Friday 29 December
Men Up
BBC One, 9pm
If you enjoyed the entertainingly arch documentary Keeping it Up: The Story of Viagra on BBC Two earlier this month, it might have occurred to you that the section on the impotence drug’s accidental discovery – in a Pfizer laboratory in Merthyr Tydfil, where some former miners were trialling a new anti-stroke drug – would make the basis for a terrific comedy. Scriptwriter Matthew Barry and director Ashley Way reached much the same conclusion some time ago and assembled an impressive roster of Welsh actors – among them Iwan Rheon, Mark Lewis Jones, Alexandra Roach, Joanna Page and Paul Rhys – to bring the story to the small screen.
What they have produced, though, is less a comedy and more, to quote the press release: “A poignant and beautiful story in which a group of unassuming men rise to the challenge to reclaim their sex lives.” All well and good, if you like slightly flaccid comedy that feels like someone’s been through the script rooting out all the naughty bits. While Men Up undoubtedly has good moments, it’s so limp in parts there’s no avoiding the feeling that a more full-blown opportunity for poignancy and laughter has been lost. GO
Money Heist: Berlin
Netflix
The Spanish crime drama Money Heist was a global hit for Netflix: a slick blend of clever concept and high-octane thrills that ran for five series. This spin-off takes one of its most intriguing characters, terminally-ill jewel thief Berlin (Pedro Alonso) and spins his pre-illness backstory into another enticing drama of romance and heists.
Would I Lie to You?
BBC One, 8.30pm
The Bafta award-winning panel show returns for a new run of competitive true-or-false anecdote swapping. Tonight’s guests are Alex Jones, Chris McCausland, Su Pollard and Rav Wilding, led by team captains Lee Mack and David Mitchell, and hosted by Rob Brydon.
Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Hogmanay Fishing
BBC Two, 9pm
Bob Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse and Ted the terrier head for Scotland to sample the delights of Hogmanay. As well as fishing in the Dee, Tay and Ericht, Mystic Wilf pops by to predict the year ahead, Arabella Weir drops in for dinner and Clare Grogan’s band Altered Images play at their end of year party.
Dolly Parton: In Her Own Words
Channel 5, 9pm
Emmylou Harris, Peter Frampton and Ken Bruce are among those singing the praises of the “queen of country music” in this documentary in which Parton looks back – via archive footage and interviews – at her career and her recent, 49th album Rockstar, her first rock’n’roll record. It’s an unsurprisingly starry affair: featured artists include Macca, Debbie Harry and Stevie Nicks.
Based on a True Story
Sky Max, 9pm
It takes a sure touch for a comedy to be both funny and gruesome; this eight-part comedy thriller, about a pair of true-crime podcasters who attract the attention of a serial killer, goes down a gleefully blood-drenched route. Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory, The Flight Attendant) stars alongside Chris Messina.
The Kemps: All Gold
BBC Two, 10pm
Back in 2020, Spandau Ballet’s Gary and Martin Kemp sent themselves up mercilessly in The Kemps: All True, a brilliantly searing mockumentary about poptastic lifestyles and post-fame tribulations. Too successful for its own good, it’s spawned a follow up. Dexter Fletcher and Tamzin Outhwaite are among those in on the joke this time round.
The Bigamist (1953, b/w) ★★★★
Talking Pictures TV, 1.25pm
Ida Lupino’s noir perhaps had more drama going on off-screen: its producer, Collier Young, was married to lead star Joan Fontaine at the time of filming, and had previously been married to Lupino. The plot mirrors this: a couple (Fontaine and Edmond O’Brien) looking to adopt a child have their lives upturned when a PI (Edmund Gwenn) finds O’Brien has another family. Lupino’s The Trouble with Angels (1966) is on New Year’s Day at 4.10pm.
Hello, Dolly! (1969) ★★★★★
BBC Two, 1.45pm
This musical extravaganza, about a widowed New York matchmaker keen on the wealthy Horace Vandergelder (Walter Matthau), proved to be Gene Kelly’s final time in the director’s chair. Barbra Streisand’s performance as the brassy Dolly Levi didn’t hit the same heights as her role in Funny Girl (which follows at 4.05pm), but it’s still feel-good. Next summer, catch Imelda Staunton in the lead role at the Palladium.
Polite Society (2023) ★★★★
Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm
Nida Manzoor’s superb film debut borrows freely from everyone from Edgar Wright to Jordan Peele, combining their thrills and sharp humour with the experiences of the British-Asian diaspora. Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) is a 16-year-old YouTuber with a black belt in karate who becomes obsessed with preventing her older sister Lena’s (Ritu Arya) wedding to a hunky young doctor (Akshaye Khanna). Spoiler: a fair few fights stand in her way.
