Satellite choice
FESTIVE FILM Christmas Town, 5pm, Sky Premiere
’TIS the season to warm the cockles, and in this quaint festive drama, Candace Cameron Bure plays a woman looking for a fresh start and ending up on a magical detour.
SOCCER Rennes v Chelsea, 5.15pm, BT Sport 3
THE Pensioners head to Brittany to face the French side they beat 3-0 at Stamford Bridge. Frank Lampard’s men have been looking excellent in the Premier League of late, and will be eager to carry this strong form into the Champions League – a tournament Lampard himself won as a Chelsea player in 2012. Kick-off is at 5.55pm.
ANIMATED TALE Brightheart 2, 6.30pm, Sky Premiere
THE plucky little firefly returns in this animated adventure sequel. She forms the Firefly Action Brigade with her insect friends when a mysterious spaceship lands in their village.
CLASSIC WHODUNIT Miss Marple, 8pm, Drama
JOAN HICKSON’S final outing as the sleuth with ‘a mind like a bacon slicer’ was this 1992 version of The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side, alongside Claire Bloom and Glynis Barber. Happily, it’s also one of her finest, and interestingly turns on the secrets of a film star.
SCI-FI FLICK Pacific Rim: Uprising, 9pm, Film4
THIS sci-fi action movie is the second film in the Pacific Rim franchise, and while it is clearly inferior to the first installment, there are enough thrills to make it worth a look. The plot sees humanity battling giant monsters intent on destroying the world.
BIG BOAT Mighty Cruise Ships, 9pm, Quest
IN THIS new series, we climb on board the Seven Seas Explorer as it sails from San Antonio, Chile, up the west coast of South America before docking in Costa Rica. The vessel is, as the cliche goes, a floating town – but not many towns have such fine restaurants, or an acre of marble.
OFFBEAT ARTIST Cold War Steve Meets The Outside World, 9pm, Sky Arts
THE artist ‘Cold War Steve’ (AKA Christopher Spencer, pictured) has become known for his satirical collages, and has been described as a ‘modern-day Hogarth’. For this interesting one-off, he embarks on a project to bring his art to the masses.
TEXAS FIREFIGHTERS 9-1-1: Lone Star, 9pm, Sky Witness
SEASON one of this US emergency services drama has seesawed between jaw-dropping disasters and awkward if well-intentioned storylines about diversity among its Texas firefighters. In the finale, Michelle (Liv Tyler) gets an answer about her sister. Liv won’t be returning for season two, alas.
MOVIE DRAMA Hillbillyy Elegy,gy Netflix
GLENN CLOSE and Amy Adams (pictured) play the damaged mother and formidable grandmother of J.D. Vance in Ron Howard’s take on Vance’s own story – of his rise from hillbilly to Yale lawyer. This critique of the American Dream gathers power as it goes.
FROM THE ASHES Rebuilding Paradise, 9pm, National Geographic
RON HOWARD’S haunting new documentary recalls the incredible devastation wrought by the California fires of 2018, and the efforts to rebuild the town of Paradise afterwards. It’s a story filled with emotion, local heroes, and remarkable footage of both the fires and what they left behind.