Saturday 13 December
The X Factor, 8.30pm, ITV
And so it ends, hopefully with a bang rather than a whimper. This has been a fairly lacklustre X Factor, with Strictly stealing its thunder pretty much every week. But at least the final has probably the best three of this year’s batch of warbling wonders: cuddly Andrea (mentor: Mel), vocally superior Fleur (mentor: Simon), and nice lad Ben (Simon again). As is tradition, there will be three songs apiece, including a duet with a pop star, though surely nothing to top Beyoncé and Alexandra Burke in 2008. Concludes tomorrow. BAA
Strictly Come Dancing
6.50pm, BBC1
What initially looked like a disappointing lineup has grown into a likable bunch of hoofers with the skills to be in a Strictly semi. Jake Wood, Frankie Bridge, Caroline Flack, Simon Webbe and Mark Wright are dancing for their lives so there should be no need for Craig Revel Horwood to brandish a paddle with anything less than a seven. Two dances each, and Tess and Claudia will reveal who’s in the final in tomorrow’s results show. Snakehips Jake’s a front runner, but who’ll lift that glitterball? HV
Perry And Croft: Made In Britain
8pm, BBC2
Appropriately enough, the theme in the final documentary in the series looking at the work of Dad’s Army and It Ain’t Half Hot Mum creators Jimmy Perry and David Croft is how the duo’s writing was so often concerned with the end of an era. This meant they wrote about old ideas as these faded, and as new British identities emerged. It’s a notion replete with possibilities: Captain Mainwaring as an arch conservative yet also representing the rise of grammar school boys in the era of Heath and Wilson, anyone? JW
Atlantis
8.25pm, BBC1
If last week’s episode of the fantasy adventure series seemed dark, this may well have viewers fumbling around their smart TV remotes for the brightness setting. The Atlanteans are lost in an ancient burial ground, a perturbing environment. Luckily there’s company. Slightly less luckily, that company happens to be a menacing army of the undead. In short, circumstances that might lead to some unexpected alliances, such as the mysterious Medea offering to assist Jason. But can she really be trusted? MJ
Tomorrow’s Worlds: The Unearthly History Of Science Fiction
9.45pm, BBC2
The mind-bending ideas behind time travel make up the final episode of Dominic Sandbrook’s series. Beginning, of course, with HG Wells’s pioneering 1895 social commentary The Time Machine, it touches upon Doctor Who, Back To The Future, Groundhog Day and Looper. Grandfather paradoxes, butterfly effects and the like are discussed by talking heads including Christopher Lloyd, Neil Gaiman and theoretical physicist Dr Michio Kaku. BA
United
9pm, Drama
On 6 February 1958, the plane carrying Manchester United back from a European Cup tie crashed on a runway. The Munich air disaster left 23 dead, including eight of the Busby Babes expected to dominate the English game for years. United portrays the tragedy from the perspective of a traumatised Bobby Charlton (Jack O’Connell), closely bonded both to Duncan Edwards (Sam Claflin) and coach Jimmy Murphy (David Tennant). Chris Chibnall’s drama gets to the heart of why Busby’s team so fired the imagination. First shown in 2011. JR
The Christmas Window Live
7.30pm, Sky Arts 1
A strange idea, this, that only a cash-rich channel like Sky could really have conceived of. The notion is that we imagine a shop window as the door of a musical advent calendar – and that rather than revealing a festive scene, it instead displays performances by Pixie Lott, Lisa Stansfield and John Hurt with The Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields. Rather than 12 days of Christmas, the idea has run for 13 shows, and this is now the last in the series. Tonight’s performance comes from the British classical violinist Tasmin Little. JR
Champions Cup Rugby Union: Leinster v Harlequins
7.15pm, BT Sport 2
Another busy weekend in Europe’s premier rugby union competition, the highlights being this evening clash between the two sides leading Pool 2. Harlequins’ domestic form has been patchy at best this season, but in Europe they have been indomitable, most recently beating today’s opponents. Before that, on BT Sport 1 Leicester travel to Toulon (2.30pm), while Sky Sports 2 has coverage of Glasgow v Toulouse (12.30pm) and Saracens v Sale (5pm). GM
Sunday 14 December