Saturday 30 December
The Masked Singer
ITV1, 7pm
It may be the daftest Saturday-night TV singing competition ever, but a sack-load of Bafta, Royal Television Society and (for the US version) Emmy awards attest to the ingenuity of the concept behind a show so ludicrously watchable, for many, that it’s capable of getting even the dourest viewers chanting “Take it off! Take it off!” when the time for the big reveal comes.
As usual, a dozen anonymised celebrities will compete undercover in outlandish costumes, relying on popularity – in the form of a viewer vote – to keep them in the running week after week, hoping to be the last to be unmasked. Helping things along are the panel of “judges” whose job it is to convince us they’re making educated guesses, rather than simply wild stabs in the dark (as it seems most of the time), regarding the identity of the mystery celebrities singing on stage. This time around regular judges Jonathan Ross, Davina McCall and Mo Gilligan will be joined by the 2023 winner, Busted singer Charlie Simpson, and in the opening show the first six celebrities embark on head-to-head battles: Maypole vs Cricket, Bigfoot vs Dippy Egg, and Weather vs Rat. Joel Dommett hosts. GO
Celebrity Catchphrase Christmas Special
ITV1, 6pm
Stephen Mulhern hosts a celebrity festive edition of the phrase-guessing game show. Actress Samantha Barks, Olympic gold-medallist Kelly Holmes and presenter Dermot O’Leary battle it out for a chance to win a £50,000 jackpot for charity.
Lives Well Lived
BBC Two, 7pm
The first of two programmes celebrating public figures who died in 2023. Looking back at the lives of interviewer Michael Parkinson, queen of rock’n’roll Tina Turner, actress and politician Glenda Jackson and former Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd, presenter Kirsty Wark talks to friends and admirers about what it was that made them stars and trailblazers.
The Weakest Link
BBC One, 7.40pm
Quizmaster Romesh Ranganathan humiliates and encourages guests Joe Pasquale, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Charlotte Crosby, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Sandro Farmhouse, Helen McGinn, Russell Watson and Beth Tweddle as they compete against the clock to win cash for charity. A motley crew!
Bradley Walsh: My Comedy Heroes
Channel 5, 8.25pm
Bradley Walsh concludes his personal history of comedy with a look at some of the great double acts. From Laurel and Hardy to French and Saunders and beyond, he explores the alchemy and personal connection that’s central to the success of the best duos, and wonders why it is that so few new double acts seem to be emerging on the scene today.
The Voice UK Final
ITV1, 8.30pm
Having out-sung, out-danced and generally out-talented the competition, it’s time for the winners from each of the four teams – led by Will.i.am, Anne-Marie, Tom Jones and Olly Murs – to face each other one last time in a live sing-off to win a recording contract with a major label, a £50,000 cash prize and a holiday. What a combination. Emma Willis hosts.
Casualty
BBC One, 9.15pm
A new run of the veteran medical soap begins with ambulances queuing for hours outside the emergency department – as ever Casualty tries to keep it grimly real when it comes to the devastating NHS crisis. Tonight, Stevie (Elinor Lawless) and the team are being tested to the limit as long waiting times push staff and patients to breaking point.
Fiddler on the Roof (1971) ★★★★★
BBC Two, 2.35pm
Canadian director Norman Jewison translates this classic Broadway musical into an equally enthralling and time-honoured family movie, following the life of Tevye (Israeli actor Chaim Topol, who died earlier this year, reprising his London stage role), a milkman who must juggle the toils of everyday life with the harsh realities of being poor and Jewish in Tsarist Russia in 1905. Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum!
Finding Dory (2016) ★★★★★
BBC One, 2.35pm
This eerily beautiful and emotional film serves as an ingenious sequel to Pixar’s Finding Nemo. Here, Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), the blue regal tang whose short-term memory loss made her such an unforgettable sidekick, is a lost child, asking passers-by to help her locate her parents (Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy). It’s a heartwarming story, told with pure charm, and is sure to delight children and grown-ups alike.
Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) ★★★
BBC Two, 3.10pm
The brilliant actresses Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson star as rival Queens, Elizabeth I and Mary, in this loosely factual historical drama. When Mary returns to Scotland after her husband’s death, Elizabeth, believing her to be a threat, attempts to distract her with suitors. Redgrave received an Oscar nomination but this is far from her best performance: she mewls, whines and wriggles as a sanctimonious martyr.
