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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Phil Harrison, Ali Catterall, Jack Seale, Graeme Virtue and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: Joanna Lumley holidays with a beer-brewing nun

Joanna Lumley seeing the sites of the Danube
Joanna Lumley on the Danube, ITV1. Photograph: ITV

Joanna Lumley’s Danube

9pm, ITV1
Joanna Lumley’s travelogues don’t tend to be heavy on sociopolitical analysis but she’s good company all the same. In this new series, she is travelling down the Danube River. It begins with a beer-brewing nun and an enjoyable trip to the Wachau wine valley, before she meets up with 2014 Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst for a tour of Vienna. Phil Harrison

Alison Hammond’s Big Weekend

8.30pm, BBC One
Hammond is proving to be well suited to these long-form interviews, which are deceptively lighthearted but not afraid to touch on more serious issues. Jimmy Carr is her companion this time, talking about his tax issues, his relationship with his mother and his memories of the late, great Sean Lock. PH

Hidden Treasures of the National Trust

9pm, BBC Two

For Tudor-era operator Thomas Sackville, it was knowing “the right thing to say to the right person at the right time” that enabled him to buy the sprawling Knole House in Kent. Here’s a romp around Knole today – which also houses a lifesize nude statue of 18th-century ballet dancer Giovanna Zanerini. Ali Catterall

Hacks

9pm, Sky Max
The greatest frenemy double act on TV continues to walk the line between love and hate as the fourth season reaches its penultimate episode. Deborah and Ava’s talkshow hangs in the balance, but does that mean the pair will set their differences aside and work together? Don’t bet on it. PH

Austin

9.30pm, BBC One
If you can persuade Billie Piper to cameo in a low-key comedy, you make the most of your day shooting with her – so she reappears in this season finale. Autistic Australian-in-Britain Austin (Michael Theo) has run away, prompting his dad Julian (Ben Miller) to find him – and meet Austin’s fave celebrity. Jack Seale

Open House: The Great Sex Experiment

10pm, Channel 4
Three is the magic number: more from the raunchy social experiment that encourages participants to dip a toe into polyamory. Jonny and Sarah from Wales have had their collective head turned by French model Marie, while Essex couple Claude and Amy join the fun. Graeme Virtue

Film choice

The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders, 2024), 9.10am, 6.10pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
Chris Sanders’s delightful family animation attains Wall-E levels of poignancy in its tale of a shipwrecked robot that learns how to feel. Washed up on a remote island populated only by animals, service unit Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) finds it has no one to serve. That is until it falls on to a goose’s nest, killing all its occupants apart from runt of the litter Brightbill (Kit Connor) – who imprints on Roz as his mother. Assisted by Pedro Pascal’s cynical fox Fink, the ever helpful machine reprogrammes itself to rear the gosling well enough so he can migrate with the other geese. The Disney-style anthropomorphising is a bit overdone, but it’s a film full of warmth and wit. Simon Wardell

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