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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Hollie Richardson, Ali Catterall, Alexi Duggins and Simon Wardell

TV tonight: it’s finally time for the biggest party of the year!

Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with Scott Mills, Mel Giedroyc, Rylan and Graham Norton.
Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with Scott Mills, Mel Giedroyc, Rylan and Graham Norton. Photograph: Ray Burmiston/BBC

Eurovision Song Contest 2023

8pm, BBC One

Leaving the coronation in the shade, the real UK event of the year is finally here – it’s Eurovision, baby! Our hopeful entry Mae Muller wrote a song (called, er, I Wrote a Song), which she’ll perform at the contest held in Liverpool. Past acts including last year’s runner-up Sam Ryder, Ukrainian winners Kalush Orchestra and Liverpool’s very own Sonia will also light up the stage. Eurovision royalty Graham Norton is back on official snarky commentary duties, this time joined by Mel Giedroyc, while Hannah Waddingham, Alesha Dixon and Julia Sanina will host. We’re definitely not going to win but it’s still the best excuse for a party. Hollie Richardson

Pointless Celebrities

5.50pm, BBC One

Warming up for the big night ahead, this special edition of the quiz that demands pointless answers features contestants who will please many a Eurovision superfan. These include Daði Freyr and Måns Zelmerlöw (Iceland’s 2020 entry), Antony Costa (remember when Blue came 11th in 2011? No?) and Eimear Quinn (Ireland’s winner in 1996). HR

In for a Penny

6.30pm, ITV1

ITV’s slightly weak attempt to jump on the bandwagon sees Stephen Mulhern heading to the hallowed ground of Eurovision – Liverpool – for this week’s episode of his mobile gameshow. Hopefully, the scouse strollers will have a penny in their pocket for a chance to win £1,000 with tasks such as Pump It Up at a filling station and Check It Out in the local supermarket. HR

The Hit List: Eurovision Special

6.40pm, BBC One

You don’t hear Mungo Jerry’s Baby Jump too often nowadays, but like Oasis’s more familiar Some Might Say, there’s a connection to the Eurovision theme at hand in this special. Former Hit List champs Scott Mills and Clara Amfo, plus Adele Roberts, are paired with Eurovision fans, competing to bag £10,000 for charity. Ali Catterall

In With a Shout

7pm, ITV1

Channel 4’s Gogglebox showed us that there’s a lot of wit, emotion and pathos in observing people watch TV. So obviously ITV had to turn it into a shouting match. Will this week’s instalment of the Joel Dommett-hosted competition where families yell at the screen scale the same heights? Doubtful. Alexi Duggins

The One Show

7.30pm, BBC One

Rylan recently admitted that one of his biggest regrets was not performing in Eurovision – and yet, as a presenter of coverage since 2018, his name is one of the most synonymous with it. He joins Alex Jones for this curtain-raiser. HR

Film choice

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, 6pm, Sky Cinema Premiere

Lesley Manville in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.
Lesley Manville in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. Photograph: Liam Daniel/AP

After her fashion-house insider in Phantom Thread, Lesley Manville tries her hand at a working-class outsider in Anthony Fabian’s beguiling drama, whose lightness of tone can’t disguise its egalitarian politics. She plays Ada Harris, a London cleaner whose dream of buying a Christian Dior dress leads her to Paris in 1957 and a culture clash with Isabelle Huppert’s clothing boss Claudine. Ada is soon drawn into Dior’s financial woes, while charming its staff with her openness and refusal to kowtow. Manville is a perfect fit for the role, friendly but forthright, and the social worlds Ada traverses – from dog track to suave nightclub – are lovingly recreated. Simon Wardell

Air, Prime Video

Like the recent Tetris, this Ben Affleck-directed film takes the true story of a businessman’s attempt to get a contract signed and burnishes it into slick comedy-drama. This one is about Nike’s fight to make up-and-coming basketball genius Michael Jordan put his name to their trainers in 1984. Matt Damon is convincingly careworn as marketing man Sonny Vaccaro who stakes his – and Nike’s – future on winning the player’s signature. Viola Davis steals her scenes as Jordan’s forbidding mother, while the on-the-nose pop soundtrack buoys up the money moves. SW

Live sport

Cycling: Giro d’Italia, 10.30am, Eurosport 1 Stage eight, a 207km route from Terni to Fossombrone.

Premier League Football: Leeds v Newcastle, 11.30am, BT Sport 1 At Elland Road.

Super League Rugby: St Helens v Salford Red Devils, 12.45pm, Channel 4 From Totally Wicked Stadium.

Premiership Rugby Union: Saracens v Northampton Saints, 3pm, BT Sport 2 The first semi-final. The second – Sale Sharks v Leicester Tigers – is at 2.30pm on Sunday on BT Sport 1.

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