John and Lisa’s Christmas Kitchen (STV, 11.40am)
JOHN Torode and Lisa Faulkner present a second Christmas special of their Weekend Kitchen show, which, according to Lisa, will be slightly more scaled down than last year’s version.
“I think it’s going to be a smaller Christmas and we’ve done alternatives and ways you can cook for a smaller group,” she says.
Among the dishes are ham in parsley sauce, and curried puffs and potato bombas. Lisa also prepares her grandmother’s recipe for traditional mincemeat, which can be used in both mince pies and a festive frangipane layer cake.
Jungle Mystery: Lost Kingdoms of the Amazon (C4, 6.30pm)
THANKS to new technologies that can “see through the trees”, archaeologists are making astonishing discoveries perhaps confirming that sophisticated ancient civilisations and cities once thrived across the Amazon basin.
In this new series, explorer, paleoanthropologist and stand-up comic Ella al-Shamahi looks for a definitive answer to one of the world’s ancient mysteries: did giant cities once flourish in the Amazon rainforest? Tonight, she lands in the jungles of Brazil and meets archaeologists investigating mysterious geometric shapes that have been revealed in the landscape by extensive deforestation.
She also joins an indigenous community for whom these discoveries could be essential to establishing their land rights today. Can she help them prove that this land has been theirs for centuries?
Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1, 7.25pm)
IT’S everyone loves Musicals Week on Strictly. In 2018, Stacey Dooley’s American smooth to Les Miserables and Faye Tozer’s Lonely Goatherd charleston both got standing ovations, as did Abbey Clancy’s Saturday Night Fever salsa back in 2013. And this year’s remaining celebs will be hoping for a similar outcome as Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman invite them to take to the floor for tonight’s quarter-final.
Following a Priscilla-themed routine from the professionals, the pressure is well and truly on the couples as they aim to dazzle and bring a taste of Broadway to the studio.
It’ll Be Alright on the Night (STV, 8.30pm)
DAVID Walliams returns with the iconic show to present a compilation of TV clangers, with all the clips taken from the programmes broadcast over the past year. There are live on-air blunders from Stormzy, Robbie Williams, Craig Revel Horwood, Jonathan Ross and Ant & Dec. Two toddlers run rings around Kay Burley, and Vicky Pattison somehow forgets the name of the show she’s presenting.
Marina Abramovic Takes Over TV (Sky Arts, 9pm)
THE Serbian performance artist becomes the first individual to take over the channel. Over five hours, she will tell the 100-year story of performance art, now the fastest growing art form in the world. Diving into its origins and evolution to modern day, she will showcase the most diverse, exciting, emerging artists. The programme will contain elements of her own inspirations, from Dada and Salvador Dali to David Bowie, Cabaret Voltaire to Maria Calls, Surrealism to the Sex Pistols, and will culminate in a climatic final performance.
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