Monday, December 23, 2024

TV tonight: the maid who inherited a castle she is not allowed to sell

Must read

Storyville: Inheriting the Castle

10pm, BBC Four
Justina, 60, has lived and later worked as a maid in a crumbling, eccentric mansion in rural Argentina since she was five. When Justina’s socialite employer died, she left her the property, with one stipulation – she must not sell it. Is she the owner or still a servant? This fascinating and emotionally complex documentary follows Justina, an Indigenous Argentinian, and her grownup daughter, Alexia, who wants out. Hollie Richardson

Secrets of the London Underground

8pm, Yesterday
The railway historian Tim Dunn and the London Transport Museum’s Siddy Holloway start a new series in Earl’s Court, which was the first station to install a passenger escalator. Over at the museum depot, Tim finds a 1930s platform indicator. HR

Super Surgeons: A Chance at Life

9pm, Channel 4
Another life-or-death dispatch from the Royal Marsden hospital, where 30-year-old Lauren’s ultra-rare cancer presents two challenges: removal; and providing assurances that it won’t come back. Meanwhile, 74-year-old Matthew is back for another round of treatment and an operation complicated by previous surgeries. Jack Seale

A nightmare tale of adoption in The Baby Scandal That Shocked the World. Photograph: Channel 5 Television

The Baby Scandal That Shocked the World

9pm, Channel 5
In the early days of the internet, a desperate mother in Arkansas put her twin babies up for adoption with an agency named Caring Heart. That is only the beginning of this documentary’s twisting story, involving two more mothers (also desperate, but for different reasons), an FBI investigation and a pig called Phillip. Ellen E Jones

Peacock

9pm, BBC Three
Gym bro Andy (Allan Mustafa) thinks low testosterone might be the root of his problems (“I haven’t been into football as much recently … and I haven’t punched a wall for years”), but his sensible GP (Ghosts’ Kiell Smith-Bynoe) isn’t convinced and won’t prescribe pills. Perhaps the pre-workout energy drink championed by Kara (Saffron Hocking) is the answer? EEJ

The Rest Is Politics: Election Special

11.05pm, Channel 4
Two days before all hell breaks loose, Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell present their Election Special grand final, cheerfully picking over the shambles of a government on death row – while anticipating, at the very least, a semantically accurate “change”. Dear God, please. Ali Catterall

Film choice

Lacerating … Richard Attenborough as Pinkie in the 1948 version of Brighton Rock. Photograph: Ronald Grant

Brighton Rock (John Boulting, 1948), 2.20pm, Talking Pictures TV
Still the best film adaptation of a Graham Greene novel. A 25-year-old Richard Attenborough is on lacerating form as the gangster Pinkie Brown, trying to cover up a murder in the gaudy seaside resort that, in Greene’s hands, becomes a postlapsarian nightmare stewing in fleeting pleasures and Catholic damnation. The jury is still out on whether the new “happy” ending concocted by Greene to dodge the censors is a cop-out – or even more cynical than the novel itself. Phil Hoad

Live sport

Euro 2024 football: Romania v the Netherlands 4.30pm, BBC One. The round of 16 continues in Munich (kick-off 5pm). Austria v Turkey is on ITV1 and STV at 7pm (kick-off 8pm).

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