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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Ellen E Jones, Graeme Virtue and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: Frankie Boyle’s fist-bitingly funny swipe at the royal family

Frankie Boyle’s Farewell to the Monarchy on Channel 4.
Frankie Boyle’s Farewell to the Monarchy on Channel 4. Photograph: Dean Belcher/Dean Belcher / Channel 4

Frankie Boyle’s Farewell to the Monarchy

10pm, Channel 4

As an antidote to the BBC’s bumper coronation buildup, Frankie Boyle takes a caustic swipe at the monarchy with this whistlestop tour through its 1,000-year history and plenty of fist-biting jokes (barely two minutes pass before a Prince Andrew gag makes you spit out your tea). From William the Conqueror to King Charles III, he learns the “lessons” each monarch has given the nation. If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. Hollie Richardson

Charles R: The Making of a Monarch

8pm, BBC One

He’s the nation’s new king, but who is he really? This documentary offers insight into King Charles’s perspective and his seven-decade apprenticeship. Highlights include private moments from the Windsors’ home movie collection and more recent reflections on the meaning of the monarchy. Ellen E Jones

Great Expectations

9pm, BBC One

Magwitch circle: Steven Knight’s atmospheric but divisive Dickens adaptation reaches its finale, closing the time loop on its arresting opening scenes of Pip (Fionn Whitehead) preparing to throw himself off a bridge. That stormy sense of emotional turmoil sets the stage for a highly charged showdown at Satis House. Graeme Virtue

Malpractice

9pm, ITV1

The hospital thriller grows thick with tension and lies this week. After accidentally pushing her dodgy acquaintance in front of a car, will Lucinda (Niamh Algar) stick around for the ambulance or scuttle off? Put it this way: she’s soon giving a champagne-fuelled speech for the award her hospital department just won. HR

The Windsors Coronation Special

9pm, Channel 4

It has only been three years since the royal spoof last aired – but boy is there a lot of ground to cover in this hour-long coronation special. With Harry Enfield as Charles, Ellie White as Beatrice, Hugh Skinner as Wills and Haydn Gwynne as Camilla (or should that be Cruella de Vil?), it’s silly if ever so slightly obvious fun. HR

Ruby Wax: Cast Away

9pm, Channel 5

The comedian is on her fifth day of being marooned on a desert island. “I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die,” she cries in her tent after 24 hours of torrential rain. Luckily, she doesn’t – and is soon hunting coconuts and making friends with Spartacus the hermit crab. HR

Film choice

Beatriz at Dinner, 12.30am, BBC One

Salma Hayek in Beatriz at Dinner on BBC One.
Salma Hayek in Beatriz at Dinner on BBC One. Photograph: Lacey Terrell/AP

Miguel Arteta’s edgy drama could be seen as a dry run for its writer Mike White’s future TV hit, The White Lotus. There is the same interplay of insouciantly wealthy capitalists and those who serve them, though here there is less satire and more sadness. The focus is on Salma Hayek’s Beatriz, a Mexican alternative healer who finds herself stuck at the California mansion of a client, Kathy (Connie Britton), who is entertaining her husband’s colleagues. Among them is John Lithgow’s smug developer, the catalyst in drawing out the despair in Beatriz’s normally placid soul. Simon Wardell

Live sport

Formula One Racing: Azerbaijan Grand Prix, 11.55am, Sky Sports Main Event From Baku City Circuit.

Champions Cup Rugby Union: La Rochelle v Exeter Chiefs, 2.30pm, BT Sport 1 Joe Simmonds (pictured above) and his English team face a tough semi-final at Matmut Atlantique.

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