Sports Personality of the Year 2017
6.45pm, BBC One
SPOTY used to be an annual TV highlight, back when it was a recap of actual footage rather than the meddlesome mess of graphics, spoken-word doggerel and laboured comedy bits it is today. Hard to predict a winner; might Mo Farah finally get the nod? Or Anthony Joshua for his epic defeat of Wladimir Klitschko? Is Adam Peaty high-profile enough to take the award? It’s presented by Logan, Lineker and Balding from Liverpool’s Echo Arena. David Stubbs
Coastal Railways with Julie Walters
8pm, Channel 4
National treasure, rugged coastline, nostalgic mode of transport: this feels like something created by a basic commissioning algorithm. But before you can say “Joanna Lumley’s Paddlesteamer Vacation”, Walters has explained her mission (picturesque railway journeys; cute social history) and charmed the locals. Tonight’s trip to Liverpool takes in Tywyn in mid Wales, the inspiration for Thomas the Tank Engine, and Europe’s fastest zipwire. John Robinson
The Apprentice
9pm, BBC One
It hasn’t been a vintage year for Lord Sugar and friends, but there are definitely worse ways to spend a Sunday night than watching this year’s final. With consistent candidates Michaela, Elizabeth and Joanna all sent packing following last week’s interviews, James and Sarah are an unexpected final two. The final hurdle for the pair means, as per, showing city bigwigs the potential of their business plans, as their former rivals return to lend a hand. Hannah J Davies
The Alternativity
9pm, BBC Two
Earlier this year, street artist Banksy opened an art hotel in the shadow of an Israeli military checkpoint in Bethlehem. Now the car park of The Walled Off Hotel – he calls it “the least Christmassy place on Earth” despite it being around the corner from the alleged actual birthplace of Christ – is playing host to a nativity play unlike any other. This documentary tells that story, with a little help from Oscar-winning director and London 2012 maestro, Danny Boyle.
Ellen E Jones
Agatha Christie’s Crooked House
9pm, Channel 5
“What’s wrong with people in this house?” Max Irons’s detective asks Glenn Close’s Aunt Edith. “It is a hothouse of suppressed passion,” she returns. The stellar cast (Gillian Anderson, Christina Hendricks, Terence Stamp) do an entertaining job and the finale is surprisingly gripping, but it’s impossible to adapt Christie without an element of murder-mystery-weekend camp, and Julian Fellowes’s screenplay ups the hamminess even more. Sophie Harris
Babylon Berlin
9pm, Sky Atlantic
The German drama reaches the end of series two and, to Rath and Benda, it’s increasingly clear that members of the German establishment don’t much care for the Weimar republic but hanker after old certainties. Meantime, plucky Lotte’s playing at being detective has landed her locked in a freezer. This chilliness apart, it has been a sometime fever dream of a series, which has worked best when it’s taken risks rather than settled for premium middlebrow tastefulness.
Jonathan Wright
Whales of the Deep
6pm, Nat Geo Wild
If the end of the superlative Blue Planet II has left a chasm the depth of the Mariana Trench in your life, then this pioneering journey into the deep might help. Using tags attached to deep-diving creatures, along with cameras sent to follow them and 3D scanning images, a dramatic snapshot of some of the deepest places on the planet is delivered, along with insights into the astonishing adaptations needed to live at these extremes. Ben Arnold
Film choice
Love is Strange (Ira Sachs, 2014) Sunday, 11.15pm, Film4
Sachs’s warm tale of Manhattan folk centres on the 39-year relationship of John Lithgow’s seventysomething artist Ben and Alfred Molina’s George – who, just after their wedding, is fired by the Catholic school where he was a music teacher. Suddenly impoverished, the pair have to quit their apartment and temporarily live apart with friends and relatives. It is full of heartache, tenderness and shafts of humour, and beautifully rendered by Sachs and his leads. Paul Howlett
Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, 1999) 2.50pm, BBC One
Part two of the great animated trilogy. The story of astronaut Buzz Lightyear’s heroic rescue of Woody the cowboy from an unscrupulous collector is an inspired blend of high excitement, matchless animation effects, touching relationships and another hilarious script that makes great fun of blockbusters such as Star Wars and Jurassic Park. PH
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013) 7.15pm, ITV2
There are no aliens in Alfonso Cuarón’s riveting space thriller, but Sandra Bullock’s Ryan Stone turns out to be as dauntless a heroine as Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. Their orbiting spacecraft wrecked by flying debris, the task for Stone and veteran astronaut Kowalski (George Clooney) is simply to get home alive – and it’s an utterly thrilling, gut-wrenchingly suspenseful ride, which was presented in cinemas in peerless 3D. PH
Live sport
Premier League Football: West Bromwich Albion v Manchester United
With Bournemouth v Liverpool to follow. 1.30pm, Sky Sports Main Event
European Champions Cup Rugby: Clermont Auvergne v Saracens From Stade Marcel-Michelin. 3pm, BT Sport 2
Ashes Cricket: Australia v England The final day in Perth. 2am, BT Sport 1
