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The Guardian - UK

Entertainment

Andrew Mueller, Ali Catterall, Hannah J Davies, David Stubbs

Friday’s best TV

Nelson In His Own Words — Horatio Nelson (Jon Slinger) at Holkham Beach. Photograph: Oxford Scientific Films/Tim Cragg/BBC

Crufts 2015
7.30pm, Channel 4

The world’s largest dog show returns to the Birmingham NEC for another year of obedience, agility and enough legitimate use of the word “bitch” to make Jesse Pinkman’s head spin. Clare Balding presents highlights from day two including the latest action from the agility and flyball competitions, along with an interview with the winning owner of Scruffts 2015. Commentary comes from Peter Purves, while Iwan Thomas reports on the other events making up this canine answer to Glastonbury. Mark Jones

Flintoff: Lord Of The Fries
8pm, Sky1

Before Andrew Flintoff’s cricket career unexpectedly spluttered back to life last summer, this was where he was at. Traversing the UK in a chip van at the behest of Sky, doing that lovable lunkhead thing of his and hoping it might somehow coalesce into a sustainable career. This week’s leg of his grand tour sees him taking his green van to Scotland. Expect no cliche to go unmolested; it will be surprising if Freddie doesn’t have a go at caber-tossing, and staggering if a Mars Bar doesn’t find its way into his fryer at some point. Phil Harrison

Nelson In His Own Words
9pm, BBC2

Admiral Horatio Nelson’s naval exploits would have been sufficient to earn him that plinth in Trafalgar Square, but part of his claim on immortality was his ability as a wordsmith. It’s Nelson the headlines cite every time they declare “England Expects” before a World Cup. This film quotes Nelson’s writings in recalling his triumphs, interspersing his words with the perspectives of historians. Vexingly, the temptation to insert reconstructions is unresisted, but they’re not too bad or too frequent. Andrew Mueller

Boy George And Culture Club: Karma To Calamity
9pm, BBC4

“I’m here to work, not make friends.” A pleasingly waspish Boy George there, in Mike Nicholls’s entertaining doc shadowing a re-formed Culture Club as they rehearse for a 2014 tour. If equal camera time is afforded to all four, it’s the “Queen Bee”, predictably, who leaves the lasting impression amid some Let It Be-style bickering. Mostly, though, there’s a sense of hard-won patience after all those acrimonious years. As George notes wearily on being in a band: “Democracy is so hard.” Ali Catterall

30 Degrees In February
9pm, Sky Arts 1

The series in which a group of Swedes try to warm their existentially cold bones by adopting a new life in Thailand continues to entertain in a manner that we’re unaccustomed to from recent Scandinavian drama. Tonight, Happiness Bungalows opens for business and Majlis and her husband quarrel over their future in the country. Meanwhile, in a perhaps more predictable development, Glenn’s relationship blossoms with Oh, unaware that Oh is a ladyboy. More Bergman than Benidorm. David Stubbs

First Dates
10pm, Channel 4

Thanks to the likes of Tinder and Happn, blind dating sounds about as current as shoulder pads and Betamax, but this third series of first encounters proves that there’s life in the old mating ritual yet. Former jockey Scott is keen to settle down with the perfect woman, but will the chemistry with fireworks expert Natasha prove explosive? Also paired up are long-term singletons Tim and Jenny, Sav and Cat – whose meeting is buttock-clenchingly awkward – plus cheesy joke fans Kate and Liam, and two very flirtatious dancers. Hannah J Davies

Artsnight
11pm, BBC2

A new series with an opening episode curated by Bolton-born actor Maxine Peake, who looks to celebrate voices marginalised by a mainstream culture increasingly dominated at all levels by the white, southern and upper class. Tonight, she talks to Nottingham electro-punkers Sleaford Mods, discusses the role of women in modern television with an all-female panel that includes Jessica Hynes, and looks at the life, career and legacy of the Salford playwright Shelagh Delaney, who wrote A Taste Of Honey aged just 18. David Stubbs