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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Henry Wong, Phil Harrison, Ali Catterall and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: Alison Steadman is an interfering grandma in new BBC sitcom

My family and other animals … (From left) Jude Morgan-Collie, Mica Ricketts, Alison Steadman, Freya Parks, Jim Howick, Tom Basden, Katherine Parkinson.
My family and other animals … (from left) Jude Morgan-Collie, Mica Ricketts, Alison Steadman, Freya Parks, Jim Howick, Tom Basden, Katherine Parkinson. Photograph: BBC

Here We Go

8.30pm, BBC One

Written by Bafta-nominated Tom Basden, this family sitcom is a welcome addition to the Friday-night primetime schedule. It follows a year in the life of the Jessops as filmed with a handheld camera by the youngest son. The superb cast bring the family’s everyday mundanities to life: Katherine Parkinson as the rage-prone mum Rachel; Jim Howick as the people-pleasing dad Paul; and Alison Steadman as the interfering grandma Sue. In the opening episode, they attempt a day out at Jungle World. Hollie Richardson

Unreported World

7.30pm, Channel 4

Krishnan Guru-Murthy is on the streets of St Louis to speak to a handful of the thousands of people who are part of “addicted America” – the fentanyl epidemic that has seen a huge increase in opioid overdoses. A dealer who makes thousands of dollars a day and a pastor who fears for his community are among those Guru-Murthy talks to. HR

A pointless contraption … Richard Hammond.
A pointless contraption … Richard Hammond. Photograph: Channel 4 / Rob Parfitt

Richard Hammond’s Crazy Contraptions

8pm, Channel 4

A new role for Hammond: mad inventor. He gathers engineers to build chain-reaction contraptions – in the style of Rube Goldberg machines – for everyday tasks. This week’s noble challenge is to let our host make his bed from the comfort of the bathtub. Henry Wong

It’ll Be Alright on the Night

9pm, ITV

Continuing its gentle, cock-up heavy entertainment, tonight’s highlights from the ITV staple include: Michael McIntyre experiencing the trauma of launching a brand new gameshow and Joanna Lumley struggling with a busy road in India. Phil Harrison

Not Going Out

9.30pm, BBC One

“Kids, put your iPads down – you’re going into the forest to look for drugs!” Lee’s family camping trip to the woods goes about as well as you would expect, after some suspiciously large bones and a blood-soaked knife are discovered near their tent. Ali Catterall

Open House: The Great Sex Experiment

10pm, Channel 4

Behind those swinging doors: this week, curious new arrivals L’Oreal and Kalid want to believe that sleeping with other people could actually strengthen their bond but, like those who went before them, are they prepared for the potential fallout? Graeme Virtue

Film choices

Ealing-esque spaghetti western … Michael Smiley and Annes Elwy in The Toll.
Ealing-esque spaghetti western … Michael Smiley and Annes Elwy in The Toll. Photograph: Signature Entertainment

The Toll (Ryan Andrew Hooper, 2021), Amazon Prime Video
Michael Smiley’s softly spoken toll-booth operator doesn’t seem that interesting. But when a figure from his dark past bumps into him accidentally, his hush-hush criminal operation in a remote corner of Pembrokeshire is brought to the attention of the area’s one honest copper (Annes Elwy). Ryan Andrew Hooper’s comic twist on the spaghetti western offers an array of Ealing-esque eccentrics (female Elvis impersonator; triplet robbers; paramedic/dogging devotee) but it’s the more underplayed scenes between Smiley and Elwy that give the enterprise its necessary depth. Simon Wardell

Cape Fear (Martin Scorsese, 1991), 10.40pm, BBC One
Martin Scorsese’s 1991 film is a brash, steroid-pumped remake of J Lee Thompson’s Hitchcock-inspired thriller. A noble Gregory Peck from the original is swapped for a flawed Nick Nolte as lawyer Sam Bowden, whose intentionally bad defence of psychopathic rapist Max Cady comes back to haunt him when the criminal is released and seeks bloody vengeance. Robert De Niro takes the Robert Mitchum role and adds muscle and sweaty menace to the violence, while the blurring of the boundaries between the men gives a modern touch to the genre stylings. SW

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