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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Danielle De Wolfe, Jack Seale, Phil Harrison and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: Lesley Manville’s juicy murder mystery series kicks off

Lesley Manville in Magpie Murders.
Lesley Manville in Magpie Murders. Photograph: Nick Wall/BBC/Eleventh Hour Films

Magpie Murders

9.15pm, BBC One

Based on Anthony Horowitz’s novel, this meta murder mystery starring Lesley Manville was available on BritBox last year. The BBC has since snapped up the series, so here’s a chance to watch the first season ahead of the upcoming second. Manville plays book editor Susan Ryeland, whose bestselling author Alan Conway is busy writing about an unsolved murder – until his body is found in the garden. Most intriguingly, Susan realises that he never finished the final chapter. Hollie Richardson

Celebrity Bridge of Lies

6.15pm, BBC One

TV “hard man” Ross Kemp returns to safer ground as celebrity broadcasters prepare to quiz. Radio icon Tony Blackburn joins forces with Radio 1’s Katie Thistleton, Jazz FM’s YolanDa Brown and Heart FM’s Lauren Layfield. Navigating 32 stepping stones for charity, can they harness their inner lie detectors? Danielle De Wolfe

Bettany Hughes’ Treasures of the World

7pm, Channel 4

Hughes visits Oman this week, once the home of civilisations that acquired their wealth through copper and frankincense – which is still harvested today. After visiting a bronze age beehive-shaped tomb, she journeys to the Musandam Peninsula. Jack Seale

Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim

7.35pm, BBC Two

In 1967, Ella Fitzgerald, Nelson Riddle and Antônio Carlos Jobim joined Frank Sinatra for a TV special. Between these greats, they performed hits such as The Lady Is a Tramp, The Girl from Ipanema and What Now My Love. Now, more than 50 years later, here it is again. HR

Challenge Anneka

8.30pm, Channel 5

It’s the comeback we didn’t know we needed. This week, Anneka Rice’s volunteers have three days to create a mini-village for people with dementia. But seven shops, a carers’ cafe and landscaped green space is a tall order in the timeframe. Phil Harrison

The Jonathan Ross Show

9.40pm, ITV1

Ahead of the release of a new album and a deeply personal documentary, Ed Sheeran has been headline fodder over the last couple of weeks. He joins Ross for a chat as well as a performance, alongside other guests Michael Bublé, Russell Crowe and Lily Allen. HR

Film choice

So Long, My Son, 9pm, BBC Four

So Long, My Son on BBC Four.
So Long, My Son on BBC Four. Photograph: Li Tienan/Dongchun Films

In this heartbreaking drama from Wang Xiaoshuai, family tragedy and state intolerance weigh heavily on the lives of its central characters. In China in the 1980s, dutiful factory workers Yaojun and Liyun (pitch-perfect performances from Wang Jingchun and Yong Mei) have one young son, Xingxing, but when Liyun becomes pregnant, the communist government’s one-child rule means she has to terminate it. Then an incident involving Xingxing and his best friend Haohao throws that decision into the harshest of reliefs. The poignant story seesaws between the decades, as circumstances improve for many – but Yaojun and Liyun’s pain seems too deeply engrained for joy to creep in. Simon Wardell


Inside Llewyn Davis, 9pm, AMC

How far should you go as an artist to stay true to your vision? That’s the problem facing downbeat early 1960s Greenwich Village folk singer Llewyn (Oscar Isaac, holding his own in the vocal/guitar stakes). He’s surviving by couch-surfing and borrowing a few dollars while seeking a break, but misplacing a friend’s cat tips him over into a run of truly bad luck, as the New York City winter chills his blood. In the Coen brothers’ typically wry style, comedy and crisis vie for space, and the folk music scene (just) before Dylan appeared is wonderfully evoked. SW

Live sport

Premier League Football: Man City v Liverpool, 11.30am, BT Sport 1 At the Etihad Stadium. Followed by Chelsea v Aston Villa at 5pm on Sky Sports Main Event.

Super League Rugby: Warrington Wolves v Hull FC, 12.45pm, Channel 4 At Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Women’s Six Nations Rugby Union: Scotland v Wales, 5pm, BBC Two At DAM Health Stadium. England v Italy is on Sunday at 2.30pm.

F1: Australian Grand Prix, 4.30am, Sky Sports Main Event From Albert Park, Melbourne.

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