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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Phil Harrison, Graeme Virtue, Ali Catterall and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: Mo Gilligan throws a raucous Christmas party

Leona Lewis, Fred Sirieix, Mo Gilligan, Allan Mustafa and Joel Dommett on The Lateish Show’s seasonal special.
Leona Lewis, Fred Sirieix, Mo Gilligan, Allan Mustafa and Joel Dommett on The Lateish Show’s seasonal special. Photograph: Dean Chapple/Channel 4

The Lateish Show With Mo Gilligan: Christmas

10pm, Channel 4

TV’s favourite late-night host warms up for the big day with a Christmas party. Leona Lewis, who has been touring her festive album (a casual decade after releasing it), joins in the fun, along with the First Dates romantic Fred Sirieix, the presenter Joel Dommett and People Just Do Nothing’s Allan Mustafa. There’ll be a Christmas carol edition of Nursery Grimes and Babatunde Aléshé will MC a karaoke battle. Hollie Richardson

World’s Strongest Man 2023

7pm, Channel 5

The annual festival of grunting and glowering is a peculiar but entertaining Christmas fixture; this year it comes from the Utilita Arena in Sheffield where contenders will face five tests of strength. The Deadlift Ladder, the Car Walk, the Viking Press, the Loading Race and the Power Stairs will test the lads to destruction before a winner is crowned. Commentary comes from Colin Bryce and Danny Wallace. Phil Harrison

Kirstie and Phil’s Love it or List it

8pm, Channel 4

The series in which Kirstie Allsopp upgrades an existing home while Phil Spencer scouts out potential replacements returns. Tim and Sonia moved back to Chippenham to care for his ailing mother. Now that she has died, they and daughter Ella are looking for a fresh start. It is an emotive episode but Kirstie still gives them a row when she hears their giant kitchen island plan. Graeme Virtue

Celebrity MasterChef: Christmas Cook-Off 2023

9pm, BBC One

John and Gregg getting in the festive mood.
John and Gregg getting in the festive mood. Photograph: Production/BBC/Shine TV

The Golden Whisk trophy is at stake as four Celebrity MasterChef veterans return to compete for the title of Christmas Champion. Mel Blatt, Richard Blackwood, Duncan James and Faye Winter will be making culinary magic with the contents of their Secret Santa Mystery Boxes, while John Torode and Gregg Wallace judge. PH

The 1970s Supermarket at Christmas

9pm, Channel 5

It’s the question that has taxed the finest minds in biochemistry for decades: how exactly is the gooey white centre in an After Eight mint created? These and more revelations come at you like an avalanche of shiny festive baubles, including why sprouts cause flatulence and the mysterious fate of 1979’s sadly doomed but incredibly tantalising Terry’s Chocolate Lemon … Ali Catterall

Mayfair Witches

10.30pm, BBC Two

It’s a triple bill of this overripe adaptation of Anne Rice’s timeline-hopping supernatural story about a modern woman who discovers she has a witchy heritage. After her grandmother’s funeral, Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) learns she has inherited the fortune, house, feuds – and a lot more. HR

Film choice

Maestro (Bradley Cooper, 2023), Netflix

Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro.
Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro. Photograph: Jason McDonald/AP

Director, co-writer and star Bradley Cooper’s captivating follow-up to A Star Is Born is Oscars catnip – a biopic of a celebrated but conflicted male artist, suffused with pain and redemption, featuring a strong female lead. Cooper is superb as the charismatic Leonard Bernstein, one of the most celebrated American conductors and composers of his age, with Carey Mulligan his equal as his less-showy actor wife, Felicia. It is that relationship, more than his musical creations, that is the focus of this exquisitely shot film: a love story in which Bernstein’s bisexuality slowly shreds their marriage. Simon Wardell

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