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

TV tonight: roll up, roll up for the Big Brother finale

AJ Oduwu on Big Brother.
Moment of truth … AJ Oduwu on Big Brother. Photograph: Shutterstock for Big Brother

Big Brother: The Final

9pm, ITV1

While it might seem as if this reboot hasn’t set the reality TV world alight, the launch show did bring in twice as many viewers as this year’s Love Island – and some of us (ahem) have been glued to the petty shopping-budget squabbles, doomed love triangles, unexpected double evictions and that divisive “salmongate” every night. Such minute social observations are what made this show so great in the first place, after all. The final contestants won’t be confirmed until the penultimate night, but favourites to win the £100,000 prize are surely sardonic Jordan, heart-of-gold Yinrun and optimist Matty. One thing is for sure: fabulous host AJ Odudu’s outfit will be killer. Hollie Richardson

Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T Rex

9pm, Sky Arts

His death in 1977 left Marc Bolan frozen in time as a youthful avatar of pure pop. However, he feels like a comparatively underexplored figure. This documentary looks to put that right, examining his work with the help of interviews with Elton John and Ringo Starr and musical reinterpretations by Nick Cave, U2, Macy Gray and others. Phil Harrison

Children in Need 2023

7pm, BBC One

Another chance to help change some young people’s lives. With hosts including Mel Giedroyc, Jason Manford and Lenny Rush, this year’s three-hour extravaganza has a MasterChef sketch, a parody of Race Across the World, and the UK’s Junior Eurovision act Stand Uniqu3 performing Back to Life. Ali Catterall

The Good Ship Murder

9pm, Channel 5

This unbelievably silly “drama” about a cruise ship singer who solves a murder mystery at every port they stop in (he used to be a murder detective, obviously) continues to be strangely fun. This time: a terminally ill businessman is killed in Sicily. HR

Breeders

10pm, Sky Comedy

In pursuit of new pals, Ally (Daisy Haggard) makes a very bad decision: to reunite with her antenatal class. Were these people even that nice or that fun 17 years ago? Paul (Martin Freeman) and Ava (Eve Prenelle) aren’t so sure, but Ally insists this was that rarest of friendship groups, one with “no arseholes”. Ominous. Ellen E Jones

Lainey Wilson performing at the 57th Annual CMA Awards on 8 November.
Lainey Wilson performing at the Country Music Awards on 8 November. Photograph: George Walker IV/Invision/AP

Country Music Awards 2023

10.35pm, BBC Four

From Nashville, here are highlights of this year’s CMAs, which took place on Wednesday. Lainey Wilson is the artist with the most nominations, and she performs along with the likes of Post Malone. NFL legend Peyton Manning and country star Luke Bryan are your hosts for the evening. HR

Film choice

Rustin (George C Wolfe, 2023), Netflix
He is somewhat forgotten in the history of the fight for Black civil rights in the US, but Bayard Rustin finally gets his moment in George C Wolfe’s terrific biopic. As played by Coleman Domingo, Rustin is an exuberant, life-of-the-party kind of guy, great at organising and rousing his volunteers after he conceives the idea of a march on Washington in 1963 – the one that culminated in his friend Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. He is also gay and a former communist, leading to tension within and without the movement. A stirring story of pluck and passion. Simon Wardell

Mafia Mamma (Catherine Hardwicke, 2023), Prime Video
Toni Collette is eminently watchable in pretty much anything she turns her hand to. This broad comedy about unappreciated American wife Kristin, who discovers she is the heir to an Italian mob operation, relies on her ability to be either pathetic or forceful as the plot dictates. Despite their murderous intent, these are not the wiseguys of The Godfather (though the characters reference the film a lot) – and the newly empowered Kristin’s perils prove to be partly of a romantic nature. SW

Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as Renfield in Chris McKay’s film Renfield
Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as Renfield in Chris McKay’s film Renfield. Photograph: Photo Credit: Michele K Short/Universal Pictures

Renfield (Chris McKay, 2023), 12.10pm, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
AKA Dracula Meets the Self-Help Movement. Actually, it’s his longtime familiar Robert Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) who is in the therapy group, one for “co-dependents”; in the opinion of the count (a reliably over-the-top Nicolas Cage), they’re merely dinner. Chris McKay’s breezy comedy ladles on the gore – dismemberment is a favourite – as Robert finally attempts to get out from under the vampire’s bloody thumb, helped by Awkwafina’s incorruptible cop, and prevent his master’s hook-up with Shohreh Aghdashloo’s mob clan. SW

Dead Man’s Shoes (Shane Meadows, 2004), 10.50pm, Film4
Recently rereleased in cinemas, Shane Meadows’s 2004 western-style revenge drama retains its cutting edge. Paddy Considine (who co-wrote) is chillingly implacable as squaddie Richard, who returns to his Derbyshire home town to seek vengeance on a local group of criminals for what they did to his brother (Toby Kebbell), who has learning disabilities. Led by Gary Stretch’s Sonny, they are an occasionally comic bunch – 2CV-driving, Pot Noodle-eating – but Meadows never loses sight of Richard’s trauma as the film gets darker and darker. SW

Live sport

International football: England v Malta, 7pm, Channel 4
A Group C Euro 2024 qualifier at Wembley Stadium.

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