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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Alexi Duggins, Jack Seale, Phil Harrison, Graeme Virtue and Stuart Heritage

TV tonight: another juicy Agatha Christie whodunnit needs solving

Penelope Wilton as Miss Pinkerton and David Jonsson as Luke Fitzwilliam in Murder Is Easy
An unlikely paire of sleuths … Penelope Wilton as Miss Pinkerton and David Jonsson as Luke Fitzwilliam in Murder Is Easy. Photograph: Mark Mainz/BBC/Mammoth Screen/Anne Binckebanck

Agatha Christie’s Murder Is Easy

9pm, BBC One

The latest snazzy Agatha Christie adaptation is a two-parter that boasts an impressive cast, with David Jonsson taking the lead as Luke Fitzwilliam – a young man forging a career in Whitehall, who gets sucked into a whodunnit when he learns a killer is on the loose in a sleepy English village. Mark Bonnar, Tamzin Outhwaite and Douglas Henshall also star. Hollie Richardson

The Repair Shop

8pm, BBC One

The main draw in this week’s visit to the shop is music producer the Mad Professor, who brings in the FX machine he used to create dub’s distinctive sound, to see if Jay Blades and co can bring it back to life for the first time since 1984. They’ve had the King, now they’ve got the king of dub … Alexi Duggins

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

8pm, BBC Four

Prof Mike Wooldridge assesses how scared or impressed we ought to be by artificial intelligence. Among the uses for the new tech showcased by Wooldridge are its contributions to healthcare, both in planning treatments and creating new drugs. The audience also get involved in a live demo: creating AI art. Jack Seale

Nolly

9pm, ITV1

Helena Bonham Carter as Noele Gordon in Nolly
The first Noele … Helena Bonham Carter in Nolly. Photograph: ITVX

Here is a chance to catch up with Russell T Davies’s serial – a funny, poignant, perceptive treat. Helena Bonham Carter stars as Noele Gordon, the matriarch of rickety but popular soap Crossroads. In 1981, at the height of her fame, her character Meg Mortimer was axed. But where did the line separating Meg from Nolly end? Phil Harrison

Imagine … French & Saunders: Pointed, Bitchy, Bitter

10.30pm, BBC One

Alan Yentob is no stranger to the Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders treatment – his “free-running” cameo sketch is a classic. Here, they talk him through their double act career, from “completely leftfield” beginnings in Soho to becoming two of the most beloved comedians on telly. HR

The Lazarus Project

12.30am, Sky Max

This homegrown sci-fi head-wrecker has staged a terrific second season about competing time-travel technologies, always action-packed but emotionally wrenching and bitingly funny. This week’s concluding double bill sees wayward agents George (Paapa Essiedu) and Sarah (Charly Clive) infiltrate Lazarus HQ to initiate a Code Black time reset. Graeme Virtue

Film choices

Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939), 8.45am, Channel 5

Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind
Ever popular … Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind. Photograph: Mgm/Sportsphoto/Allstar

It’s worth getting up early to watch this, the most popular film ever made. When adjusted for inflation, Gone With the Wind has made more than $3bn globally, which isn’t bad going for a movie about a frustratingly annoying woman and her uncomfortably happy slaves. Lots of films have aged better, but this is still a very important one. Stuart Heritage

Spirit Untamed, 11.40am, BBC One
DreamWorks’s Spirit franchise, about a wild and noble horse that finds itself caught up in the American Indian wars, has proved unusually durable. Following the first instalment, Stallion of the Cimarron, in 2002, the horse has inspired four separate multi-season TV shows, two television specials and now this movie sequel. Whether you’ll like it or not depends on your tolerance for cartoon horses, of course. SH

Live sport

Premier league football: Brentford v Wolves, 7.30pm, Prime Video Also, Chelsea v Crystal Palace and Everton v Man City.

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