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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ali Catterall, Phil Harrison, Hannah Verdier, Simon Wardell

TV tonight: the awful true story of wellness influencer Belle Gibson

Belle Gibson at the federal court in Melbourne, 2019
Bad influencer … Belle Gibson at the federal court in Melbourne, 2019. Photograph: ITV

Instagram’s Worst Con Artist

9pm, ITV1

This bleak two-part documentary tells the story of Australian Belle Gibson, who became an Instagram sensation in 2013 after launching a clean-eating app in response to a stated diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. Her followers marvelled at how well she looked, but there was a reason for that – her cancer was a fiction. A story of dangerous betrayal: not only did Gibson monetise her lie but she also turned real cancer patients away from the treatment they needed. Phil Harrison

Wildlife Rescue

8pm, Channel 4

More from the team at South Essex Wildlife Hospital, treating those injured critters who have fallen foul of encroaching urbanisation, and sending them, patched-up, back into the wild. The patients in this edition include a trapped badger, a fox cub with his head stuck in a rusty wheel and some orphaned great tit chicks, found nesting in a wall-mounted ashtray. Ali Catterall

Murder, They Hope

9pm, BBC Two

This knowingly daft spoof crime drama was first shown on Gold in 2021 but is now getting a primetime BBC airing. Sian Gibson and Johnny Vegas star as Gemma and Terry, a pair of hapless private investigators who find themselves in possession of a rabbit figurine that is also desired by a shadowy crime gang. PH

Taskmaster

9pm, Channel 4

Splattering a human pigeon is all in a day’s work for the brilliant Sophie Willan in this episode, proving why she is one of the Taskmaster greats. But there’s stiff competition from Joanne McNally and her traffic cone and John Robins’ in-depth homage to Little Alex Horne. Elsewhere, Nick Mohammed is stuck under a bed. Hannah Verdier

Joe & Katherine’s Bargain Holidays

10pm, Channel 4

This is an austerity holiday series with the focus on comedy, as budget-conscious Joe Wilkinson takes a series of breaks with Katherine Ryan, whose tastes are slightly more expensive. To start off, they’re in Norfolk, sampling alternative couple’s therapy, falling in rivers and “champing” in a church. Against all the odds, they seem to be having fun. PH

Johnson & Knopfler’s Music Legends: Sir Tom Jones

10pm, Sky Arts

AC/DC’s Brian Johnson and Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits have lived storied lives in rock music. This series sees them meet similarly seasoned guests to trade wisdom. Here, Tom Jones looks back on everything from the extreme adulation he attracted to his friendship with Elvis Presley. PH

Film choice

Far from the Madding Crowd (John Schlesinger, 1967), 11am, Film4

Thomas Hardy’s novels are often fine source material for films or TV drama – full of romance, incident and period detail – and John Schlesinger’s 1967 adaptation is no exception. In a wonderfully evoked 19th-century rural world of harvests, folk songs and fairs, the independent-minded Bathsheba (a luminous Julie Christie) has inherited a farm from an uncle. She is also, respectively, pined over, wooed and lusted after by dependable shepherd Gabriel (Alan Bates), ageing landowner Boldwood (Peter Finch) and dissolute cavalry sergeant Troy (Terence Stamp). Simon Wardell

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