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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Phil Harrison, Ali Catterall, Ellen E Jones, Graeme Virtue, Jack Seale and Stuart Heritage

TV tonight: another bad decision in the quietly devastating Avoidance

Claire (Jessica Knappett) and Jonathan (Romesh Ranganathan) in Avoidance
‘Understated’ … Claire (Jessica Knappett) and Jonathan (Romesh Ranganathan) in Avoidance. Photograph: Jack Barnes/BBC/RangaBee Productions

Avoidance

10.40pm, BBC One

“How come you don’t really have any friends dad?” Kids say the funniest things. But, sometimes they say wounding things too. As this charmingly melancholic comedy continues, Jonathan (Romesh Ranganathan) is attempting to rekindle his lost youth after his son Spencer’s innocent but devastating burn. But sambucas with an infuriatingly insistent workmate soon find him longing for the safety of the couch. Meanwhile, back at home, a well-intentioned tech-free night is setting thumbs twiddling. Gentle, understated and all the more convincing for it. Phil Harrison

One Question

8pm, Channel 4

Another round of the fiendish quiz, in which the object is to choose the one right answer to a single question (from 20 possible answers). Tonight best friends Louis and Connor from London, and husband and wife Scott and Kiaya from Berkshire attempt to get their hands on £100k. Ali Catterall

Celebrity Gogglebox

9pm, Channel 4

Judi Love’s TV taste is infallible, but the same can’t be said of this series’ other celebrity Goggleboxers, including Shaun Ryder, Joanna Lumley and Bill Bailey. Still, they take to the sofa, crisp bowl in hand, to give unfiltered opinions and emotional reactions. Ellen E Jones

Bill Bailey and Oti Mabuse in Celebrity Gogglebox
Bill Bailey and Oti Mabuse in Celebrity Gogglebox. Photograph: Channel 4

British Planes that Won the War With Rob Bell

9pm, Channel 5

Imagine an aircraft that doesn’t need a runway to take off or land. An airforce would no longer be vulnerable to enemy bombing raids and could even operate from jungle clearings. In 1967, the ingenious designers of the Harrier jump-jet realised that fanciful notion, and revolutionised warfare in the process. EEJ

Rig 45: Murder at Sea

9pm, More4

If you enjoyed Vigil, this Swedish whodunnit set on a North Sea oil rig has similarly claustrophobic vibes. With the body count rising while a storm rages outside, the skeleton crew are starting to unravel. Graeme Virtue

The Lateish Show With Mo Gilligan

9pm, Channel 4

Gilligan’s Friday-night chatfest is great at conjuring a party atmosphere, and this live special to round off the series presumably all the more so. TV presenters Jonathan Ross and AJ Odudu guest along with comedian Guz Khan and boyband Blue. The real fun, though, is in the games played with the audience, and the questions posed to guests by the public. Jack Seale

Film choice

Elizabeth Banks in Brightburn.
Raising hell … Elizabeth Banks as a mother out of her depth in Brightburn. Photograph: Boris Martin

Brightburn (David Yarovesky, 2019), 11.05pm, Film4
The “what if Superman was evil?” trope has been done to death lately, thanks to The Boys, Invincible and a handful of Superman movies. But nothing has interrogated the premise quite like 2019’s Brightburn. Produced by James Gunn, it features plenty of beats that will be familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in Superman (an alien child crash lands on Earth, the couple who discover him choose to raise him), except everything is played for horror. The boy quickly becomes a monster, and an unstoppable one at that. And, really, isn’t that the more realistic outcome? Stuart Heritage

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