Six Wives With Lucy Worsley
9pm, BBC1
Worsley’s mixture of historical summary and dramatic re-enactment works no more clunkily than usual as we hear the tales of Henry VIII’s troublesome relationships. Tonight, in the second of this three-part series, the focus is on Anne Boleyn, who was reviled by the population as an adulterer and ultimately beheaded. Worsley observes it all, while wandering about with a candle or something. John Robinson
In Plain Sight
9pm, ITV
Douglas Henshall and Martin Compston continue to excel in the true-life crime drama. The former simmers with dignified rage as the detective, Muncie, who suffers from being too good: only he can see that swaggering psychopath Manuel (Compston, whose grotesque panto stylings are chilling) is killing people in a carefully realised 1950s Lanarkshire. It is the kind of story that provokes a prickly mix of dread, sadness and excitement when it is executed this well. Jack Seale
The World’s Most Expensive Christmas
10pm, Channel 4
What do you buy for that special someone in your life who will never want or need for anything? Not a question many of us ask, but here is a documentary that answers it anyway. The UK’s billionaires and millionaires, it seems, turn to high-end suppliers such as Frances Hallworth-Noble’s London Concierge Company. Well, how else is one supposed to find ruby-studded reindeer tarts at just £475 a pop? Bling-blong merrily on high, etc. Jonathan Wright
House of Teen Mums
11.05pm, Channel 4
Despite the slightly clickbait title, this one-off documentary provides a thoughtful and tearjerking look at the lives of five teenage mothers living in a hostel. Each woman has a different backstory, but all were homeless before finding accommodation. With affordable housing hard to find and benefit cuts biting, they are struggling to become independent and forge a life for their babies. A sobering insight into harsh conditions. Hannah Verdier
2016: Showbiz Legends We’ve Lost
6.30pm, Channel 5
Presumably anticipating an imminent flurry of similar shows from more archive-rich channels, Channel 5 is briskly out of the traps with this lamentation for the many life-enhancing individuals we lost this year. Amid the roll-call of huge names (David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Prince), let’s hope that the less stellar but equally beloved likes of Caroline Aherne, Victoria Wood and Alan Rickman are not forgotten. Phil Harrison
Timeless
9pm, E4
A mysterious miscreant has stolen a time machine, meaning three US-government-sanctioned good guys must go on a journey to set things right. In tonight’s pilot, the crime travellers hijack the Hindenburg disaster for their own nefarious needs, forcing our time-leaping trio to stop them by any means necessary. Think Doctor Who with punching, guns and lots of plot holes. Unless you’ve got your own time machine, this is an hour you’re not getting back. Mark Gibbings-Jones
Ireland With Ardal O’Hanlon
9pm, More4
A new series, in which the comic actor roams his homeland putting various stereotypical assertions made by a Victorian couple in their 1840s Ireland guidebook to the test. It’s engaging stuff, thanks in no small measure to the smart, drily laconic O’Hanlon. In this first outing, he visits the perilously positioned Blarney Stone; a pub for redheads; a purportedly haunted castle; and a romantic matchmaker who goes by the name of Willie Daly. Ali Catterall
Film choices
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Martin Ritt, 1965), 10.55am, More4
Richard Burton gives one of his finest performances in this grim, gritty screen version of John le Carré’s novel. His British agent, Alec Leamas – world-weary cynicism personified – is sent undercover to East Germany to match wits against communist counterpart Mundt (Peter Van Eyck) and has a brief, sad affair with Claire Bloom’s Nan Perry, a pawn in the intelligence game. Espionage is portrayed as a bitter, emotionally blighted affair, and Oswald Morris’s gloomy monochrome photography captures it perfectly. Paul Howlett
The Eagle (Kevin Macdonald, 2011), 6.45pm, Film4
Based on Rosemary Sutcliff’s children’s classic The Eagle of the Ninth, Macdonald’s rugged swords’n’sandals adventure stars a gloomy Channing Tatum as young Roman commander Marcus. He’s on a perilous quest beyond Hadrian’s Wall to recover the standard of the ninth legion, which was led to oblivion by his father. Tatum and Jamie Bell, as his young British guide, strike up an edgily humorous friendship and misty, menacing Caledonia is atmospherically evoked. Paul Howlett
Sport choice
Snooker: Scottish Open
Day three from the Emirates Arena in Glasgow. 12.45pm, Eurosport 1
Premier League football: Crystal Palace v Manchester United
United make the trip to the reliably lively Selhurst Park. 7.15pm, BT Sport 1
NBA: Miami Heat v Indiana Pacers
A game from the Eastern Conference. Followed by San Antonio Spurs v Boston Celtics. Midnight, BT Sport 1