New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve
ITV1, 6pm; BBC One, 10.25pm; STV, 11.15pm; BBC One Scotland, 11.30pm; BBC Two, 11.30pm
Plenty of options for those seeing in 2024 in front of the telly, beginning at 6pm on ITV1 with The National Lottery’s New Year’s Eve Big Bash from Wembley Arena, where Alesha Dixon and Jason Manford are joined by an array of guests to look back on the year’s events. Later on at the BBC, there’s Hogmanay coverage from Scotland, while The Graham Norton New Year’s Eve Show kicks off the countdown with guests including Emma Stone and Claudia Winkleman, before the nation gets rickrolled by Rick Astley Rocks New Year’s Eve at the Camden Roundhouse, straddling 10 minutes of fireworks by the Thames at midnight.
Jools Holland is now as congruent with New Year as misplaced optimism, booze-fuelled regret and sparkly attire, and his annual Hootenanny features Rod Stewart, Joss Stone, Sugababes, PP Arnold and more. Over on STV, meanwhile, Bringing in the Bells from Edinburgh will be anchored by four familiar Scottish faces: former Taggart castmates Alex Norton and Blythe Duff, and podcasting duo Gordon Smart and Line of Duty’s Martin Compston. However you choose to mark it, Happy New Year. GT
Songs of Praise: Singing in the New Year
BBC One, 1.15pm
Katherine Jenkins introduces a concert from Sheffield City Hall featuring a few familiar hymns (Amazing Grace, To God Be the Glory), alongside Brand New Day, a song co-written and performed by Aled Jones, and soprano Carly Paoli’s rendition of her own composition, Pray.
Free Your Mind: The Matrix Now
BBC Two, 6.55pm
A few weeks after Alan Yentob went behind the scenes for Imagine…, an opportunity to see in its entirety Danny Boyle’s Free Your Mind, which opened Manchester’s flash new venue Aviva Studios. A reimagining of the Wachowskis’ epochal sci-fi The Matrix, the production is dazzlingly choreographed by Kenrick Sandy.
Time Bomb Y2K
Sky Documentaries, 7pm
Brian Becker and Marley McDonald’s jittery documentary at least reflects the widespread hysteria around the so-called Millennium Bug, the purported coding error which, many feared, would cause the meltdown of computer systems around the world and bring about societal chaos. Of course, nothing of the sort happened, but it does raise serious points about the growth of surveillance culture, conspiracy theories and the creeping mistrust of government institutions.
Antiques Roadshow
BBC One, 7.25pm; not Scot
Fiona Bruce draws on her experiences on Fake or Fortune? when called upon by jewellery expert Joanna Hardy to identify a counterfeit diamond. Other items produced at Roundhay Park in Leeds include an Alfred Wallis painting, a newspaper banner announcing John F Kennedy’s assassination and a first edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Wild Scandinavia
BBC Two, 8.25pm
Airing over three successive nights, this glorious Natural History Unit production heads to the Scandinavian coast (later episodes will focus on forests, volcanos and Arctic freeze) to follow the adventures of puffins and seal pups, orca and eagles as they bid to survive in hostile conditions.
The Last Leg of the Year
Channel 4, 9pm
Hosts Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe are joined by Richard Osman, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Judi Love, Suzi Ruffell and the ever-superfluous Seann Walsh for this bumped-up edition bidding farewell to 2023. Expect music, sketches and boisterous disagreement aplenty.
The Jungle Book (2016) ★★★★
BBC One, 4.20pm
Forget about your worries, this new Disney version makes perfect sense. Jon Favreau’s beautiful CGI-and-live-action update of the classic story keeps the songs and the fun, but adds fresh emotional weight. Lending their voices to the familiar gang are Idris Elba as evil tiger Shere Khan, Christopher Walken as swinging King Louie and Bill Murray as kind-hearted bear Baloo. His I Wan’na Be Like You, with Neel Sethi as Mowgli, is a triumph.
The Goonies (1985) ★★★★★
Channel 5, 4.50pm
A cult favourite, this rollicking adventure follows a group of young pals from the “Goon Docks” area of Oregon (played by, among others, Corey Feldman, Josh Brolin and Sean Astin) as they go hunting for a hoard of pirate treasure belonging to One-Eyed Willy. Blocking their path, however, is a criminal family, the Fratellis. Steven Spielberg dreamed up the marvellous and fanciful story and Chris Columbus (Gremlins) wrote the screenplay.
