Wednesday, December 25, 2024

TV tonight: the best boybands of the 90s reunite to tell their wild stories

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Boybands Forever

BBC Two, 9.15pm

Take That! Blue! 5ive! Westlife! Members of big 90s boybands reflect on the era in this three-part series produced by Louis Theroux. Robbie Williams, Brian McFadden and Simon Webbe are some of the singers revealing the highs and lows of the big pop machine, along with those operating it – including Simon Cowell. It starts with a 15-year-old Gary Barlow, who had just lost to a school choir in a televised Christmas song contest, handing his demo to music manager Nigel Martin-Smith. Hollie Richardson

Legends of Comedy With Lenny Henry

8.15pm, Channel 4

In this new series, Lenny Henry sits down with a comedy legend and unpicks their heroes. He kicks off with The Fast Show’s Paul Whitehouse, whose sketches include “very, very drunk” Rowley Birkin QC. Whitehouse celebrates The Royle Family, Alan Partridge and Victoria Wood. HR

Justice: Those Who Kill

9pm, BBC Four

The latest murder has the Copenhagen police reeling, but there’s no time to grieve with a killer on the loose and no viable suspects. As Jacob (Cyron Melville) steps up to lead the investigation, Louise (Natalie Madueño) is left out in the cold. But a surprising new lead emerges. Ellen E Jones

Moonflower Murders

9.15pm, BBC One

Trouble in paradise … Lesley Manville in Moonflower Murders on BBC One. Photograph: Jonathan Hession/BBC/Sony Pictures Television

Lesley Manville’s fun detective show Magpie Murders returns with a new name. Susan (Manville) has left publishing and is running a hotel in Crete with Andreas, but she finds another mystery connected to her and one of her old books. It starts with a wedding – and a few scorned faces while the groom is making his speech. Soon, there’s blood on the bride’s dress … HR

Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening

9.15pm, ITV1

It’s the gameshow that works as a showcase for comedian Romesh Ranganathan – but more specifically, for his outspoken mother Shanthi. This week’s parents and big kids answering a range of embarrassing questions are Vicky Pattison and her mum Caroll, Joel Dommett and his mother Penny, and Tony Bellew with his son Corey. Phil Harrison

David Baddiel: The Not the Trilogy – Fame: Not the Musical

10pm, Sky Arts

And the award for most awkward title goes to … In the second of his recently recorded trilogy of live shows – all featuring “not the” in the title – Baddiel examines his experiences of celebrity, such as the time he was called out for bad etiquette on a flight by another passenger. Alexi Duggins

Film choice

I Know Where I’m Going!, 4.10pm, BBC Two

A delightful romance … Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey in I Know Where I’m Going! on BBC Two. Photograph: RONALD GRANT

A Powell and Pressburger double bill concludes with this delightful 1945 romance, which has a great feel for life in the Highlands of Scotland. Joan (Wendy Hiller) is sure of herself and her future: marriage to a wealthy man. She travels from Manchester to the Hebridean island her fiance has leased but is stuck by bad weather on the mainland with local laird Torquil (Roger Livesey), whose charms start to put doubt in her mind. For an insight into the film-making duo, the Martin Scorsese-fronted documentary Made in England is on Sunday at 10pm. Simon Wardell

No Bears, 10.35pm, BBC Four

There’s a playful – though at times tragic – overlap between fact and fiction in the work of Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi. Here he plays a version of himself, banned from foreign travel (which he is in real life) and holed up in a border village, while remotely directing a drama-documentary in Tehran about a couple trying to flee the country. As his actors struggle with their plight via a fallible internet link, local life encroaches on him by way of an illicit love affair and a photo he has taken. Despite himself, an air of peril starts to blur the boundaries between his life and art. SW

Live sport

Women’s Super League Football: Tottenham v Arsenal, 1.15pm, BBC One Bethany England leads the home side for the derby at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Racing: Cheltenham, 1.30pm, ITV1 Day two of the November meeting, featuring the Gold Cup. Continues on Sunday at 1.25pm.

International Rugby Union: Scotland v Portugal, 2pm, TNT Sports 1 At Murrayfield Stadium. Followed by England v South Africa at 5.15pm, and France v New Zealand at 7.45pm.

T20 International Cricket: West Indies v England, 7.30pm, TNT Sports 2 The fourth T20 in the series from Saint Lucia. The last match is on Sunday at 7.30pm on TNT Sports 1.

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