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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Andrew Mueller, Jack Seale, David Stubbs, Graeme Virtue, Ali Catterall, Phil Harrison, Jonathan Wright, Paul Howlett

Friday’s best TV: Unreported World, TFI Friday, Gordonstoun: A Different Class, Burt Bacharach: A Life in Song

The disturbing phenomenon of Brazil’s child preachers in Unreported World.
The disturbing phenomenon of Brazil’s child preachers in Unreported World.

Unreported World
7.30pm, Channel 4

This may appear, initially, a merely diverting study of religious mania: the child preachers who have become a phenomenon in Brazil, credited by the credulous with the ability to heal the sick and perform other miracles. Yet, as this film shows, there is a more worrisome story at play: the growing popularity and influence of a hardcore evangelical movement. Andrew Mueller

TFI Friday
8pm, Channel 4

Another edition of the hardly necessary revival. Were the games and stunts always as free-flowing and creative as compulsory charades at an office party, or have we all just moved on and up since TFI’s imperial phase 20 years ago? Certainly, it doesn’t help that an older, marginally wiser Chris Evans no longer has that manic energy that used to suggest something unspeakable might be broadcast at any moment. Joining in with the limited fun this week are Ellie Goulding, the Vamps, James Lawson and Wolf Alice. Jack Seale

Gordonstoun: A Different Class
8pm, Sky1

You see what they’ve done with that title. Gordonstoun, where Princes Philip and Charles spent their schooldays, is not merely there to educate an aristocratic elite, but to provide top-notch schooling to a slightly broader range of pupils than you would expect. It’s pretty hothouse stuff. This week, scholarship candidates try to win one of Gordonstoun’s 20 funded places, while the detentions mount for disobedient Valerie. Meanwhile, two Year 12 students vie for a place on the school’s mountain rescue squad. David Stubbs

Citizen Khan
8.30pm, BBC1

Bumbling, bumptious Mr Khan adds entrepreneurial restaurateur to his CV by opening a fried chicken shop. There’s just one problem: he’s dipped deep into the Khan pension fund to pay for the finger-licking franchise, so has to keep it a secret from his wife, even as he recruits family and friends as staff. Will Mrs Khan’s new obsession with tango help him dance around the subject? Adil Ray’s broad Brummie sitcom continues, with Ronni Ancona guest-starring as an amorous fast-food-fryer with designs on Amjad. Graeme Virtue

Burt Bacharach: A Life in Song
9pm, BBC4

The likes of Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Joss Stone and the Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward pay tribute to the celebrated songwriter and performer in this special concert from London’s Royal Festival Hall. In between the numbers, the man himself chats about his life and work to Michael Grade, whose ever-present catchphrase, “I think it’s time for another song”, heralds another challenging cover afresh, from a lovely Walk on By from Rebecca Ferguson to a scintillating A House Is Not a Home by Shaun Escoffery. Ali Catterall

Artsnight – Kwasi Kwarteng
11pm, BBC2

Kwasi Kwarteng is one of those Tories (see also Michael Portillo) whose intellectual hinterland is rather more appealing than his politics. In 2011, he wrote a book about the legacy of the British empire, and he returns to the subject in this edition of the arts strand, meeting novelist Peter Carey to discuss the writer’s interest in colonial life. He also visits Tate Britain’s Artist and Empire exhibition, and talks to Shazia Mirza about the importance of fabric and clothing in the history of India. Phil Harrison

The Returned
10pm, More4

Series two of the French supernatural thriller reaches its penultimate episode and you would have to be brave indeed to suggest you know exactly what’s going on. No matter, The Returned has always been about the atmospherics and this is a show that grows increasingly creepy as it goes along. Tonight, the military has found a way to lower the water level, Lucy and the Horde are on the move once again, and Julie heads off in search of Victor – a somewhat unwise move as things turn out. Jonathan Wright

Film choice

13 Sins (Daniel Stamm, 2014) 8am, 12.30am, Sky Movies Premiere

Stamm’s remake of the Thai thriller 13 Beloved is a queasily funny, disturbingly dark tale of a decent man yielding to the temptation to be very, very bad. Mark Webber is highly convincing as salesman Elliot Brindle, who is sacked, broke and about to marry his sweetheart Shelby (Rutina Wesley); then an anonymous voice on the phone offers him shedloads of money if he fulfils 13 increasingly grisly challenges. Paul Howlett

Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009) 11.35pm, BBC2

Sam Rockwell’s mining engineer is at the end of his lonely three-year vigil on the dark side of the moon with only computer Gerty (smoothly voiced by Kevin Spacey) for company, but the arrival of what appears to be another human has him questioning reality. There are shades of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris in Jones’s impressive debut. PH

Today’s best live sport

Davis Cup Tennis: Belgium v Great Britain Day one of the final, which features Great Britain for the first time since 1978. 12.15pm, BBC2

International T20 Cricket: Pakistan v England Second T20 match between the sides. 3.30pm, Sky Sports 2

Motor Racing: World Touring Car Championship Qatar hosts the final round of the season. 6.30pm, British Eurosport

Aviva Premiership Rugby: Northampton v Gloucester Top-flight action. 7pm, BT Sport 1

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