Here's our TV tonight picks for Friday, September 12.
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Bake Off: An Extra Slice, Channel 4, 8 pm
We’re not sure it’s possible to get a more wholesome yet genuinely funny start to the weekend than Bake Off’s sister show. Jo Brand hits exactly the right note (there’s as much eye-roll as Swiss roll) while hosting the celebrity panel and sympathising with the baker who has left the tent, and Tom Allen’s deadpan style is perfect. With his huge ‘whisk’ microphone, he’s merciless with the home bakers in the studio, who seem only too delighted to have their offerings – and their personal lives – under his scrutiny. Tonight, there’s a look back at all the Biscuit Week drama, while the panel includes Stephen Mangan.
Gardeners’ World, BBC2, 8 pm
Much as many of us would like to hang on to summer for as long as possible, now we’re heading into the middle of September, it’s time for gardeners to be practical and look ahead to autumn. Monty Don does just that this episode, as he prunes his raspberries, harvests sweetcorn and assesses his plants in pots. Meanwhile, Frances Tophill is in Cornwall to find out more about a new technology that’s creating borders for pollinators.
Downton Abbey Celebrates, ITVX
As the Downton saga comes to an end with the cinematic release of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, this documentary looks at a worldwide phenomenon.
Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping, Channel 4, 10 pm
David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s sketch show series continues tonight with a terrible reality show, Hot Seat (even the host, played by Webb, admits the format is like ‘two Maltesers in a paper bag’). There’s also the return of Sweary Aussie Drama, an advert for an incredibly violent family game called Stab the Pirate and an insight into the conversation which may have taken place when ABBA’s Björn asked his wife Agnetha to sing the words ‘I’m nothing special, in fact I’m a bit of a bore’ in Thank You for the Music.