Mulholland Drive (2001) ★★★★★
Film4, 11.15pm
Baffling and breathtaking in equal measure, David Lynch’s (Twin Peaks) masterpiece takes us inside the fetid labyrinths of Hollywood’s dream factory. The film is about a corpse, a key, a locked box, two actresses playing four parts and a dream within a dream – just one of the pleasures is working out what gives a clue to what. Naomi Watts, in particular, gives a hypnotically layered performance like nothing you’ve seen before.
New Year’s Day
The Tourist
BBC One, 9pm
The hit mystery drama starring Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald returns, with the action moving from Australia to a rather less sunny Ireland 14 months later. Elliot (Dornan), an amnesiac still trying to piece together details of his old life after he was run off the road by a truck in the Outback, has travelled back home with his cop girlfriend Helen (Macdonald) to meet a friend who they hope will provide answers on how he became involved with a dangerous drugs dealer. Elliot, who suffered all sorts of mishaps in the thrilling first series, clearly attracts bad karma, because he’s soon kidnapped by enemies that he didn’t know he had, as they seek revenge for things that he can’t remember. Helen, meanwhile, has an unexpected encounter of her own.
Harry and Jack Williams’s drama continues to engage, not least because of its moments of sly humour – including kidnappers with a fondness for pop music – and their ease with jumping across genres; is this a simple crime mystery, a morality tale or a philosophical drama about learning to live with oneself? A bit of each and more, and highly watchable. All six episodes are available on iPlayer. VL
Fool Me Once
Netflix
Michelle Keegan stars in this eight-part adaptation of Harlan Coben’s 2016 novel, here transplanted to England. She plays Maya, whose husband (Richard Armitage) is murdered. But when she later sees him on a secret webcam, she uncovers a deadly conspiracy, which may or may not involve her mother-in-law (Joanna Lumley).
New Year’s Day Concert Live from Vienna 2024
BBC Two, 10.15am
A fabulous way to start the year: Petroc Trelawny introduces the traditional concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, with Christian Thielemann conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in an array of polkas, waltzes and gallops.
The Great New Year Bake Off
Channel 4, 7.40pm
A special edition with past contestants – Maxy (from 2022), Jurgen and Maggie (2021) and Mark (2020) – revisiting the tent to rustle up 12 religieuse (tiny choux buns resembling nuns), a galette des rois and a “spectacular smash cake”.
Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster
BBC One, 8pm
David Attenborough meets a team of scientists using CGI to show what a giant pliosaur (a giant sea monster which ruled the oceans 150million years ago) looked like, following the astonishing months-long excavation of the beast’s skull from a cliff face in Dorset.
Mr Bates vs the Post Office
ITV1, 9pm
Toby Jones heads the cast of this excellent drama – shown over four nights – based on the Post Office scandal in which more than 700 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 for theft, fraud and false accounting because of faulty software. Jones plays Alan Bates, who determines to prove their innocence. Julie Hesmondhalgh and Monica Dolan bolster a strong cast; the story will make your blood boil.
Peaky Blinders: How We Made Them Dance
BBC Four, 9pm
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and choreographer Benoit Swan Pouffer (of Rambert Dance Company) talk about their remarkable spin-off ballet, The Redemption of Thomas Shelby, described by this paper as an “edgy, punchy, polished slice of entertainment”. With narration by the late poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who played Jeremiah Jesus in the TV show, and music by Nick Cave and Radiohead. The ballet itself follows at 9.25pm.
Moana (2016) ★★★★★
BBC One, 2.20pm
Disney’s tropical adventure warms the soul, with fine songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda and directed by two venerable masters of the form, The Little Mermaid’s John Musker and Ron Clements. Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) is the descendant of Oceanic navigators who feels wanderlust washing over her as she grows older. How Far I’ll Go and You’re Welcome are a delight, while The Rock steals the show as demigod Maui.
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) ★★★★★
Channel 5, 2.10pm
There are few movie scenes more memorable than Gene Kelly’s soaked Singin’ in the Rain dance sequence in the rain, nor many more jaw-dropping than Donald O’Connor’s walk up the wall. All these years later, it remains one of the most successful musicals ever, and a surefire family favourite. But more than that, it contains real satire as it recounts the introduction of the “talkie” and the superficial nature of Hollywood in the Twenties.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) ★★★★★
BBC Two, 10pm
Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty are the anti-heroes in this brilliant telling of the real-life 1930s bank-robbing spree by Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Its graphic violence was a turning point for Hollywood, but it’s a gripping story, told at speed by director Arthur Penn, and the climactic scene has a sheer balletic grace that saves it from being too abrasive. It also inspired Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) which is on earlier at 12.45pm.
