What to watch tonight: TV choices, 18 December

BBC's The Great Train Robbery airs tonight on the eve of Ronnie Biggs' death

A scene from 'The Great Train Robbery' (BBC)

The Great Train Robbery

8pm, BBC1

On the same day of British criminal Ronnie Biggs' death, the BBC will broadcast its drama about the heist Biggs and his crew famously escaped from.

A drama about the infamous 1963 heist could well have been a flaccid exercise in nostalgia and cockney stereotyping, but in the hands of Broadchurch writer Chris Chibnall the oft-told tale becomes genuinely exciting. Chibnall cleverly splits the story in two – tonight it’s “A Robber’s Tale” and tomorrow is “The Copper’s Tale”

Lucan

9pm, ITV

The conclusion of Jeff Pope’s drama based on the sorry story of Lord Lucan. We left him last week having just battered to death his children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, in a case of mistaken identity – his wife (the intended victim), coming down the stairs. What happens after Lucan (nicely underplayed by Rory Kinnear) goes on the run is based on the journalist John Pearson’s 2005 book, The Gamblers, and is disputed by Lucan’s widow – played here by Catherine McCormack.

24 Hours in A&E

9pm, Channel 4

A woman has an accident at a friend’s party, a student is rushed in after being involved in a high-speed, head-on car crash, while 78-year-old Peter arrives at King’s with abdominal pains.

Nigel Slater’s Great British Biscuit

9pm & 3am, BBC4

The food writer charts the origins of the biscuit, from its vital contribution to Britain’s nautical dominance through to the biscuit tin becoming the most ubiquitous of household items.

The Tunnel

9pm, Sky Atlantic

The final tranche of this surprisingly good Anglo-French re-make of the Scandinavian crime thriller The Bridge.