Blog

Oct 20, 2024

TV tonight: an exhilarating night of music with Florence + the Machine | Television & radio | The Guardian

Florence Welch beautifully performs hits from Lungs at the Proms. Plus, who will make it through to Halloween week in Strictly? Here’s what to watch this evening 8.20pm, BBC Two It has been 15 years

Florence Welch beautifully performs hits from Lungs at the Proms. Plus, who will make it through to Halloween week in Strictly? Here’s what to watch this evening

8.20pm, BBC Two

It has been 15 years since Florence Welch belted her way to chart success with her band’s debut album, Lungs. Over the summer, she celebrated with gorgeous live performances with Jules Buckley and his orchestra and London Contemporary Voices – and she sure knows how to put on a show. Expect reimagined big-hitters, including Dog Days Are Over, You’ve Got the Love and Kiss With a Fist. Hollie Richardson

6.25pm, BBC One

Everybody is looking to spook on the dancefloor in next week’s Halloween special, so they’ll need to impress here to make it through. Performances will include Sam and Nikita’s quickstep to a Natasha Bedingfield pop banger, and Paul and Karen’s samba to a disco hit. HR

7.15pm, Channel 4

If you can quell your anger at our railways having been dismantled, this jaunt along old routes is a fine way to access scenic history. That said, this week’s subject is a line in Yorkshire that bears the legacy of dodgy 19th-century rail mogul George Hudson, whose methods are not worthy of revival. York and Hull are on the itinerary. Jack Seale

8.20pm, Channel 4

Nadifa Mohamed presents this fascinating documentary about how the people of Britain reacted when US troops arrived during the second world war, bringing promises of freedom and, paradoxically, codified racism within their segregated army. Winston Churchill seemingly wrestled with this; cheeringly, most Brits ignored it. Phil Harrison

9.20pm, BBC One

Are the Delaney family’s troubles rooted in Troy’s oedipal complex? That’s ramping up on every timeline this episode, when he makes a risky romantic gesture with his older lover and gets thrown under the bus by Daddy Delaney. Meanwhile, the mystery of missing Joy only deepens. Ellen E Jones

9.50pm, BBC Two

A new series kicks off with a debut performance from Jade (who, since leaving Little Mix, has dropped the surname Thirlwall), music from Stockport favourites Blossoms and a John Lennon classic covered by Queen drummer Roger Taylor. HR

Beasts, 10pm, BBC Four

A tragic drama of pastoral dreams and dark hearts, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s film tracks a dispute between neighbouring farmers that escalates out of control. Farming couple Antoine (Denis Ménochet) and Olga (Marina Foïs) have moved from France to a pretty but poor area of Galicia in Spain to grow vegetables. But his refusal to sell his land for a wind turbine project sets him against most of the village – in particular lifelong resident Xan (Luis Zahera), a domineering figure and, it appears, relentlessly vengeful. A devastating turn of events leads to an intensely moving third act, in a story where certitude, defiance and obstinacy warp the lives of all the characters. Simon Wardell

Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare, out now, Netflix

The hit podcast – about a woman subjected to an extraordinary 10-year catfishing campaign – has been turned into a compelling documentary by Lyttanya Shannon. It adds layers of visual deception – photos, messages – to the tale of Kirat Assi, a marketing worker and radio presenter who struck up a friendship on Facebook with a cardiologist, Bobby, which remained online but developed into love. However, Bobby wasn’t who he seemed – and what is revealed is an astonishingly sustained exercise in manipulation by a secret perpetrator. SW

Drive-Away Dolls, 10am, 10pm, Sky Cinema Premiere

This is essentially another Coen brothers film, despite only one of them being present. Ethan, with his wife Tricia Cooke as co-writer, offers up a breezy lesbian road trip caper that retains the siblings’ usual quirky humour, violent deaths and eccentric characters. The devil-may-care Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and her buttoned-up friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) sign up to deliver a car to Florida from Philadelphia – but there is a mysterious suitcase in the boot that others are desperate to get their hands on … SW

A Field in England, 1.50am, Film4

Kill List director Ben Wheatley’s return to British folk horror is set during the confusion and flux of the English civil war, where the breakdown of order leaves space for all manner of weirdness to flourish. Reece Shearsmith plays astrologer’s assistant Whitehead, in pursuit of O’Neill (Michael Smiley) who has stolen his master’s occult books. The titular field is the site of a hunt for “a treasure”, which brings together a ragtag bunch of cavaliers and many hallucinogenic mushrooms. Part Waiting for Godot, part Aphex Twin video, it’s a beautifully deadpan nightmare. SW

Premier League Football: Tottenham v West Ham, 11am, TNT Sports 1 Bournemouth v Arsenal is at 5pm on Sky Sports Main Event.

Premiership Rugby Union: Bristol Bears v Saracens, 2.15pm, TNT Sports 2 At Ashton Gate. Harlequins v Bath follows at 5.15pm.