From the Masterchef final to Portrait Artist of the Year: What to watch on TV tonight

Portrait of the Year finalists will have 240 minutes to paint Sir Ian McKellen

Sven, Brian and Jamie will compete in the final of Masterchef: The Professionals (BBC)

MasterChef: The Professionals

8pm, BBC2

This is it then, and after the awayday excitements of the preceding rounds, it’s back to the MasterChef kitchen to cook a three-course meal for Marcus, Gregg and Monica. The three finalists have 180 minutes to do that, before the winner is revealed.

Portrait Artist of the Year 2014

8pm, Sky Arts 1

Meanwhile, at the National Portrait Gallery, another marathon TV talent contest finishes as the finalists have 240 minutes to paint Sir Ian McKellen.

Len Goodman’s Big Band Bonanza

9pm & 1.20am, BBC4

The suddenly ubiquitous Strictly judge revisits the music of his youth – and the swing bands led by the likes of Ted Heath, Syd Lawrence, Joe Loss and, of course, Glenn Miller.

Lottery Stories: Be Careful What You Wish For

9pm, ITV

A spot of pre-Christmas schadenfreude for those whose numbers resolutely fail to come up. Among the hard-luck stories are Michael Carroll, the former binman who took just eight years to spend the £9.7m he won in 2002, and a couple who separated and ended up half a million pounds in debt – despite having won £1.8m in 2005.

Man Down at Christmas

10pm, Channel 4

Greg Davies’s gleefully puerile sitcom (well, what do you expect from a comic actor who found fame in The Inbetweeners?) returns for a one-off special. Sadly, Rik Mayall is no longer with us to reprise his role as clownish teacher Dan’s lunatic-fringe dad.