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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Jack Seale, Graeme Virtue, Phil Harrison and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: it’s a terrible time to be a detective called Karen

Lauren Lyle in ITV’s Karen Pirie.
Lauren Lyle in ITV’s Karen Pirie. Photograph: World Productions for ITV

Karen Pirie

8pm, ITV

“It’s not the greatest time to be called Karen.” Lauren Lyle is great as the whip-smart, gutsy detective in this Scottish crime drama based on Val McDermid’s 2003 novel, The Distant Echo. Karen is put on an unsolved murder case from 1996 when the police freak out about a true-crime podcast that’s being made about it. In tonight’s first of three extended episodes, she tracks down the men who were with the barmaid on the night she was killed. Hollie Richardson

Frozen Planet II

8pm, BBC One

Attenborough takes us up to the world’s “frozen peaks” tonight. We’re introduced to baby chameleons that make eating bugs look adorable, jaunty mountain goats (don’t get too attached – there are eagles circling overhead), and macaques that take hot baths in the volcanic pools found in the snowiest place on Earth. HR

The Secret World of Burgers

8pm, Channel 4

Jo Brand continues with the very appealing job of deep-diving into the nation’s favourite foods. This week, she’s flipping burgers (an industry worth billions) – looking at the beefy battles between Wimpy, McDonald’s and Burger King. HR

Bloodlands

9pm, BBC One

What’s now a rather silly drama continues, with James Nesbitt as a hilariously impulsive bent copper in Northern Ireland who is somehow allowed to get away with it. The team are on the trail of a suspicious chauffeur, but DCI Brannick wants his gold back, and he’s prepared to do implausible things to secure it. Jack Seale

Simon Reeve’s South America

9pm, BBC Two

Reeve goes full Ross Kemp in this leg of his 4,000-mile odyssey, shadowing a heavily tooled-up anti-drugs unit on a “search and destroy” mission in remote Peruvian coca fields. He then heads to Bolivia to explore La Paz with the help of a charismatic chola guide who has her own outspoken radio show. Graeme Virtue

The Booze, Bets and Sex That Built the World

9pm, Sky History

A new series exploring the origin stories of some of the great American vices. This opening episode introduces Buck Duke (arguably the inventor of the cigarette) and Jack Daniel for picaresque tales in which the US flair for entrepreneurialism does battle with the country’s seemingly innate conservatism. PH

Film choice

The Last Black Man in San Francisco, 10pm, BBC Two

The Last Black Man in San Francisco on BBC Two.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco on BBC Two. Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

Questions about how you define home, and belonging, suffuse Joe Talbot’s quirky drama. It’s partly based on the life of his friend Jimmie Fails, who plays a version of himself as a rootless spirit. He’s staying with his best mate, would-be playwright Mont (Jonathan Majors) but is drawn back to the lovely, large house built in 1946 by his grandfather – though it’s now in a sought-after white neighbourhood. In the absence of his neglectful parents, Jimmie pours his love into the building, to the point of squatting in it when it becomes vacant. Simon Wardell

Live sport

Premiership Rugby Union: Exeter Chiefs v Harlequins, 2pm, BT Sport 1 From Sandy Park.


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