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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Phil Harrison, Hollie Richardson, Jack Seale, Alexi Duggins, Ellen E Jones and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: Deborah Meaden talks to a toaster in Taskmaster

Deborah Meaden and Alex Horne on Taskmaster
Poppadom pranks … Deborah Meaden and Alex Horne on Taskmaster. Photograph: Andy Devonshire/Avalon

Taskmaster’s New Year Treat

9pm, Channel 4

If you have ever wanted to see Deborah Meaden talk to a toaster, you are in luck. This fun special proves that you don’t have to be a comic to have fun on Taskmaster – if you are prepared to throw yourself into the general foolishness, the format will take care of you. Joining the dragon in battling to win Greg Davies’s golden eyebrows are 14-year-old Lenny Rush, Zoe Ball, Kojey Radical and Steve Backshall. Phil Harrison

Waterloo Road

8pm, BBC One

It’s a new term at the grim high school, with Angela Griffiths returning as the permanently put-upon head teacher Kim Campbell. She is starting the year with a contentious initiative that targets truants and sets off fireworks everywhere – one teacher describes the staff room as “the bunker from the feral blitz”. Hollie Richardson

Food Unwrapped’s Caribbean Road Trip

8pm, Channel 4

After so many hair-netted tours of factory floors, Andi Oliver and Matt Tebbutt deserve to enjoy the fresh air and fresher flavours of the Caribbean. That means sipping rum in Barbados, buying red bananas in Saint Lucia and baking bread in Dominica. Have you ever wondered how the passionfruit got its name? Ellen E Jones

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild

9pm, Channel 5

For the latest series of the presenter profiling people who went rural the focus is on the musician Vanessa Forer, who left Yorkshire to live up a Colombian mountain. It’s light TV fluff in which they build a cable car and meet an indigenous leader. Alexi Duggins

What We Do in the Shadows

10pm, BBC Two

Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Laszlo (Matt Berry) in What We Do in the Shadows
Bloodthirsty … Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Laszlo (Matt Berry) in What We Do in the Shadows. Photograph: Russ Martin/BBC/FX Networks

It’s season four of the dank, silly sitcom about a coven of rubbish vampires in Staten Island, New York, led by a performance from Matt Berry that makes his other comedy work look staid and conservative. The bloodthirsty gang return from a jaunt around the world to find their home almost in ruins – and a strange creature in residence. Jack Seale

First Dates

10pm, Channel 4

First Dates is celebrating its 10th anniversary by moving the romantic restaurant to Bath, but the vibe is still the same. Tonight, look out for an appearance from one of the cast of The Real Housewives of Cheshire. There is also an elevated encounter between a pair of academics. PH

Film choice

Ryan and Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon
Like father, like daughter … Ryan and Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon. Photograph: Paramount/Allstar

Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich, 1973), 9.45am, Sky Cinema Greats
Peter Bogdanovich’s road movie is often considered Ryan O’Neal’s best film. It certainly plays to his strengths – charm, openness and comic timing. His Depression-era conman, Moses, turns up at an ex-lover’s funeral in Kansas, only to be saddled with her nine-year-old child, Addie (Ryan’s real-life daughter, Tatum O’Neal), on his drive to Missouri. She turns out to be a natural grifter, though, and Moses’ heart softens. Funny and touching, with just the right amount of 30s nostalgia. Simon Wardell

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