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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ali Catterall, Ben Arnold, Jonathan Wright, Hannah Verdier, David Stubbs, Hannah J Davies and Phil Harrison

Friday’s best TV: Keith Richards’ Lost Weekend; Strictly Come Dancing

Uncle Pirate-Chops hijacks HMS BBC4 for three nights … Keith Richards’ Lost Weekend.
Uncle Pirate-Chops hijacks HMS BBC4 for three nights … Keith Richards’ Lost Weekend. Photograph: Jane Rose/BBC/Nitrate Films

Keith Richards’ Lost Weekend
7pm, BBC4

Ever dreamed about staying up all night with Keef? Now you can – Pro Plus or something in hand – as Uncle Pirate-Chops hijacks HMS BBC4 for three nights in this curated TV experiment. Interspersed among his throaty ruminations and jams, the handpicked goodies include old clips, cartoons, comedies and vintage movies (noirs and cult horrors such as swinging 60s occult-thriller The Sorcerers). Satisfaction guaranteed. Ali Catterall

Jamie’s Family Super Foods
8pm, Channel 4

It’s easy to be cynical about Oliver’s quest to make people healthy. Far too easy, really. But credit where it’s due, he turns up some delicious-sounding recipes here, all of which take ingredients under the “superfood” banner and bring them together into something you might consider for a midweek breakfast, lunch or dinner. Inspired by some rather lavish travelling, there’s great pasta from Sardinia and a hotpot influenced by Korean kimchi. Ben Arnold

Strictly Come Dancing
9pm, BBC1

Sparkly, sparkly, sparkly! It’s back! Joy! Or – to put that more soberly, after the phoney war ushered in by those Mission Fabulous trailers – the first episode of this weekend’s double bill will have six couples doing competitive hoofing out on the floor for the first time under the critical gazes of Len Goodman and friends. Nobody will be eliminated this week, giving us the chance to get to know Anastacia, Ed Balls, Tameka Empson, Daisy Lowe et al. Jonathan Wright

Gogglebox
9pm, Channel 4

As the eighth series starring the nation’s favourite sofa-dwelling critics begins, the trusty old TV-watching format remains as entertaining as ever. Old favourites such as Leon and June and Steph and Dom are among the viewers casting their eyes over the week’s telly. So if you haven’t made your mind up about this year’s X Factor judging panel or just want reassurance that you’re not the only family that shouts at the TV, let Craig Cash and his merry band calm you. Hannah Verdier

Aquarius
9pm, Sky Atlantic

Double bill of this strange series in which fact and fiction meld in late-60s America. Charles Manson meets the Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson, who considers the mass murderer and Beatles’ White Album misinterpreter the most “tuned-in” guy he ever met. Then David Duchovny’s Sam investigates a murder amid the violent aftermath of Martin Luther King’s assassination. But no amount of procedural can alter what we know to have been the grisly facts of history. David Stubbs

Original Sin: Sex
9pm, National Geographic

This six-part series explores our beliefs about sex and how they’ve changed over the past half-century. This week, the focus is the education – or lack thereof – that has been historically available to young people. Despite innovators such as Masters and Johnson and Mary Calderone, by the 1990s the American government had moved towards a conservative, abstinence-only stance on sex ed. Intriguing stuff, if all very US-centric. Hannah J Davies

The Lie Detective
10pm, Channel 4

Since we use algorithms to find partners, it was probably inevitable that we should end up using technology to determine the path of those relationships, too. This intriguing new series has private investigator Dan Ribacoff using his trusty polygraph machine to referee ructions between couples at various stages of relationships. There’s banality but doses of genuine sweetness, too, as players quit their games and speak from the heart. Phil Harrison

Film choice

Girl With A Pearl Earring (Peter Webber, 2003) 11.40pm, BBC1

An exquisite adaptation of Tracy Chevalier’s bestseller about the circumstances that led to Vermeer painting his masterwork of the title. Seventeenth-century Delft is re-created in images and light that seem to have leached from the Dutch master’s canvases, courtesy of Eduardo Serra’s beautiful cinematography. Scarlett Johansson is a luminous presence as Griet, the gentle kitchen maid who becomes muse to the brooding Vermeer (Colin Firth) and lusted after by his wealthy patron Van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson). Paul Howlett

Live sport

Cycling: Eneco Tour Coverage of stage five, a 20.9km team time-trial in Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. 1.30pm, Eurosport 1

Championship Football: Preston North End v Wigan Athletic Two Lancastrian strugglers meet at Deepdale (kick-off 7.45pm). 7pm, Sky Sports 1

Rugby: Bristol Rugby v Exeter Chiefs Coverage of the match from the fourth round of fixtures. 7pm, BT Sport 1

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