Tuesday 2 January
Digging for Britain
BBC Two, 8pm
A new series of Alice Roberts’s engrossing archaeology show begins with a look at what’s been happening recently at digs and sites across northern Britain. In Carlisle we follow a team called in to investigate what appears to be the remains of a vast Roman bath house beneath the local cricket ground. It turns out to be one of the largest Roman buildings ever found in the vicinity of Hadrian’s Wall, believed to have been built for the emperor, Septimius Severus; its ancient drains yield a treasure trove of Roman lost property, from hairpins to gemstones dropped by bathers 2,000 years ago.
Elsewhere, an intrepid team from the University of Aberdeen brave extreme weather to investigate a lost Pictish fortress on a Scottish mountainside; and in Yorkshire, signs of climate-related disaster at an early Anglo-Saxon settlement. In central Durham, meanwhile, a scuba diver finds pilgrim-related artefacts on the riverbed beneath Elvet Bridge; and, at Lowther Castle near Penrith, rare evidence comes to light of the Normans’ little-known effort to colonise and conquer the independent Kingdom of Cumbria, a quarter of a century after 1066. Fascinating fare. GO
Junior Bake Off
Channel 4, 5pm
More precocious young bakers enter the Bake Off tent (or “the most challenging arena of juvenile culinary endeavour” as host Harry Hill puts it). Today’s heat sees the first eight competitors take on two challenges: a cartoon technical and a time-travel showstopper. Liam Charles and Ravneet Gill are the judges.
Waterloo Road
BBC One, 8pm
Following its half-hearted return to our screens earlier this year, there’s more drama in store at Stockport’s most chaotic school. Tonight, headteacher Kim (Angela Griffin) rolls out an initiative that gets an explosive response from staff and students, and Tonya (Summer Violet Bird) forms an unlikely bond with new boy Schuey (Zak Sutcliffe).
Taskmaster’s New Year Treat
Channel 4, 9pm
For four years now, celebrities have been indulging in an unseemly one-off New Year’s scrap to win Greg Davies’s coveted golden eyebrows. Signing up to munch poppadoms and show off their skills with cuckoo clocks this time round are entrepreneur Deborah Meaden, musician Kojey Radical, actor Lenny Rush, adventurer Steve Backshall and Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball.
Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild
Channel 5, 9pm
Kicking off a new run of his heartwarming yet incisive series about people living alternative lifestyles, Fogle visits a musician who swapped Yorkshire for a mountain in Colombia. As they do some work on her isolated but “magical” home, he’s treated to another fascinating survival story.
What We Do in the Shadows
BBC Two, 10pm
Another season of the brilliant vampire comedy begins with Nandor (Kayvan Novak) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) returning to New York to find Laszlo (Matt Berry) living with baby Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) and the mansion on the verge of collapse. Desperate for cash, could opening a fang-friendly nightclub be the answer to all their woes? The full series is also available on Disney+.
First Dates
Channel 4, 10pm
First Dates injects some excitement into its flagging relationship with viewers by relocating to a new restaurant in Bath. Otherwise it’s business as usual, with prospective partners seeking love in unique ways, including a reality TV star who’s looking for something “more real” than that found in front of the cameras.
Cleopatra (1963) ★★★★
BBC Two, 12.50pm
Production of Joseph L Mankiewicz’s historical biopic was itself an epic, almost bankrupting 20th Century Fox with a budget that included Elizabeth Taylor’s record-breaking fee of seven million dollars (almost $68m today). Her role as the Egyptian queen is her most memorable, visually if not dramatically, thanks in part to 65 costume changes; and, though accuracy may be flawed, the opulence is a feast for the eyes.
Arthur’s Whisky (2023)
Sky Cinema Premiere, 6.15pm
A stellar cast leads this charming comedy that riffs on reverse-ageing films such as Big and 13 Going on 30. When Joan’s (Patricia Hodge) husband dies, she finds out that he had invented an anti-ageing potion. So, of course, she shares it with her best friends (Diane Keaton and Lulu) who, looking and feeling 40 years younger, go out on the town. But is being young really the most important thing? Stephen Cookson directs.
Rain Man (1988) ★★★★★
BBC One, 10.40pm
Not only did this heart-warming movie from director Barry Levinson win four Oscars (including Best Actor for a mesmerising Dustin Hoffman), it brought out the best in Tom Cruise. Ray (Hoffman), an autistic maths genius, inherits a fortune while his yuppie brother (Cruise) is left out in the cold. He’s hell-bent on getting a share – until a cross-country trip changes everything. Hans Zimmer’s score is also beautiful.
