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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Ali Catterall, Ellen E Jones, Phil Harrison and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: it’s the definitive George Michael documentary

George Michael: Portrait of an Artist on Channel 4.
George Michael: Portrait of an Artist on Channel 4. Photograph: Michael Putland/Getty Images

George Michael: Portrait of an Artist

9pm, Channel 4

“I wanted to be a star and I wanted people to love me … but I never really wanted to be someone else.” George Michael gets the former Wham! manager Simon Napier-Bell’s documentary treatment (after Saturday’s 27: Gone Too Soon). Contributors including his partner Kenny Goss, Jo Whiley, Stevie Wonder and Stephen Fry remember the magic of his music and the bitterness of the cost of fame. Hollie Richardson

Jamie Cooks the Mediterranean

8pm, Channel 4

The not-so-naked chef’s latest series takes him to Tunisia this week. After meeting some traditional couscous-makers, he shows off his own skills with crispy prawn parcels drizzled with harissa, and a chicken and merguez sausage stew. There’s even time for a cook-out on the beach. HR

The Read: A Kestrel for a Knave

8pm, BBC Four

Christopher Eccleston beautifully reads Barry Hines’s beloved 1968 novel to start this new season of fresh performances of classics. Telling the tale from a kitchen table, he relates the story of Billy Casper, a youngster growing up with his angry older brother in a deprived South Yorkshire town, who finds some hope in his training his new pet kestrel. HR

The Woman in the Wall

9pm, BBC One

After last week’s terrible revelations, Colman and Lorna forge an unexpected alliance, following the clues afforded by Aoife’s intel and Father Percy’s murder. Could it lead them to Lorna’s child? Meanwhile, the Magdalene Laundries survivors receive some shattering news, and Colman’s probe uncovers a foe within their circle. Ali Catterall

Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing

9pm, BBC Two

A pleasantly autumnal excursion to the Longford Estate on the Hampshire Avon, where Paul and Bob reflect on “the slow-flow life” and delight in the diverse fish on offer. Roach, dace and river carp are all on the wishlist for these waters, but it’s Paul’s borrowed Porsche that gets the blood pumping. Ellen E Jones

Inheritance Wars: Who Gets the Money?

9pm, Channel 5

A rather bleak series exploring inheritance battles. First, it looks at the attempts of two brothers to secure what they believed was rightfully theirs after their adopted sibling received the entirety of their parents’ estate. There’s also an investigation into the painful aftermath of turkey magnate Bernard Matthews’s death as his children picked over the bones of his fortune. Phil Harrison

Film choice

Cyrano de Bergerac, 10.15am, Sky Cinema Greats

Gerard Depardieu in Cyrano de Bergerac on Sky Cinema Greats.
Gerard Depardieu in Cyrano de Bergerac on Sky Cinema Greats. Photograph: Collection Christophel/Alamy

Having Gérard Depardieu as the flamboyant, big-nosed swordsman-poet in this adaptation of Rostand’s classic French play is basically typecasting. But, of course, he pulls it off marvellously. He tosses off the rhyming couplets (subtitled in English by none other than Anthony Burgess) with verve and makes his character – secretly in love with Anne Brochet’s Roxane but helping the pretty but dim Christian (Vincent Perez) woo her – a figure both of fun and pathos. Simon Wardell

Live sport

Premier League Football: Bournemouth v Chelsea, 2pm, Sky Sports Main Event Everton v Arsenal is at 4pm.

Rugby Union World Cup: England v Japan, 7.15pm, ITV1 Preceded by South Africa v Romania at 1.30pm and Australia v Fiji at 4.15pm.

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