MasterChef: The Professionals
8pm, BBC2
Tonight, five become four as the cook-off reaches its final stages. Marcus Wareing, Gregg Wallace and the culinary goddess that is Monica Galetti set an invention test, in which the chefs must make a meal out of meat scraps. After one hopeful is sent home, the rest must cook for 22 Michelin-starred chefs, including Michael Caines and Jocelyn Herland, preparing every bite of every course themselves. Continues on Wednesday, with the grand final on Thursday. Hannah Verdier
How the Rich Live Longer
8pm, Channel 4
It’s too easy to get blase about facts and figures relating to inequality, but it’s worth pausing to consider a key statistic behind this doc: people in the poshest areas of Britain now live 18 years longer than those in the poorest. As Dr Christian Jessen explores here, this isn’t just down to a good diet and long walks. Alongside the NHS, there’s a parallel health sector that focuses on the rich. Jessen visits an exclusive medi-spa and encounters people using their wealth to try to cheat death. Jonathan Wright
We’re Doomed! The Dad’s Army Story
9pm, BBC2
Paul Ritter stars as frustrated thesp Jimmy Perry, while Richard Dormer is David Croft, a jaded comedy producer feeling pushed out by the BBC. When Perry comes to Croft with his script for a sitcom tentatively titled The Fighting Tigers, the two men begin a battle against “the enemy within” to get it made by the BBC. The dialogue may be on the broad side, but the acting and direction are splendid. Ritter and Dormer are grippingly good, while John Sessions makes for an astonishing Arthur Lowe. Julia Raeside
Luther
9pm, BBC1
Things come to a spectacular head in the second part of this Luther special. With a villain who seems to believe he’s dead, back and wreaking vengeance on anyone who has “abandoned” him in the meantime, Luther has plenty to contend with – and that’s before you consider the price that George (Patrick Malahide) has put on his head. Entertaining stuff, with good callbacks (“Meep meep!”) to previous series. And if you thought Alice Morgan was bad for holding a grudge, wait till you meet the apparently clairvoyant Megan. John Robinson
The Children Who Beat Ebola
11pm, Channel 4
The outbreak of ebola that has raged and sputtered across west Africa for the last couple of years has killed at least 11,000 of the 28,000 or so people known to have been infected. This film introduces us to five young survivors of the virus, all of them from Sierra Leone. It is not a straightforwardly hopeful story, unfortunately – not only do the kids have to absorb the loss of less fortunate relatives who also fell ill, they have to confront the stigma that is associated with having had the disease. Andrew Mueller
American Horror Story: Hotel
10pm, FOX
Season five of the overblown gore anthology gushes on. This year, we’ve learned that Lady Gaga can very nearly act: she’s the Countess, a 100-year-old vampiric diva who’s sinfully alluring but can’t be trusted, either to maintain a romantic relationship or to put the stress on the right words in a sentence. Following last week’s wedding and subsequent evisceration of the groom, the Countess is rich. Can she live happily and quite literally ever after, or will one of her surviving enemies stab her in the heart? Jack Seale
Rent a Cop: Christmas Special
10.30pm, BBC3
BBC3 struck unexpected fly-on-the-wall gold thanks to inimitable former boxer Francis Jones, the devout, unreconstructed, self-proclaimed “local character” of Darlington and the boss of Sparta Security. In this Christmas special, office manager Rachel – to whom Francis gifted a £3,000 boob job to help rustle up customers – has to organise the annual office party. Francis, meanwhile, takes on the case of a vandal who has taken to damaging trees on a local estate, and turns to a former employee for help. Ben Arnold
Film Choice
Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom
(Steven Spielberg, 1984) 1.45pm, BBC1
Harrison Ford’s intrepid archaeologist, variously aided and hindered by companions Short Round (Ke Huy Quan) and Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw), launches into a death-defying quest for the magical Sankara stone. This helter-skelter sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark boasts some thrilling set-pieces, the best being a rattling good ride through a mine, in a coal cart. Paul Howlett
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
(Declan Lowney, 2013) 10.30pm, BBC2
Steve Coogan returns as Norfolk’s most self-deluded radio host, blagging his way on to the big screen via this very funny siege thriller. Partridge’s marriage and career are, unsurprisingly, down the drain, but when a shotgun-toting, newly sacked colleague (Colm Meaney) takes the staff of North Norfolk Digital hostage, Partridge sees the chance to make his name as a negotiator. It’s his finest, most hypocritical hour in East Anglia’s Ace in the Hole. PH
The Third Man
(Carol Reed, 1949) 11pm, BBC4
Carol Reed’s classic thriller, born out of an elite collaboration with Graham Greene and Orson Welles. The scene is postwar Vienna, shadowy and bare in Robert Krasker’s Oscar-winning monochrome photography, with Anton Karas’s zither music in the air. Welles’s black marketeer Harry Lime is a marvellously cynical flourish, Joseph Cotten his loyal old pal. PH
Today’s best live sport
T20 Cricket: Hobart Hurricanes v Brisbane Heat
Coverage from the Bellerive Oval. 8am, Sky Sports 1
Darts: The World Championship
More arrows from Alexandra Palace. 7pm, Sky Sports 1
Under-21 Premier League: Manchester United v Manchester City
A junior Manchester derby. 7.30pm, BT Sport 1
Basketball: New Mexico Lobos v Auburn Tigers
Coverage of the NCAA match from Honolulu, Hawaii. 7.30pm, BT Sport 2