Wednesday 3 January
The Traitors
BBC One, 9pm
It has been a long wait, but one of 2022’s biggest hits has returned, format wisely unchanged aside from a few minor tweaks: 22 players are dispatched to a country pile in the Scottish Highlands for a series of games. Some are Traitors whose job it is to team up and bump off the others, known as Faithfuls. Faithfuls, meanwhile, must identify the Traitors and nominate them for banishment. Once one side has won out, those left can carve up £120,000 between them.Those who found themselves addicted to the first series are in safe hands – there’s no Big Brother-style sophomore slump here.
It opens with host Claudia Winkleman (once again striking a fine balance between portent and parody) in conversation with an owl while writing a letter at a bureau, and gets even sillier and more seductive from there. It also ensures that the contestants, ranging across jobs, sexualities, races and generations, but all demonstrating mastery of both brag and humility, cannot use their knowledge of the first series to second-guess how things might play out. Running from Wednesday to Friday for the next four weeks, this looks likely to be every bit as compelling as before. GT
The Massacre that Shook the Empire
PBS America, 8.30pm
Sathnam Sanghera assesses the 1919 Amritsar Massacre, when British troops opened fire on peaceful protesters in India, during a time when nationalism was on the rise and the British Empire was shuddering from the aftershocks of the Bolshevik Revolution.
Inside the Factory
BBC Two, 9pm
An hour devoted to jelly beans tonight, as Ruth Goodman looks at the history of pick’n’mix sweets, Cherry Healey discovers the digestive impact of glucose and Gregg Wallace grins as the tiny sweets are manufactured before his very eyes at the Jelly Bean factory in Dublin.
Truelove
Channel 4, 9pm
This intriguing six-part drama takes an affecting look at euthanasia and old age through the eyes of septuagenarians Phil (Lindsay Duncan) and Ken (Clarke Peters), ex-copper and ex-Special Forces man respectively, and one-time teenage sweethearts. She is trapped in a dull marriage and appalled at the approaching prospect of “bungalow, hospice, crematorium”; his is a solitary, unfulfilling existence in a small flat. While attending a funeral, they make a drunken pact with three other friends (Peter Egan, Sue Johnston and Karl Johnson) to grant each a dignified death – but when the time comes, the weight of the promise becomes apparent.
HMP Belmarsh: Evil Behind Bars
Channel 5, 9pm
Yet another behind-the-scenes documentary at a British prison, as former inmates and staff at HMP Belmarsh explain the drug trade which riddles the prison system, the unusual structure of the institution and what it is like to share space with some of the country’s most notorious figures, including the Hatton Garden thieves.
The Great Rhino Robbery
Sky Documentaries, 9pm
The reputation of rhino horn as a miracle cure for everything from hangovers to cancer made it more valuable than gold for a period in the last decade: this three-parter looks at the phenomenon and its disastrous impact on conservation efforts.
Raye at the Royal Albert Hall
BBC One, 10.45pm; Wales, 11.15pm
Nominated for a Brit and the Mercury Prize, 25-year-old Raye performs hits including Oscar Winning Tears and Escapism, accompanied by organ, choir and full orchestra.
The Big Country (1958) ★★★★★
BBC Two, 1pm
Great Westerns usually have great scores, and William Wyler’s glorious film is no exception to the rule: Jerome Moross’s rolling melody is its strongest card. When a sailor from the East (Gregory Peck) travels West to marry a rancher’s daughter (Carroll Baker), he finds her family tough nuts to impress – he’s expected to tame a wild horse and fight foreman Charlton Heston. Franz Planer’s camerawork is majestic.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) ★★★★★
ITV1, 10.45pm
“I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” Jonathan Demme’s great adaptation of Thomas Harris’s bestseller won five Oscars and boosted the prestige of the horror genre. A serial killer nicknamed “Buffalo Bill” is murdering women; Jodie Foster plays the greenhorn FBI agent who seeks advice on how to catch the maniac from a convicted psychopath, Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter (Anthony Hopkins).
Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) ★★★★
BBC One, 12.05am
Meryl Streep stars as a New York heiress who dreamed of becoming an opera singer, and whose voice brought joy to millions during wartime, chivvied along by her doting husband St Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant). It’s pure soft-centred Streep soufflé. Free from the responsibility to imitate (as with Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady), she gives one of the best turns of her career, directed by Stephen Frears.
