Satellite choice
FESTIVE FUN Blue Peter: Christmas Special!, 5pm, CBBC & CBeebies
BLUE PETER has been on our screens since 1958, and the annual festive special still feels like quite the event. This year’s extravaganza involves Mwaksy Mudenda using gliders to make a dazzling festive firework display and leading choirs from across the country in a yuletide medley.
FOOTBALL Aston Villa v Burnley, 5.30pm, Amazon Prime
SEAN DYCHE’S Burnley follow up a scrappy 1-0 win away at Arsenal with a visit to Villa, who had a similarly confidence boosting 1-0 victory against Midland rivals Wolves on Saturday. At 7.30pm, Sheffield United, still in search of their first win of the season, host Manchester United.
OUT FOR REVENGE Tin Star: Liverpool, 8pm, Sky Atlantic
THE Worths split up in tonight’s new double bill, and the tension builds as they move towards their targets. Jim (Tim Roth), looks more animal than man, acting on instinct and with no real discernible fear whatsoever. There’s plenty of real fear in his enemies’ eyes, though . . .
CLASSIC TALE Far From The Madding Crowd, 8pm, BBC4
IN THIS classy adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel, Carey Mulligan is a strong and enchanting presence as Bathsheba, the woman forging her own way in 19th-century England. Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge and Matthias Schoenaerts star as her suitors.
PRESSURE COOKING Hell’s Kitchen, 9pm, ITV2
IN THE tense finale of Gordon Ramsay’s combative U.S. contest, the teams prepare for a testing dinner service. There are problems with the chicken — let’s hope none of it is undercooked, for the diners’ sakes — before the winner claims their prize: working for Gordon as head chef
of Hell’s Kitchen Lake Tahoe.
FUNNY GAMES A League Of Their Own: Christmas Party 2020, 9pm, Sky One
JAMIE REDKNAPP, Freddie Flintoff (pictured) and Romesh Ranganathan are at Englefield House in Berkshire, where ‘H’ from Steps challenges them to put together a new version of Feliz Navidad. They will be looking back at old clips and talking to James Corden over video, too.
U.S. HISTORY The Soul Of America, 9pm, Sky Documentaries
BETWEEN the racial justice protests, Covid-19 and Donald Trump, the U.S. has had a rough time of it lately, and it’s easy to see this as evidence of unprecedented crisis. This new HBO documentary provides a long historical view that places it all in a profoundly interesting context. (Sky 114, Virgin 277)
FREEVIEW MOVIE Findingg Your Feet,, 9pm,p, Film4
UPBEAT British comedy with Celia Imrie as the free spirit who helps her stuffy — and newly single — sister (Imelda Staunton, pictured with Timothy Spall) to get out of her comfort zone and loosen up.
GREATEST HITS Dusty Springfield At The BBC, 10pm, BBC4
A COLLECTION of performances drawn from the deep vaults of the BBC archive, with footage of Dusty from 1961 to 1995. The clips take in her folk beginnings with The Springfields, Motown, duets with Tom Jones and Mel Torme, and her Eighties work with Pet Shop Boys.
FILM THRILLER The Bay Of Silence, 10.20pm, Sky Premiere
BRITISH thriller, with Claes Bang (of the BBC’s Dracula) as the husband growing increasingly concerned about his wife (Olga Kurylenko) after the birth of their son.