Sports Personality Of The Year
8pm, BBC1
Whereas Andy Murray was so obviously the winning candidate last year they might as well not have bothered with the show and repeated the first Pirates Of The Caribbean film instead, things are more open this year, with contenders ranging from 41-year-old European championship gold-winning runner Jo Pavey to 19-year-old swimmer Adam Peaty. That said, the bookies determine it to be between Lewis Hamilton, who won the Formula One title last month, and golfer Rory McIlroy, who won two of 2014’s four majors. DS
Fern Britton Meets Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson
10am, BBC1
There’s something impressive about the way Fern Britton squeezes the most intimate answers out of her interviewees with her soft voice and trustworthy manner. This week’s subject for her faith-tinged hour of power is Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, who’s taking a look back on her glittering career in sport and talking about her role as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords. Fern tackles
her story with trademark sensitivity and fearlessness. HV
Catchphrase Christmas Special
7pm, ITV
Stephen Mulhern hosts a celebrity edition drizzled with decidedly Christmassy clues. Contenders taking the task of “say what you see” a little too literally tonight are Warwick Davis, Katie Price and Christopher Biggins, with each aiming to claim a £50,000 jackpot for their nominated charities. With panto season in full flow and an hour-long slot to be filled, one would hope for the grandest of performances from the assembled contestants. Happily, and unsurprisingly, Biggins doesn’t disappoint. MJ
Britain’s Wildest Weather 2014
7.30pm, Channel 4
The strangely turbulent weather of the past 12 months is explored in this sturdy 90-minute doc, taking in floods, tornados, hurricanes, ferocious storms, the coldest autumn in two decades and the hottest Halloween on record. There are first-hand accounts of dramatic sea rescues, houses being struck by lightning, a narrow escape from catastrophe for 500 cows and the sea threatening to engulf a bus. Experts discuss the science behind the tumult, and the likelihood of far wilder weather in the future. BA
Homeland
9pm, Channel 4
After last week’s explosive attack
on the convoy, Homeland maintains the heavy dramatic artillery this
week in an a bloody yet grimly rewarding episode – as ever, no one
is safe in this series. It’s safe to say that US-Pakistani diplomatic
relations plunge to an all-time low as Haqqani leads an attack on the embassy, with Lockhart determined to hold on to key CIA assets at all costs. Dennis Boyd’s weaseliness reaches new depths, while Carrie must rise to new heights of resourcefulness. DS
Olive Kitteridge
9pm, Sky Atlantic
Adapted from Elizabeth Strout’s novel, this miniseries starring Frances McDormand as the titular teacher airs in two double bills tonight and tomorrow. This evening’s first hour details the friendship that blossoms between Olive’s husband Henry and his new employee, while the second, set decades later, covers Olive and Henry’s son’s wedding. It is bleak, with a motif of mental disturbance threaded through the action, but Olive – tormented and tenacious, cold and gruffly kind – is a character uplifting in her complex humanity. RA
Eat: The Story Of Food
7pm, National Geographic
This history of humanity’s eating habits begins with bread. Namely, how the discovery of grain (and subsequently agriculture) turned hunter-gatherers into stay-at-home family makers; how bread became the emblem for political struggle; and how wheat has provided hipsters with many a favourite craft tipple. Episode two is Carnivores. If, as some claim, the process of cooking meat caused humans to survive longer, we’ve now reached the point where supply can barely keep up with demand. Quorn fritters all round? AJC
Premier League Football: Manchester United v Liverpool
12.30pm, Sky Sports 1
This is never not a grudge match, but in recent years the dynamic has generally been that of all-conquering overlords versus vaguely resentful fallen aristocrats. Manchester United’s ill-fated David Moyes interregnum has served to even matters up somewhat but Liverpool have still contrived to be arriving at Old Trafford looking up the table at their opponents, having followed up last season’s spirited title tilt with a return to the underachievement of yore. AM
