There's a new season of Putin vs the West, Crimecall is back, there’s a documentary looking at what’s claimed to be The Greatest Night in Pop, while Victoria Coren Mitchell hosts the final of Only Connect . . .
Pick of the Day
Putin vs the West, 9.00pm, BBC Two
The second season of this series proposes to offer the inside story of the year that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and how it rocked the foundations of European security.
This opening episode goes behind the scenes and explores how Vladimir Putin's invasion exposed cracks in the global order as the resolve of Ukraine and its allies was tested like never before.
Key players - including then UK PM Boris Johnson, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin, CIA director Bill Burns and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres - describe how they came under increasing pressure to step up and provide Ukraine with more support.
New or Returning Shows
Chinook: Zulu Delta 576, 10.40pm, BBC One
This year is the 30th anniversary of the devastating helicopter crash that wiped out a generation of Northern Ireland's top intelligence personnel.
The families of the victims still on the hunt for answers and this documentary allows them to share their stories and experiences.
Also, experts offer their thoughts on what went wrong that fateful night and journalists uncover what the MoD and RAF did not want the families and the broader public to know.
Crimecall, 9.35pm, RTÉ One
Streaming on RTÉ Player
It’s that time of the month again. Happy New Year to all the crime fighters out there!
Carla O'Brien presents appeals for help from the public in solving crimes, featuring reconstructions, CCTV footage, news features and a panel of police advisers taking calls.
To Catch a Copper, 9.00pm, Channel 4
Here’s a brand-new documentary series following Avon and Somerset Police's Professional Standards department as they work to bring corrupt officers to justice.
The first episode focuses on officers accused of seriously mistreating or sexually exploiting people in their hour of need.
In three cases, the initial judgement of investigators is that there is clear evidence of police misconduct, but getting criminal charges, convictions and civil sanctions is often not straightforward.
New to Stream
The Greatest Night in Pop, Netflix
That title’s doing an awful lot of heavy lifting.
On January 25, 1985, dozens of the biggest names in music convened at a studio in Los Angeles, checked their egos at the door and recorded a song to benefit African famine relief.
It was the USA’s equivalent of Band Aid, who had recorded Do They Know It’s Christmas? just a couple of months previously.
The Greatest Night in Pop chronicles the massive undertaking to assemble what’s described as 'the world’s most impressive supergroup’ in a world before mobile phones and email.
That group of artists - led by the song’s co-writers and two of the most significant musicians of the 20th century, Michael Jackson (above) and Lionel Richie - united to record We Are the World.
Featuring never-before-seen footage, the film details the early planning stages, including the writing sessions with Richie and Jackson, and goes inside the famed Henson Studios where We Are the World was recorded.
Many of the artists who were there - Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Smokey Robinson, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny Loggins, Dionne Warwick, and Huey Lewis - reminisce alongside musicians, engineers, and production crew about one of the most storied nights in US music history.
Don’t Miss
True Detective: Night Country, 9.00pm, Sky Atlantic
Season 4 is moving along nicely and is a vast improvement on the last two.
When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace.
To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.
Silent Witness, 9.00pm, BBC One
The latest two-parter sees the team investigate when the mummified corpse of a woman is found in a flat after being dead for a year.
They draw on all of their forensic and pathology knowledge to find out the truth of her identity and what happened to her.
Even if the world had forgotten her, the Lyell are determined that she must get justice.
Born from the Same Stranger, 9.00pm, UTV
This week’s episode follows the story of a brother and sister, with Tom being conceived from a double donation of both sperm and egg, while Isabel was conceived from a donated embryo.
Both trace their donors successfully and hear their reasons for donating, but Isabel also discovers she has a genetic twin, who was born seven years before her.
Ending Today
Michael Mosley: Secrets of Your Big Shop, 8.00pm, Channel 4
This short series - just four episodes - comes to an end with Michael Mosley looking at food that makes people sick.
A couple in their forties planning their wedding want to protect their heart health, but since they already cook all their meals from scratch and shun processed food, so they're not sure where the problem begins.
Plus, Michael also checks out viral TikTok claims about so-called skinny girl shots and the sinus cleansing garlic trick, and investigates high-street lunch offering
Only Connect, 8.00pm, BBC Two
Victoria Coren Mitchell (above) asks the questions in the final as the Thrifters and the Also Rans battle it out to take the title and succeed the Strigiformes and be named champions.
The contestants must use patience, lateral thinking and sheer inspiration to make connections between groups of four things that may at first appear not to be linked, with one set of clues asking what concludes the sequence 1st of 26: A, 2nd of 26: H, 3rd of 26: R.
The answer’s obvious. Isn't it?
