, 7.30pm, Sky Sports Main Event The semi-finals at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.