The Celebrity Traitors returns to BBC One at 8pm, promising another series of backstabbing and deception among a new cast of celebrities. The inaugural starry series provided dozens of sublime small-screen moments and made the show the hottest celebrity booking in the business.
Celebrity cast questions
Questions abound: Whom will Michael Sheen pretend to be in his latest role? How long before James Blunt gets his guitar out? Will Prof Hannah Fry prove to be too clever? And how well do Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan really know each other?
Phil Harrison previews the show, which airs at 8pm on BBC One.
Other highlights
Break Clause at 10pm on Channel 4 is a comedy built around the housing crisis. It follows Lil and Ben as their move to London goes pear-shaped. In the time it takes Ben to confess to a drunken one-night stand, the couple go from conversations about what colour bedding they'd prefer to labelled sections in the fridge. Unfortunately, they've signed a six-month tenancy, so they're stuck. It's amusing rather than uproarious, but Lara Ricote and Samuel Bottomley are sweetly bewildered leads.
Sam & Ade Go Birding at 7pm on Channel 5 attempts to approximate the magic of Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. It is rather lovely in its own right, even if the actors Sam West and Ade Edmondson lack Bob and Paul's comic chemistry. They begin in the Yorkshire Dales, where Sam drags Ade out of bed at 3am for the dawn chorus.
Long Lost Family at 9pm on ITV1 features two more tearjerking searches shepherded by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell. First comes Anita, who found a photo of a baby in her mother's wardrobe and is finally searching for the brother who was given up for adoption. Then, Ruth traces her late sister's son, who was taken into care.
More evening viewing
Taskmaster at 9pm on Channel 4 sees Richard Ayoade dominate with his disdain for the whole enterprise. However, Chloe Petts also causes problems for Alex this week by hiding something in a very awkward place indeed. Somehow, Taskmaster's formula is sturdy enough to accommodate everyone it encounters.
All Creatures Great and Small at 9pm on Channel 5 sees Siegfried work the veterinary practice flat out as he tries to "seize the advantage" from his rival Granville Bennett, while James's devotion to work leaves Dorothy feeling neglected. It's time to make amends: "Dorothy … would you consider making things between us more permanent?"
Film choices
Better Man (Michael Gracey, 2024) airs at 8.30am and 8pm on Sky Cinema Premiere. Michael Gracey's film about Robbie Williams sticks to the music biopic template of rise-fall-redemption, save for one aspect: he's portrayed as a chimp. Manifesting Take That's cheeky chappy as an ape provides a pleasingly surreal edge to the singer's lairy tale – as well as giving Williams, who narrates, the chance to be amusingly self-deprecating. A fun, vibrant and silly film, with one set-piece, Rock DJ on Regent Street in London, that's the equal of La La Land's freeway number.
The Holdovers (Alexander Payne, 2023) airs at 9pm on Film4. Alexander Payne gets back with his Sideways lead, Paul Giamatti, for a witty, bittersweet story. The actor is on fine misanthropic form as Paul Hunham, a widely disliked classics teacher at a New England boys' boarding school in 1970. He is ordered to stay on site over the Christmas holidays to supervise the children who can't go home, most problematically Dominic Sessa's smart, sardonic teenager Angus. Also stuck there is the grieving canteen manager, Mary (an Oscar-winning Da'Vine Joy Randolph). Forced into uncomfortable proximity, the three slowly eke out an understanding.