Thursday 4 January
Julia
Sky Atlantic, 9pm
Sarah Lancashire’s turn as Julia Child, the TV chef who revolutionised American cuisine in the 1960s, is a far cry indeed from Happy Valley. Child filmed her famous show, The French Chef, in black-and-white, while Lancashire’s portrayal pops with colour. And as anyone who watched the first series of this playful comedy-drama knows, she is also a delight.
Series two picks up with the cook in France, where she is working alongside co-author Simca (Isabella Rossellini) on their second cookbook. The pair are divided between sticking to the ethos of French cooking or compromising for the sake of an American audience. These scenes are deliciously zippy; take the French man who tells Child’s husband (played by Frasier star David Hyde Pierce) that he hurt his back in the course of an extramarital affair: “My mistress is a cruel mistress.” Lancashire’s Child is such a force of personality, however, that other storylines can struggle to meet her. The action back at WGBH, for instance – the American TV network which now finds itself dangerously reliant on Child’s success – feels flat in comparison. Nonetheless, this second helping is tasty enough to leave you wanting more. All episodes are available on demand. SK
The Brothers Sun
Netflix
Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh stars in this eight-part action-comedy about the ostensibly ordinary Bruce Sun (Sam Song Li), a dorky Californian who finds out that his mother (Yeoh) is the head of a Taiwanese crime family. Cue lots of kung-fu and thrilling action sequences.
Accused
Paramount+
This shiny 15-part American remake of Jimmy McGovern’s 2010 anthology drama devotes each episode to the story of a different defendant. The first, for instance, is about a neurosurgeon (Michael Chiklis) accused of assisting a school shooter; the third about a teenager on trial for stabbing his stepmother (Rachel Bilson). The opening five episodes are available from today.
Dragons’ Den
BBC One, 8pm
First through the doors for series 21 are a family of entrepreneurs whose socks business employs people with learning disabilities. They are followed by pitches for prescription glasses that can be made in 20 minutes, and second-hand luxury goods. But the highlight is inventor Colin, whose products include a device which automatically protects your washing line as soon as it detects rain.
Secret Life of the Safari Park
Channel 4, 8pm
This delightful six-part series goes behind the scenes of Knowsley Safari Park. Tonight, punters get more than they bargained for when they drive past a pride of lions, ruled over by the magnificent alpha male Sam. Laugh along with their bemused reaction to the consequences of him being in heat: “Do we have to pay extra for that?!”
The Madame Blanc Mysteries
Channel 5, 9pm
You may think that the police force of a small French town would have little use for the services of a Cheshire antiques dealer, but you would be wrong. Tonight’s third series premiere enlists Jean (Sally Lindsay) to investigate the case of a scuba diver killed while searching for old coins.
Mr Bates vs the Post Office: The Real Story
ITV1, 10.45pm; STV, 11.10pm
Following tonight’s conclusion of the Toby Jones-led drama, this documentary tells the real story of the Post Office scandal: a horrific miscarriage of justice in which sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted for theft due to faulty accounting software. The tragic testimonies of the victims, including Alan Bates himself, paint a portrait of lives unjustly destroyed.
Society of the Snow (2023) ★★★★
Netflix
This adaptation of Pablo Vierci’s book about the 1972 Uruguayan Andes flight disaster is expertly paced, and brilliantly acted. It follows the 16 survivors of the crash as they contend with one of the world’s toughest environments, their existing injuries compounded by the freezing temperatures and faltering morale. JA Bayona directs; it has been selected as the Spanish entry for the Best International Feature Film at next year’s Oscars.
The 39 Steps (1935, b/w) ★★★★
BBC Two, 2.20pm
Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of John Buchan’s spy story creaks a little with age, but it’s still fraught with noirish menace. Highlights include Robert Donat’s dash across the Highlands and a glimpse of the maimed hand of the master criminal behind the central subterfuge. Look out, too, for a fresh-faced Peggy Ashcroft as the self-sacrificing wife of a crofter. Catch The Lady Vanishes (1938) beforehand at 12.45pm.
The Graduate (1967) ★★★★★
BBC Four, 9pm
“Mrs Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me… aren’t you?” stutters Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) to sultry middle-aged Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft). Mike Nichols won an Oscar for his satirical drama (while Hoffman was nominated), based on Charles Webb’s novel, about a boy who loves a girl (Katharine Ross) but instead sleeps with her bored, predatory mother. Superbly acted and, 56 years on, as icily compelling as ever.
