MasterChef: Battle of the Critics 2023
8pm, BBC One
Critics Jay Rayner, Jimi Famurewa, Grace Dent, William Sitwell and Leyla Kazim don their aprons and subject their cookery to the judgment of Gregg Wallace, John Torode and, perhaps most dauntingly, three former MasterChef champions. What ensues is something of a lesson for the quintet: cooking for a critical audience is a harder business than it looks. Phil Harrison
Top of the Pops Review of the Year 2023
6.30pm, BBC Two
The nostalgic music show returns for an annual special, with Clara Amfo reminding us of the most electric performances of the year – including Elton John’s Glastonbury debut. She will also speak to Mercury prize winners Ezra Collective and look at Madonna’s mighty return to music. Hollie Richardson
The Big Soap Quiz: Coronation Street v Emmerdale
8pm, ITV1
Place your Bet Lynches … The annual grudge match between ITV’s soap behemoths has become a raucous festive fixture. Under the captaincy of Mark Charnock, Emmerdale are reigning champions; Corrie’s Jack P Shepherd will be hoping his crack team from the cobbles will be able to claw the trophy back. Graeme Virtue
Britain’s Favourite 70s Sitcoms
8pm, Channel 5
Cocktail-stick nibbles from a cheese and pineapple hedgehog would be the perfect accompaniment for this look back at a particularly garish but gung-ho decade for UK TV comedy. The Babycham-ready buffet of clips and talking heads features behind-the-scenes stories from The Good Life, Fawlty Towers and many more. GV
Dawn French Is a Huge Tw*t
10.30pm, BBC One
“I have been a massive twat for most of my life.” The funnywoman reveals her most excruciating moments in this recording of her hit show from this year. Cue lots of top celebrity anecdotes on “Sir Kenneth of the Branagh” and Dustin Hoffman (who wanted to direct The Vicar of Dibley), as well as recalling the time she auditioned for Mamma Mia!. HR
Aretha Franklin in Amsterdam 1968
11.50pm, BBC Two
This is the good stuff: Aretha at her peak, drenched in sweat on a stage the size of a rowing boat, surrounded by groovy people losing their minds. She leads her dead-on-it band through pepped-up versions of Chain of Fools, (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone, Respect and, to open, the Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. Jack Seale
Film choices
Police Academy (Hugh Wilson, 1984), 11.50am, Channel 5
If you were around in the 1980s, you might remember that they made a Saturday morning kids’ cartoon out of Police Academy, a movie that was full of swearing, smoking, female nudity and implied oral sex. Channel 5 is showing the film over Christmas, at noon. Expect it to either be heavily censored or wildly inappropriate. Stuart Heritage
Respect, 9pm, BBC Two
A biographical drama about Aretha Franklin’s life and rise to fame. The story goes that this film couldn’t be made for years because no one could match Franklin’s raw power, but then Jennifer Hudson came along. If that’s true, it makes total sense. Hudson is on belting, blazing form here, almost singlehandedly propping up the entire enterprise. SH
The Ten Commandments (Cecil B DeMille, 1956), 1.10pm, Channel 4
Almost 70 years old, and DeMille’s gargantuan epic is still a gift to television schedulers everywhere, who can just bung it on in the middle of the day and watch smugly as it fills an entire afternoon. Running from 1.10pm to 5.30pm, this is the story of Moses (Charlton Heston) with maximum attention given to pure mid-20th-century spectacle. SH
Amazing Grace, 1.30am, BBC Two
If your appetite was whetted by Respect, BBC Two has much, much more Aretha Franklin for you, with two hours of TV documentaries followed by the premiere of Amazing Grace, a documentary film about the recording of Franklin’s album of the same name. Originally filmed by Sydney Pollack, the project was first delayed due to syncing issues with the audio and visuals, and then twice more thanks to numerous lawsuits by Franklin herself. Now it is out, though, and exactly as soaring and powerful as you’d expect it to be. SH
Live sport
Premier League football: Brighton v Tottenham, 7.30pm, Prime Video Arsenal v West Ham is at 8.15pm.
