Nigella’s Christmas Table
8pm, BBC Two
All I want for Christmas is an invitation to spend the day at Nigella’s house for dinner. But this seasonal special is as close as we’re going to get. For those on Twitter who have been ridiculing this series’ basic recipes, Nigella’s festive feast kicks it up a notch, with instructions on preparing roast duck with orange, soy and ginger, parmesan mashed potato gratin and chocolate pistachio meringue cookies. Ellen E Jones
The Real Marigold on Tour
9pm, BBC One
Second episode of the series of a travelogue with, for once, an interesting premise – a team of presenters of distinguished vintage travel the world contemplating what retirement might be like elsewhere. Tonight’s visit to Cuba sups heartily of the country’s cliches but does offer up interesting insights when addressing its remit about late-life expectations. Andrew Mueller
Bancroft
9pm, ITV
Sarah Parish has a lot of weight to carry in ITV’s answer to Line of Duty: she’s a high-flying but brittle cop bringing down crime rings and in line for a big promotion. Bancroft hovers between grit and trash; tonight’s ending confirms that at heart it’s the latter. It continues all week, but – spoiler – isn’t quite worth sticking with. Jack Seale
The Art That Made Mexico: Paradise, Power and Prayers
9pm, BBC Four
Part two of artist Alinka Echeverria’s history of Mexican art sees her dissecting epic, storytelling murals. In her home town of Mexico City, notable examples document the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors who violently subjugated the indigenous people. In the presidential palace, the vast masterpiece by Diego Rivera covers thousands of years of Mexican history. Ben Arnold
Exposure: White Right – Meeting the Enemy
10.40pm, ITV
Emmy award-winning film-maker Deeyah Khan plunges into the paranoid world of white supremacy and neo-nazism, meeting white nationalists face to face and attending a large and violent far-right rally. An entirely worthwhile film and – given that Khan has received death threats in the past – a brave one, too. Phil Harrison
The Walking Dead
9pm, Fox
Every day they’re shuffling: season eight of the ripening zombie hit has been slowly building toward an ultimate confrontation with big, bad biker Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a man who loves the sound of his own voice almost as much as his cruelly customised baseball bat Lucille. Tonight’s mid-season finale takes an even bigger swing than usual with a special extended episode rumoured to include the death of a longstanding member of Rick’s traumatised gang. Graeme Virtue
The West
9.10pm, PBS America
A slice of incredibly timely American history in the shape of this renowned Ken Burns documentary series. Burns was the man behind the recent, stunning series The Vietnam war and, as executive producer, he oversees this US origin story in the same meticulous, exhaustive fashion. How was modern America born? What ideas underpinned it? And what lessons do the nation’s founders have for the bigots, nativists, opportunists and fakers currently running the show? Phil Harrison
TV films
Life (Daniel Espinosa, 2017) Monday, 11.20am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
These astronauts orbiting Earth clearly haven’t seen Alien, or they would never have intercepted the Mars research pod and examined its contents. Within is a tiny alien organism that starts to grow, developing tentacles and a ravenous appetite for the crew. Space-movie borrowings notwithstanding (and Alien is only the most obvious), Jake Gyllenhaal’s world-weary medic and Rebecca Ferguson’s safety officer-cum-Ripley-wannabe lead the fight for survival in a ferocious sci-fi thriller.
Anastasia (Anatole Litvak, 1956) Monday, 4.15pm, Film4
Ingrid Bergman won a second Oscar here, to set alongside her Gaslight gong. She is both proud and vulnerable as the beautiful refugee Ana, who in 1928 Paris is coached by crafty White Russian General Bounine (Yul Brynner) to pass herself off as the surviving daughter of the executed tsar in order to claim a huge inheritance. Or is she, in fact, the Romanov grand duchess? Arthur Laurents’s witty script, adapted from Marcelle Maurette’s play, adopts a near-Stalinist approach to rewriting history and keeps us guessing to the end.
Salt (Phillip Noyce, 2010) 9pm, Film4
Tom Cruise was originally lined up to star in this fast, far-fetched spy action thriller, but his Edwin Salt became Evelyn when Angelina Jolie took over. And a fine, slinky job she makes of it: all hi-tech spycraft and martial-arts ninja trickery as she works the Jason Bourne route of battling Russian baddies while fleeing her own CIA bosses, all done with great verve and humour.
Live sport
Championship Football: Reading v Cardiff City 7.30pm, Sky Sports Main Event. High-flying Cardiff visit the Madejski stadium.
Test Cricket: New Zealand v West Indies 9.55pm, Sky Sports Cricket. The fourth day of the second Test from Seddon Park in Hamilton.
NBA: Houston Rockets v New Orleans Pelicans 1am, BT Sport 1. The Western Conference Southwest Division clash at Toyota Centre.
