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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Phil Harrison, Hannah Verdier, Jack Seale, Graeme Virtue and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: a Native American cop investigates double murder

Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) looks out a car window in Dark Winds
Diligent … Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) in Dark Winds. Photograph: Michael Moriatis/Stalwart Productions/AMC/2021 Stalwart Productions

Dark Winds

9pm, Alibi

A weatherbeaten crime drama set in Gallup, New Mexico. Zahn McClarnon stars as Joe Leaphorn, a diligent, slightly melancholy Native American cop. After a bank robbery and the murder of two Native Americans, Joe is tasked with sifting through the rubble. But he is faced with a suspicious local community, various vested interests and undercooked new deputy Jim Chee (played by Kiowa Gordon). This series is not without genre cliches, but enough of them work to make it worth a look. Phil Harrison

The Great British Bake Off

8pm, Channel 4

The show is a movable feast this week as it shifts from its usual Tuesday slot. It is chocolate week, which is always testing. The challenges include a torte in the signature round, cheesecakes in the technical round and showstoppers involving the construction of chocolate boxes. Expect literal and figurative meltdowns. PH

DNA Family Secrets

9pm, BBC Two

Stacey Dooley helps another batch of family-hunters find their roots, including John, who wants to know the truth about his Italian dad. Elsewhere, Ukrainian refugees Svitlana and Oksana are looking for their family, who came to the UK years before them, and Judy learns more about her Chinese father. Hannah Verdier

Payback

9pm, ITV1

This fine crime drama continues with Morven Christie’s Lexie getting ever closer to the heart of Cal’s (Peter Mullan) business empire. But with increasing proximity comes growing risk: how far will Lexie go to finish the job? The plotting doesn’t always add up but the exemplary performances keep Payback involving. PH

Don’t Look Down for SU2C

9.15pm, Channel 4

Chris Hughes balancing on a wire in the Austrian Alps in Don’t Look Down for SU2C.
How high can he go? … Chris Hughes training in Don’t Look Down for SU2C. Photograph: Quang Minh Le/Channel 4

Paddy McGuinness hosts episode two of an unusual charity-celebrity challenge. Penken mountain in Austria is the latest destination for the famous folk trying to conquer a fear of heights: it is 5,500ft above sea level. Will that be simply too high for Chris from Love Island? Jack Seale

Moulin Rouge: Yes We Can-Can!

10pm, BBC Two

It turns out working in the world’s sexiest windmill can be a real grind. The cabaret corps have just five days to rehearse new routines for a high-profile appearance on a New Year’s Eve TV special. But artistic director Janet is in a creative funk. Graeme Virtue

Film choice

Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019), 10.55pm, Film4

Midsommar, directed by Ari Aster
Grisly horror … Midsommar, directed by Ari Aster. Photograph: A24/Csaba Aknay/Allstar

Carried out in daylight like its inspiration The Wicker Man, Ari Aster’s grisly horror throws a group of self-centred modern Americans into a weird world of pagan ritual that they are, fatefully, incapable of comprehending. Florence Pugh’s Dani tags along with a group of male friends to an age-old summer solstice festival in rural Sweden. Mourning her dead family and with an unsympathetic boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor), she begins to suspect that this mystical community may, bizarrely, be better for her than her old life. Simon Wardell

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