Paul Giamatti stars in The Holdovers, Junior Taskmaster arrives, there's a bight night of rugby as Ireland host New Zealand at the Aviva, and there's some top celeb chat on The Graham Norton show with the likes of Kate Winslet . . .
Pick of the Day
The Holdovers, Sky Cinema Premiere
As a big fan of classic Frank Capra movies (It Happened One Night, Arsenic and Old Lace, It’s A Wonderful Life), I’m also a fan of current director Alexander Payne.
And he’s on top form here, with a superb cast where the great Paul Giamatti is matched by his co-stars.
The Holdovers follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go.
Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them - a damaged, brainy troublemaker (Dominic Sessa) - and with the school's head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da'Vine Joy Randolph).
New or Returning Shows
Junior Taskmaster, 8.00pm, Channel 4
The title says it all. This is the brand new offspring of the BAFTA and National Comedy Award winning, Taskmaster, and taking to the thrones are Junior Taskmaster Rose Matafeo and Assistant Mike Wozniak.
Set to take on the fiendishly baffling series of tasks are twenty-five contestants aged between nine and eleven who show up, ready and willing to give their all in the name of entertainment.
Matafeo will pass judgement as they complete the typically idiosyncratic challenges in the brand new Junior Taskmaster house, equipped with a shed, a caravan, a laboratory, alongside a dazzle of zebras, sandcastle pedestal and revolving top hat spinning wheel.
With tasks that are designed to encourage and inspire wile, wit, creativity, and athleticism, Wozniak is in his element enthusiastically overseeing each and every task.
Don’t Miss
The Graham Norton Show, 10.40pm, BBC One
Oscar-winner and all-round good egg Kate Winslet (below) joins our Graham to talk about playing the Second World War photojournalist Lee Miller in the biopic Lee.
Christmas comes early as Dwayne Johnson and Lucy Liu chat about their comedy action adventure Red One, while Jennifer Lopez promotes the heartfelt sports drama Unstoppable, alongside leading man Jharrel Jerome.
Plus, Celeste performs This Is Who I Am.
A Night of Wonder, 9.05pm, BBC Four
Tracey MacLeod introduces a 1995 studio concert for the BBC by the legendary Stevie Wonder (below), with performances of songs including Higher Ground, Superstition, My Cherie Amour, Signed, Sealed, Delivered, You Are the Sunshine of My Life and I Just Called to Say I Love You.
Our Lives, 7.30pm, BBC One
This promises to be an exhilarating journey, featuring potentially dangerous activities that shouldn't be attempted, where one very daring young Scotsman defies conventional expectations. And gravity!
Ever since he was young, growing up in Stonehaven, Liam Byrne has had a dream: to fly like birds fly.
At just 23, he's already one of the youngest top-tier base jumpers in the world and current British champion in performance wingsuit flying.
He goes where the margin for error is razor-thin, so the stakes couldn't be higher.
New to Stream
Mr Plankton, Netflix
Here’s an oddball comedy from South Korea.
A man plagued by misfortune and his ex, the unluckiest bride-to-be, are forced to accompany one another on the final journey of his life.
Bank Under Siege, Netflix
This new Spanish drama series begins in Barcelona on May 23rd 1981.
Exactly three months have passed since the attempted coup d'état at the Congress of Deputies when eleven hooded men entered the headquarters of the Central Bank in Barcelona.
What starts as a spectacular robbery soon becomes a real challenge to Spain's recent democracy.
The robbers hold more than 200 hostages in the bank and threaten to kill them if the government does not agree to free Colonel Tejero and three others in charge of the 23F.
The Cage, Netflix
This new series is all about the extremely violent world of MMA
Dreaming of going pro, a young fighter struggles to be seen until an unexpected combat lands him a shot at the big time - and a brutal rival.
Melvin Boomer and real-life MMA legends star in this series created by Franck Gastambide.
Investigation Alien, Netflix
In this paranormal docuseries, renowned UFO reporter George Knapp investigates new evidence, interviews an array of experts and meets with emerging witnesses who are finally willing to go on the record.
Sport
Ireland host New Zealand (KO 8.10pm) at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
The last meeting between the teams saw the All Blacks break Irish hearts with a 28-24 victory in the quarter-finals of the 2023 World Cup in France.
This time around, Andy Farrell's men will be hopeful of gaining a measure of revenge on home territory, given they have been in excellent form, top of the world rankings, and reigning Six Nations champions.
They also claimed a 29-20 victory when the teams last met at this venue in 2021, and the home crowd will be expecting another memorable evening
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