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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.
TV specials to watch this Christmas
Show all 14
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.
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