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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ali Catterall, Ben Arnold, David Stubbs, Jack Seale, Graeme Virtue, Hannah Verdier, Andrew Mueller

Friday’s best TV: Frankie Boyle’s New World Order; The Crystal Maze

The Crystal Maze: Celebrity Special 9pm, Channel 4
The Crystal Maze: Celebrity Special 9pm, Channel 4 Photograph: Ray Burmiston/Channel 4

Frankie Boyle’s New World Order

10pm, BBC2

Confrontational comic Frankie will be joined by regulars Katherine Ryan and Sara Pascoe plus a couple of as-yet-unnamed guests as he continues to explore, in his customarily barbed style, the bewildering election aftermath. Conversation and poetic monologues (witness Boyle’s takedown of May the other week) will revolve round the continuing nightmare that is Brexit, and whatever other horrific flashpoints spring up in between. Ali Catterall

The Secret World of Posh Pets

8pm, ITV

In the first in a new series, we meet Debi and Bob, millionaires from Kent with the 13 most spoilt dogs in the land, who roam their four-acre estate as if they own the place. Two of them, teacup chihuahua Honey and chihuahua-cross Joey, are even getting married, in a lavish ceremony costing £4000. Meanwhile, dog portrait artist Robert Clarke has a prestigious client list, and his work comes with a celebrity price tag too, at five grand a pop. Ben Arnold

Count Arthur Strong

8.30pm, BBC1

This truly excellent series plumbs new heights (or depths) of logical surrealism as Arthur invites Michael to a “soupover”. This involves pyjamas, although it takes place in the afternoon, and numerous rituals including watching VHS tapes of black-and-white horse races from yesteryear. Rory Kinnear draws on all his Royal Shakespeare Company training to do justice to the horror of it all. David Stubbs

Peter Kay’s Comedy Shuffle

9pm, BBC1

More amiable schedule-filler from various stages of Kay’s career, built this week round a chaotic interview on Irish TV, standup about schooldays (“When you were sick, they used to put sawdust down. What were all that about?”) Best of all is the Phoenix Nights finale where the club staff have to become the acts in a Stars in Your Eyes evening. Plus, a magical clip of Kay and Sian Gibson helpless with laughter in a scene from Car Share. Jack Seale

The Crystal Maze: Celebrity Special

9pm, Channel 4

Futuristic zone or not, what has been most striking about the return of the Crystal Maze is how defiantly retro it feels, with chunky props and puzzle rooms that look bodged together in a way that evokes its homemade 1990s heyday. This week, Jodie Kidd, Steve Jones, Scarlett Moffatt, David Coulthard and Joey Essex are the familiar faces running the gauntlet for charity, with prickly host Richard Ayoade spurring them on. Graeme Virtue

Mount Pleasant 9pm, Sky1

There’s something comforting about Sky 1’s pleasant dramedy, which is returning for a stand-alone finale. Sally Lindsay holds the whole thing together as Lisa, while the ensemble cast including Paula Wilcox and Samantha Womack buzz around. Now Lisa’s been offered a job in Milton Keynes, will she leave her friends and her business behind? Meanwhile, her mother-in-law Pauline is tempted to revisit the past when old rocker Callum rolls into town. Hannah Verdier

Road Hauks

9.30pm, History

Debut of a fundamentally daft but hugely enjoyable high-octane American vehicle makeover series. The conceit is that every week Pennsylvania custom carmaker Kenny Hauk and his team of mechanics attempt to rise to some or other entrancingly recherche design challenge. In tonight’s episode, to an inevitable soundtrack of heavy metal riffola, the principal project is a second world war-themed off-road vehicle boasting characteristics of a Jeep and a B-25 bomber. Andrew Mueller

Film choices

The Odessa File (Ronald Neame, 1974) 4.05pm, Film4 This adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s novel about Nazi-hunting in 1960s Berlin might not have the violent thrills of John Schlesinger’s similar Marathon Man, but is an intricate, suspenseful tale nevertheless. A hard-faced Jon Voight is the investigative journalist who infiltrates the Odessa, a gang of former SS members, while on the trail of Maximilian Schell’s war criminal.

Live sport

Speedway: European Championship 6pm, Eurosport 2 Coverage of the opening round of the campaign from Poland.

Super League Rugby 7.30pm, Sky Sports 2 Coverage of an as-yet-undecided game.

European Under-21s Championship Football; The Final 7.30pm, Sky Sports 1The winners are crowned at Marshal Jozef Pilsudski Stadium in Poland.

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