CRITIC’S CHOICE
Pick of the day
Delicious (Sky 1, 9pm)
Leo (Iain Glen) is the pivotal figure as this well-cast four-parter begins. A chef who owns a hotel-restaurant in Cornwall, he has a younger second wife, Sam (Emilia Fox), who believes he is having an affair but suspects the wrong woman. Watching the shenanigans with a cynical scowl is Leo’s ex, Gina (Dawn French), who gave the cocksure cook the recipes that made his name and was ousted by Sam.
Originally billed as “comedy drama”, Delicious has since been optimistically redefined as “event drama”, and the same uncertainty is bewilderingly evident in the opener. Initially it promises fun — a sex farce, or a gleeful tale of revenge — with the tone set by Glen’s introductory voiceover; but then the mood darkens and an unexpected development leaves it unclear what kind of series it will turn into in part two, or who will occupy its centre.
John Dugdale
What, no Posh Paws?
Noel’s Sell Or Swap (C4, 7pm)
The end of Deal or No Deal doesn’t mean Noel Edmonds is going to be idling at home: a bit of reordering at Channel 4 has placed him at the helm of this show, an auction format in which studio guests bid on items with an interesting or poignant backstory. The ghost of Multi-Coloured Swap Shop hangs over the concept, but it is unlikely 1970s kids would ever have had a stirring tale to tell about the game of Operation they were hoping to trade for a Frisbee.
National treasure
Judi Dench — All The World’s Her Stage (BBC2, 8pm)
Dame Judi is acclaimed in a tribute that despite its title shows typical bias towards the subject’s career in films, although in Dench’s case she only moved beyond occasional minor roles when she reached her sixties — starring in Mrs Brown, playing M in the Bond movies and her Oscar-winning turn in Shakespeare
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In Love. Ian McKellen, who co-starred with her in a landmark Macbeth, is a flag-waver for her theatre work, but he is heavily outnumbered by cinematic collaborators such as Samantha Bond, Billy Connolly, Daniel Craig, the director Sam Mendes and the mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Who’s a clever boy?
Britain’s Cleverest Dog (C5, 8pm)
If a documentary that opens with “We’re a nation of animal lovers” makes you glower at any passing whippet, calm down, this one contains a lot of charming pets, all of whom might even beat the average toddler at Scrabble. Border collie Gable can identify more than 150 toys by name, while Cooper the shih tzu does PR work for his “stupid” breed by showing his shape-sorting skills.
Rising, or setting suns?
The Real Marigold On Tour (BBC2, 9pm)
Guests of septuagenarian twins in a suburb of Kyoto, the quartet tonight sample the lifestyle of the elderly in a country where senior citizens tend to live longer, partly because overweight oldies in Japan are rare. That makes both the Marigold women self- conscious, and their discomfort is accentuated because their respective trademark traits — farting (Miriam Margolyes) and shouting (Rosemary Shrager) — are also frowned on. Bobby George contents himself with teaching their hostesses the phrase “lovely jubbly”, while Wayne Sleep — who has visited Japan before — adjusts best to the ethos of quietness and politeness.
John Dugdale and Victoria Segal
Radio pick of the day
World On 3 (R3, 11pm)
Live from a pub in Newcastle, which is home to the programme’s presenter (and famous fiddler) Kathryn Tickell, this promises to be a rousing end to the last weekday of the year. Punchy music will be provided by the Monster Ceilidh Band, from the Borders, and the Young’uns, from the northeast. A greater variety of music, highlights from the past 12 months, fills Friday Night Is Music Night (R2, 8pm), as Ken Bruce reflects on a year of Shakespeare, Strictly, the Queen’s ’s 90th birthday and BBC television’s 80th.
Paul Donovan
FILM CHOICE
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Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
(BBC1, 4.10pm)
Applying Toy Story’s formula to video games, this Disney cartoon, pictured, shows what pixelated characters do when not in play. The nostalgic appeal of its hero, a brute in a 1980s game, might escape children, but they will appreciate the film’s glowing cyberworlds. Dir: Rich Moore
84 Charing Cross Road (1987)
(BBC2, 12 noon)
An account of the letter-writing friendship shared through the 1950s by Frank Doel, a buyer for a London bookshop, and the New York writer Helene Hanff, this quiet film (starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft) is not a site of great drama, but its cosiness and civility make it a nice place in which to browse. Dir: David Jones
Captain America — Civil War(2016)
(Sky Cinema Premiere, 12 noon/8pm)
Although headlined by Chris Evans’s patriotic superhero, this Marvel movie is a gathering of several characters, including old regulars such as Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) and an important newcomer to the franchise, Spider-Man (Tom Holland). Its writing and directing duo, Anthony and Joe Russo, also bring ample energy and creativity to their staging of numerous hero-versus-hero conflicts.
Strictly Ballroom (1992)
(BBC4, 10.30pm)
Baz Luhrmann’s tuneful romcom about a rebellious pair of dancers (Paul Mercurio and Tara Morice) takes the mickey out of ballroom’s fake-tanned tackiness while staying true to some of the art form’s priorities: it puts on a happy show and sprinkles glitter everywhere.
Edward Porter