Friday 5 January
Father Brown
BBC One, 1.45pm
The week after Christmas should be spent lounging on the sofa, fluffy socks on and the fire blazing, your belly still (too) full from the never-ending supply of cheese and chocolate – with a cosy show on the telly. Father Brown has perfected the formula (making it the BBC’s highest-rating daytime drama – and a global success) with its low-stakes mysteries in the sleepy Cotswolds village of Kembleford, and its loveable eponymous lead (played by The Fast Show’s Mark Williams). Adapted from GK Chesterton’s Father Brown novels, this is a show that positively oozes parochial comfort.
In tonight’s 10th series opener, Brown takes on that familiar hotbed of malice and backstabbing: the village athletics competition. Gardener Patty (Erin Shanagher) has it in for Dr Geoffrey (Toby Williams) after suspecting foul play; he soon earns more enemies including his own brother (Kelvin Fletcher). But it’s during a deadly spinach-eating contest that the villagers realise there’s a bad egg among them. And away from the relays and races, Mrs Devine (Claudie Blakley) is still battling to keep her relationship with Chief Inspector Sullivan (Tom Chambers) a secret. PP
James May: Our Man in India
Amazon Prime Video
Having already ticked off Italy and Japan, the former Top Gear presenter zooms off to India for a 3,000-mile journey from coast-to-coast in this three-parter, taking in the wondrous Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal as well as the Himalayan mountains. As ever, reflections on the beauty around him are welcomingly interspersed with wise cracks and lewd jokes.
Celebrity Mastermind
BBC One, 7.30pm
Clive Myrie gives four more celebrities reason to sweat: comedian and host of Radio 4’s The News Quiz Andy Zaltzman, Bake Off winner John Whaite and presenter Ria Hebden are tested on everything from Friends character Chandler Bing to the career of boxer Tyson Fury.
Amanda & Alan’s Italian Job
BBC One, 8.30pm
The damp, red-tape or eye-watering expense of their first Sicilian renovation must not have deterred best pals Amanda Holden and Alan Carr, because they’ve decided to take on another dilapidated holiday home. This time around they’re in Tuscany and, let’s just say, the $1 they paid for the historic farmhouse doesn’t seem like such a bargain once they get inside.
The Canary Islands with Jane McDonald
Channel 5, 9pm
Ever the ideal company if you’re in the mood for relaxed watching, no thinking required, Jane McDonald’s latest adventure takes her to Tenerife, where she takes a cable car up Mount Teide, samples local cheeses and, of course, takes a ride on the super-slides at Siam Water Park. There’s more easygoing travelogue action beforehand with Susan Calman, as the affable comedian heads to Mexico.
Sarah Millican: Bobby Dazzler
Channel 4, 9.30pm
The Geordie comedian’s latest stand-up special features the usual barrage of dirty jokes and on-the-nose social commentary: expect tips on how to eat a kiwi without looking like a psychopath, the perfect odour for a vagina candle and sticking a middle finger up to diet culture.
The Traitors: Uncloaked
BBC Two, 10pm
Having returned for a second series on Wednesday, TV phenomenon The Traitors lands its very own debrief show. Ed Gamble takes celebrity guests inside the Highlands castle for exclusive chats with the banished players.
Good Grief (2023)
Netflix
Schitt’s Creek writer and star Dan Levy swaps the chaotic smalltown antics for reflection in this poignant drama. Levy plays a bereaved widower who travels to Paris with his best friends (Ruth Negga and Himesh Patel) on a journey of self-discovery: can he fall in love again, or is it the city itself which will capture his affections? Don’t worry – there’s still plenty of Levy’s characteristic humour mixed in with the sadder moments.
The Band Wagon (1953) ★★★★
BBC Two, 1pm
A tip-tapping treat featuring Fred Astaire, this time as Tony Hunter, a movie star whose career is in the doldrums. He decides to perk it up by starring in a Broadway musical but is unprepared for its director to bring in the charismatic Gabby Gerard (Cyd Charisse) as his co-star. He thinks she’s too tall, she thinks he’s too old. Naturally, they patch up their differences and quickly fall head over heels in this irresistible comedy.
The Others (2001) ★★★★
BBC Two, 11.05pm
Her features locked into a look of permanent surprise, Nicole Kidman is perfectly cast as an overwrought mother living with her two children in a remote New Jersey manor house that she suspects to be haunted by malevolent ghosts. Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar (The Sea Inside) gradually ramps up the tension in this superior chiller, inspired partly by Henry James’s classic 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw.
Television previewers
Stephen Kelly (SK), Veronica Lee (VL), Gerard O’Donovan (GO), Poppie Platt (PP), Gabriel Tate (GT) and Jack Taylor (JT),
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