John Noakes: TV Hero
5.30pm, BBC Two
Yorkshire daredevil John Noakes – who died in May – is an impossibly resonant figure for British telly addicts of a certain age. Presenting Blue Peter during its 70s heyday, he was the show’s health and safety-defying maverick, plunging down the Cresta Run, achieving a record-breaking freefall and climbing Nelson’s Column. This doc speaks to friends, family and work colleagues as it celebrates the West Riding Johnny Knoxville. Phil Harrison
Strictly Come Dancing
6.45pm, BBC One
Christmas can’t truly begin until the Strictly celebrities have hoofed their last dance and they’re warming up with the semi-final. The five remaining dancers: Alexandra Burke, Gemma Atkinson, Debbie McGee, Joe McFadden and Mollie King must perform two numbers each before the public vote for who’ll get those precious places in the final. By now the standard is ridiculously high, but it’s McGee who’s the standout. Hannah Verdier
Michael McIntyre’s Big Show
8.20pm, BBC One
Chortling boob McIntyre is joined this week by former Saturday Rochelle Humes and her fella, Marvin. They hand over their phones for the weekly Send to All skit, while Jason Manford turns in a quick snippet of standup and another man, coincidentally also called Marvin – this one’s a horse trainer – becomes the “unexpected star of the show”, a hidden camera palaver worthy of Noel Edmonds’s heyday. Make of that what you will. Ben Arnold
Witnesses: A Frozen Death
9pm, BBC Four
“It’s absolute carnage all around me,” says Sandra. She’s not kidding. By colluding with Catherine in taking Martin Souriau prisoner, she’s gone so far past maverick that she’s beyond any known rating on the not-doing-it-by-the-book scale. Which, providing you can suspend disbelief, makes this French thriller absolutely riveting viewing as, rather than cop Sandra closing in on the killer, the killer closes in on her. Jonathan Wright
NCIS: New Orleans
10.25pm, Channel 5
In what seems to be more than a disagreement over a sloppy mooring knot at the marina, a murdered captain is discovered aboard a yacht, while a waiter is found with his throat cut. When investigations show the vessel is under the ownership of a notorious cartel kingpin, there doesn’t seem to be much to stretch the resources of the NCIS team. That’s until Pride discovers a dangerous undercurrent to the entire affair. Mark Gibbings-Jones
Peter Blake: Pop Art Life
9pm, Sky Arts
You might as well watch this profile of the Sgt Pepper sleeve creator with the sound off: the contributors struggle to articulate what’s good about Blake’s work beyond it being “iconic”, with famous collaborators such as Noel Gallagher and Suggs the least insightful, and Blake himself offering mostly mild anecdote. Perhaps his talent for instinctively assembling the coolest image at the perfect time naturally resists analysis. Jack Seale
The White Princess
9pm, Drama
This TV adaptation has done an interesting job of making the reign of Henry VII – in most textbooks, a period of bureaucratic refurbishment – seem like a tumult of delirious and paranoid sexual powerplays. That’s partly thanks to the magic of original novelist Philippa Gregory and the post-Thrones landscape, of course. Tonight’s finale provides a satisfying trap of curses and impossible decisions. As we know, no one gets out of dynastic drama unscathed. John Robinson
TV films
The Amazing Spider-Man, (Marc Webb, 2012), 7.10pm, ITV2
It seemed a tad premature to reboot Spidey so soon after the Tobey Maguire trilogy, but Marc Webb’s movie is altogether more fun. Andrew Garfield is a cooler – well, slightly less nerdy – Peter Parker, who gains his powers via the experiments of his scientist father (Campbell Scott). Unfortunately, so does the hugely menacing villain, Rhys Ifans’s Dr Curt Connors, AKA the Lizard. The likes of Martin Sheen and Sally Field provide some character. Paul Howlett
Apocalypse Now, (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979), 9pm, TCM
Coppola’s extraordinary vision of America’s Vietnam experience has Martin Sheen’s burnt-out army assassin sent up river to terminate renegade Colonel Kurtz. The quest begins as a seductive portrait of what Michael Herr called the first rock’n’roll war, with the Stones, Hendrix and the Doors blaring against the machine guns; Robert Duvall’s helicopters cruising into battle with Wagner’s Valkyries shrieking. And it grows ever more nightmarish, with the shadowy bulk of Marlon Brando’s Kurtz looming over all. Paul Howlett
The Cider House Rules, (Lasse Hallström, 1999), 11.15pm, BBC Two
Hallström’s humanistic world view is a fine match for John Irving’s novel about a young man’s search for his destiny. Tobey Maguire is Homer Wells, an orphan taken in by a decent New England doctor (Michael Caine). The boy is enveloped in kindness, but when he grows up, he heads off on a voyage of self-discovery in the hard real world. Paul Howlett
Live sport
Premier League Football: West Ham United v Chelsea A tough game for beleaguered West Ham at home. 11am, Sky Sports Main Event
European Challenge Cup Rugby: Newcastle Falcons v Bordeaux Bègles A Pool One tie at Kingston Park. 3pm, BT Sport 2
IBF Boxing: James DeGale v Caleb Truax The super middleweight title fight at Copper Box Arena in east London. 7.45pm, BT Sport 1
