Sunday, December 22, 2024

TV tonight: the police-corruption drama that was banned for 30 years

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GF Newman Remembers Law and Order

10pm, BBC Four
Police-corruption drama Law and Order was so controversial when it aired in 1978 that it raised debates in the House of Commons and was banned from being broadcast again for 30 years. As an introduction to a reshowing of the four episodes this evening, its writer and creator, GF Newman, reflects on the show’s legacy, explains what inspired him and reveals how police officers at the time reacted. Hollie Richardson

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

9pm, BBC Three
Emma Myers is bang on as the teenage private investigator Pip (as is Anna Maxwell Martin playing her mum) in this adaptation of Holly Jackson’s hit novel. In this opening double bill, Pip ropes in Ravi (Zain Iqbal) to find out the truth about the supposedly murdered schoolgirl Andie Bell, with smartness and one-liners all the way. Hannah Verdier

Battle of the Bagpipes

9pm, Sky Arts
More cut-throat action from the run-up to the ultimate clash of the piping clans – the World Pipe Band Championships, which Field Marshal Montgomery pipe band hope to win again. This week, two bands go head to head at the North Berwick Highland Games, while the military pipers prepare for King Charles’s coronation. HR

Hilary Swank in Alaska Daily. Photograph: Darko Sikman/ABC

Alaska Daily

9pm, Alibi
With its work-obsessed characters and earnest tone, this newsroom drama harks back to the 90s heyday of shows such as ER and The West Wing. This week, the prickly hack Eileen (Hilary Swank) and her zealous colleagues shine a light on the vast disparities between the missing-person searches for a high-profile influencer and an Indigenous girl. Graeme Virtue

Love Me

10pm, W
People grieve in different ways, even members of the same family. After the funeral in Melbourne, Aaron (William Lodder) feels as though neither his father, Glen (Hugo Weaving), nor his sister Clara (Bojana Novakovic) are sufficiently devastated by their loss. Elsewhere, Glen is considering going solo on the $15,000 holiday he booked shortly before Christine’s death. Ellen E Jones

Reginald the Vampire

3am, Sky Sci-Fi
The enjoyable comedy drama that puts a quirky twist on the vampire genre returns for a second season. The unlikely new blood-sucker Reginald (Jacob Batalon) is enjoying his gang of friends, but he is quickly tasked with putting a stop to the extermination of them all. HR

Film choice

David Farrier, Dylan Reeve and David Starr in Tickled. Photograph: A Ticklish Tale

Tickled (David Farrier, 2016), Netflix
A documentary about competitive endurance tickling sounds like the sort of thing that would permanently sully your Netflix algorithm. But please don’t let that put you off David Farrier’s film, because it’s more of a conspiracy thriller than a weird sex thing. Farrier attempts to get to the bottom of the tickling videos he has seen online. He encounters bullying, mysterious producers who repeatedly warn him to stop making his film – and things only get darker and weirder from there. Stuart Heritage

Live sport

Test cricket: England v West Indies 10am, Sky Sports Cricket. Day one at Lord’s.

Euro 2024 football: Netherlands v England 6.30pm, ITV1. The second semi-final takes place in Dortmund (kick-off 8pm).

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