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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Phil Harrison, Graeme Virtue, Ellen E Jones and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: deja vu dating in the search for love

Carys and Gareth in First Dates Hotel.
Hello again … Carys and Gareth in First Dates Hotel. Photograph: Channel 4

First Dates Hotel

9pm, Channel 4

It takes guts to embark on a televised trip to Italy and stay in a singles hotel, ready to meet new people in the search for love. So it must be a kick in the teeth when Gareth realises his first date is with a woman he’s already been matched with on a dating app back in the UK. Also staying in one of Fred Sirieix’s Mediterranean boudoirs tonight: retired taxidermist Sandy, who hasn’t been on a first date in 39 years and is paired up with a dog lover. Hollie Richardson

Celebrity MasterChef

9pm, BBC One

With the heats done, the successful cooks reconvene for the semi-finals. Tonight, a tougher audience than Gregg and John awaits: the celebrities will be heading to North Weald Airfield to prepare a feast fit for 70 pilots, medics and air ambulance support staff. It’s a task to daunt the most experienced of caterers, so expect a few dicey moments. Phil Harrison

Days That Shook the BBC With David Dimbleby

9pm, BBC Two

“Let’s talk about your downfall … ” The Question Time veteran continues his series of postmortems on notable BBC crises by re-examining the 2003 Hutton inquiry with the sacrificed director general Greg Dyke and key figures such as Alastair Campbell and Andrew Gilligan. Then, Dimbleby audits perhaps the most toxic chapter of all: the Jimmy Savile scandal. Graeme Virtue

Sam Taylor in Red Rose.
Fighting back … Sam Taylor in Red Rose. Photograph: Sam Taylor/BBC/Eleven Film

Red Rose

9pm, BBC Three

In this penultimate episode of the Bolton-set tech-horror, the teens fight back against the increasingly malevolent Red Rose phone app. In centuries past, their former mill town was the centre of a different sort of technological revolution. Can the gang now rise up, like latter-day luddites, and reclaim their autonomy? Ellen E Jones

Irma Vep

9pm, Sky Atlantic

The machine grinds on with unstoppable glamour in this very funny episode of Olivier Assayas’s showbiz satire. Gottfried is absent due to an autoerotic asphyxiation incident, director René’s almighty tantrum leads to an unwelcome new face on set, and only Mira (Alicia Vikander) can maintain some modicum of professionalism – albeit while wearing a catsuit. EEJ

Rosie Jones’ Trip Hazard

10pm, Channel 4

Friday Night Dinner’s Tom Rosenthal looks scared when he joins Jones in Bradford for tonight’s episode – and who can blame him? The trouble-seeking comedian gets him to take part in a rap battle, shoves Yorkshire’s biggest naan down his throat, and gives him an unwanted haircut. HR

Film choice

Vincent Cassel and Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises.
Partners in crime … Vincent Cassel and Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises. Photograph: Photo Credit: Peter Mountain/Bbc Films/Allstar

Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, 2007), 11.15pm, BBC Two
Before Peaky Blinders, writer Steven Knight had already delved into a criminal empire – that of the Russian mafia in the UK – in David Cronenberg’s murky tale of crime and morality. Viggo Mortensen plays it cool as Nikolai, the London-based henchman to the impulsive Kirill (Vincent Cassel), heir of mobster Semyon (a quietly dangerous Armin Mueller-Stahl). After a 14-year-old victim of sex trafficking dies in childbirth, midwife Anna (Naomi Watts) finds herself in Nikolai’s orbit, where the codes of loyalty and violence will be familiar to fans of the Brummie gang. Simon Wardell

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (George Clooney, 2002), 12.40am, Sky Cinema Greats
For his 2002 debut as a director, George Clooney picked a doozy of a story – the memoir of American TV gameshow producer Chuck Barris. The creator of The Gong Show and The Dating Game (AKA Blind Date), Barris was also, he claims, a CIA assassin in his spare time. It’s a fascinating caper, lovingly shot in styles that change with the decades (faded Technicolor for the 60s; hard-edged noir for the 70s) and Sam Rockwell as the off-kilter Barris. SW

Live sport

Women’s International football: England v Luxembourg 7pm, ITV. The final World Cup Group D qualifier for the Euro 22 champions at Bet365 Stadium in Stoke.

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