Satellite choice
FOOTBALL Rapid Vienna v Rangers, 5.15pm, BT Sport 3
UNLESS Villarreal lose at home to Spartak Moscow — which is unlikely — Rangers need all three points in Vienna to keep alive their hopes of progressing from this season’s tightest group. Celtic, meanwhile, need a point at home to Group B leaders Salzburg to ensure they’ll enter the draw for the last 32 (8pm, BT Sport 3).
DARTS World Championship, 6.30pm, Sky Mix, Arena & Main Event
IT’S party time at Alexandra Palace — until New Year’s Day — as the reigning champion, Rob Cross, is joined by the likes of Peter Wright, James Wade and Michael van Gerwen at the festive oche.
ON-DEMAND MOVIE The Meg, BT TV/Sky Store/ Virgin Movies
JASON STATHAM’S jaded diver does battle with a prehistoric shark in a B-movie-style blockbuster that does what it says on the tin.
SCENE AND HERD Secret Life Of Farm Animals, 8pm, BBC4
COWS are the focus of part two, which has all sorts of unexpected insights. ‘They are as different from each other as people are,’ says dairy farmer Nick Fordham, who has such a bond with his herd that he can lie down in their field. Also, did you know that cow’s moos have regional accents?
SUPERHERO ACTION The Flash, 8pm, Sky One
TONIGHT is the first part of one of those fun blockbuster crossovers between DC superhero shows; the story continues next week in Arrow (Monday) and ends in Supergirl (Tuesday). At its centre is a shock for Flash and Arrow, who swap lives. That’s not all, though — it also brings us Batwoman and Lois Lane.
HIT SITCOM The Good Place, 9pm, E4
THIS whipsmart U.S. comedy, which has been on Netflix for a while, has finally found a home on Freeview. The Good Place stars Ted Danson as a mysterious being in charge of an afterlife where the new arrivals include the sweary Eleanor (Bad Moms’ Kristen Bell, pictured left with Danson), and in every episode, the plot moves forward and the situation changes a little. The first season is a very finely crafted piece of TV.
SCI-FI STORY Fortitude, 9pm, Sky Atlantic
THE glory of Fortitude is that such an insane story can be delivered with such conviction by the cast. In the squirm-inducing second part of this final season, Vincent gets drunk and performs a Frankensteinstyle procedure with a wasp.
POLITICAL DRAMA Madam Secretary, 9pm, Sky Witness
THE spiritual successor to The West Wing returns for a new season, aand Bess (Tea Leoni) plans to run for U.S. President. In an extraordinary scene that blurs the lines between fiction and reality, Hillary Clinton (pictured), Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright all turn up to offer her advice.
FUNNY MAN Mel Smith: I’ve Sort Of Done Things, 10pm, BBC4
A TRIBUTE to the comedian who ‘put a lot of energy into relaxing’. As that quote suggests, a lot of the stories flow from his flair for living large — once, this involved Smith going from a night of drinking and gambling straight to breakfast TV — but it has its tender moments, too.
CRIME THRILLER In Darkness, 10.30pm, Sky Premiere
NATALIE DORMER stars in this ‘blind woman in peril’ thriller. Overhearing the murder of her neighbour, Sofia (Dormer) is pulled into a deadly vortex of crime and corruption.