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

TV tonight: My Name is Leon is a beautiful story about a boy taken into care

Cole Martin in My Name Is Leon.
Longing to be reunited … Cole Martin in My Name Is Leon. Photograph: Ben Gregory-Ring/BBC/Douglas Road Productions

My Name Is Leon

9pm, BBC Two

Leon is a nine-year-old, mixed-race boy growing up in 1980s Birmingham who likes watching TV, playing with his Action Man and munching on Curly Wurly bars. He also desperately wants to be reunited with his mum and baby brother – whom he hasn’t seen since being taken into care. This moving 90-minute drama based on Kit de Waal’s novel tells his story, with newcomer Cole Martin giving a beautiful performance alongside Lenny Henry and Malachi Kirby. Hollie Richardson

Devon and Cornwall

8pm, Channel 4

Who’s for a cucamelon? Unusual fruit and veg grown near Looe are on the menu in an episode with a strong appetite for fine West Country produce. There’s also a look at the perilous process of diving for Brixham scallops. Plus, some dry-stone walling and problems on a pony farm. Jack Seale

This Is MY House

8.30pm, BBC One

Last year’s most unexpectedly brilliant reality series returns with celebrities making up ludicrous backstories to convince a panel that they own the home they’re nosying around. First up: Judi Love, Richard Madeley, Harry Hill and Harriet Kemsley claim to live in a three-bed semi in Conwy. Alexi Duggins

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? For Soccer Aid

9pm, ITV

Did Dickens write A Christmas Carol or A Christmas Linda? Eddie Izzard very much enjoys the first question in their quest to win £1m for Unicef. Then the baton is handed to Omid Djalili. HR

Frontline: Pelosi’s Power

9.10pm, PBS America

Nancy Pelosi is a polarising figure in US politics, in part because she is a powerful woman: the first and only woman to serve as speaker of the US House of Representatives. Here, journalist Michael Kirk looks at how an Italian-American girl from Baltimore amassed influence, and how she now wields it. Ellen E Jones

Avoidance

9.30pm, BBC One

Romesh Ranganathan and Kieran Logendra in Avoidance.
Conflict-shy … Romesh Ranganathan and Kieran Logendra in Avoidance. Photograph: Gary Moyes/BBC/RangaBee Productions

Can a beta male find some backbone? That’s the question Romesh Ranganathan explores in his comedy about a conflict-shy dad who struggles to accept that his partner has dumped him. He’s so scared of telling their son that he ends up kidnapping him. HR

Film choice

Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs.
A dance with the devil … Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs. Photograph: Orion Pictures/Allstar

The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991) 10.45pm, ITV
Novice FBI agent Clarice (Jodie Foster) enlists the help of jailed cannibal psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to catch Buffalo Bill, a serial killer who skins his young female victims. But what will her dance with the devil cost her? Jonathan Demme’s thriller is a terrific procedural about using a criminal to catch a criminal, but it’s also a drama obsessed with looking. Clarice is continually being stared at by men who belittle, patronise or manipulate her – Lecter’s chilling, unblinking gaze is just the most obvious – with her success coming despite this disturbing scrutiny. Simon Wardell

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