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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Phil Harrison, Hollie Richardson, Graeme Virtue and Andrew Pulver

TV tonight: the excellent Nicola Walker stars in a new series of Annika

Emotional baggage … Nicola Walker as Annika Strandhed in Annika.
Emotional baggage … Nicola Walker as Annika Strandhed in Annika. Photograph: Graeme Hunter/Graeme Hunter Pictures

Annika

9pm, Alibi

A new series of the cop drama elevated by the excellent Nicola Walker as Annika Strandhed, a wry homicide detective (from Norway but working in Scotland) who is juggling the job with the standard-issue tricky private life and is prone to breaking the fourth wall to share her feelings directly. This week, a phone containing murder evidence is handed in. But the phone has changed hands too many times to make the case straightforward. Phil Harrison

Kate Garraway’s Life Stories

9pm, ITV1

Garraway speaks with “fun, fearless and anarchic” Ruby Wax this week (although her own daughters prefer to describe her as “small, inquisitive and disturbed”). Wax’s difficult childhood, interviews with Donald Trump and OJ Simpson, and interest in psychology are among the topics. Hollie Richardson

Britain’s Most Expensive Houses

9pm, Channel 4

The series that shadows agents from Sotheby’s International Realty gives a peek inside covetable piles. This week’s instalment features a super-villain lair in rural Cheshire but also asks viewers to use their imaginations in Hampstead while surveying a pile of rubble (albeit with a lovely view). Graeme Virtue

Killer Storm: The Fastnet Disaster

9pm, Channel 5

A documentary exploring the catastrophic Fastnet yacht race of August 1979. The competition can be risky but no one was prepared for hurricane-force winds, 60ft waves and, eventually, multiple fatalities and a rescue operation involving 4,000 people. An insight into a tragedy that had a lasting impact on maritime safety. PH

Rob and Romesh vs Classical Music

9pm, Sky Max

Passing the baton … Rob and Romesh vs Classical Music.
Passing the baton … Rob and Romesh vs Classical Music. Photograph: Photographer: Adam Lawrence/Sky

The concluding part of Beckett and Ranganathan’s banter-strewn jaunt through various professions sees them joining the London Philharmonic Orchestra onstage at the Royal Festival Hall. Can conductors be made out of this pair of classical philistines? PH

Sally Wainwright: This Cultural Life

10pm, BBC Four

Where did Happy Valley come from? This instalment of the series looking at the inspiration of creative people focuses on Sally Wainwright, who earned her spurs writing for soaps. But as for formative influences, look no further than 1970s musical drama Rock Follies. PH

Film choice

The Amazing Mr Blunden (Lionel Jeffries, 1972), 7am, 4.40am, Sky Cinema Greats

Diana Dors (right) and Madeline Smith in The Amazing Mr Blunden
Wicked lady: Diana Dors (right) and Madeline Smith in The Amazing Mr Blunden. Photograph: Hemisphere Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

One of the great cult ghost stories of early-70s British cinema, this is well worth seeking out. A fatherless family in Edwardian England is relocated to a remote rural locale, there to experience potentially traumatising events (rescuing time-travelling murder victims rather than stopping a train crash). It even has a counterpart for Jenny Agutter’s threshold-of-adulthood Bobbie in the shape of Lynne Frederick’s Lucy who, like Bobbie, is the film’s emotional core. And Diana Dors has one of her best late film roles, as vicious housekeeper Mrs Wickens. Andrew Pulver

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