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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Gwilym Mumford, Graeme Virtue, Jonathan Wright, Ali Catterall and Paul Howlett

Friday’s best TV: The 2000s; Stand Up to Cancer 2018

The 2000s ... including The Sopranos.
The 2000s ... including The Sopranos. Photograph: Fremantle Media

The 2000s
9pm, Sky Arts

Do we really need an eight-part pop history of the 2000s, a decade that feels as if it ended last week? Apparently so, although at least this Tom Hanks-produced CNN series, which has previously covered every decade from the 60s onwards, has proved itself a consummate teller of such tales, albeit with an overly American focus. As with previous outings, we begin with a look at the television of the decade, encompassing “platinum-age shows” such as The Sopranos and Breaking Bad as well as the rather less celebrated rise of reality TV. Gwilym Mumford

Stand Up to Cancer 2018
7pm, Channel 4

The charity telethon returns for a fourth star-stuffed outing. Expect appearances from the Muppets, Matthew McConaughey, Sharon Horgan and the sainted Gareth Southgate, a live rant from Liam Gallagher (after the watershed, naturally), plus that annual SU2C highlight, Celebrity Gogglebox. GM

The Great Model Railway Challenge
8pm, Channel 5

The series that tasks teams of model railway buffs with executing an intricate diorama in just three days continues. Will the old-school Fawley Fliers outshine the Diesel Dynamos, or can the youthful Railway Children (also teased as “the toddler modellers”) pull off a surprise choo-choo coup? Graeme Virtue

Made in Great Britain
9pm, BBC Two

In a new living history series, four craftspeople see how things used to be done when Britain was a manufacturing powerhouse. First up: Sheffield steel products. Fascinating and, notably when we see vats of acid used in silver-plating, sometimes just a bit industrial-accident-waiting-to-happen scary. Jonathan Wright

The Mash Report
10pm, BBC Two

For those moments when you feel yourself growing a new bile duct while flicking between Twitter and Question Time, here’s something of a palliative. Nish Kumar and his correspondents are back with a new series, taking apart the week’s fresh outrages with a pneumatic drill and a smile. Ali Catterall

David Bowie at Glastonbury 2000
10.55pm, BBC Four

Considered by Emily Eavis as the finest performance seen at Glasto, Bowie’s 2000 Sunday night headline set was only broadcast in part by the BBC at the time. Here, they correct that injustice, with an hour of footage that features some of the songs they skipped, including Starman and Ashes to Ashes. GM

Film choice

Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman.
Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman. Photograph: Clay Enos/Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock

Wonder Woman 11.45am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Superheroes
There was much debate about her feminist credentials, but it is exhilarating to see Gal Gadot’s warrior princess knocking the lights out of a battalion of enemy first world war soldiers in Patty Jenkins’s subversive superhero story. Like Chris Pine’s amazed pilot-cum-spy, we can only watch in awe. Paul Howlett

Today’s best live sport

Tennis: WTA finals 8.45am, BT Sport 1 The season-ending event from Singapore reaches day six.

Championship football: Queens Park Rangers v Aston Villa 7pm, Sky Sports Main Event Dean Smith and John Terry’s first game in charge of Villa takes them to Loftus Road, west London.

Cycling: Six Day London 8pm, Eurosport 1 Day four action from Lee Valley.

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