Tuesday’s best TV: Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas, Loch Lomond: A Year in the Wild, American Horror Story: Hotel, Catastrophe (original) (raw)

Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas

8pm, Channel 4

Why go to the shops when you can create a festive gift of soap out of your firstborn’s snot? Rejoice, people who have time for this sort of thing, because the lovely Kirstie Allsop is here with a new series and a whole lot of infectious enthusiasm. The high priestess of craft will be taking inspiration from Switzerland as she learns how to make personalised paper-cut pictures, a garland and a fondue laced with booze. If you fancy upcycling, Jay Blades will demonstrate how to turn a bookcase into a doll’s house. Hannah Verdier

Loch Lomond: A Year in the Wild

8pm, Channel 5

Final episode covering 12 months at Loch Lomond and the Trossachs national park, exploring the effects of winter before the Caledonian calendar is flipped closed. A mild end to the year poses problems for the park population, as red deer are forced to retreat to higher ground, salmon go for months without their regular winter diet, and the white camouflage carefully curated by mountain hares to blend into snowy backgrounds proves out of place with the ground remaining a stubbornly vibrant green. Mark Gibbings-Jones

Capital

9pm, BBC1

You could argue there’s rather too much going on in Peter Bowker’s adaptation of John Lanchester’s Capital, but maybe that’s the point. Our cities, especially London, are places where comings, goings, catastrophes and triumphs are the stuff of everyday life, and Capital captures this state of flux beautifully. In tonight’s episode, the “we want what you have” campaign gets spookier, Roger preaches “fiscal rectitude”, Quentina is in big trouble, and Mary and Smitty look on as Petunia’s health deteriorates. Jonathan Wright

Power to the People

9pm, BBC4

Final instalment of this three-parter shot from inside SSE, one of the Big Six energy companies. This episode, The Customer Is Always Right, is the series’ best illustration yet of our vexed relationship with energy providers. When we think of them at all, it’s not to appreciate the comforts they provide, but to grumble (not always without reason) at perceived disparity between competence and profits. This episode sees the top brass fretting over improving their image, while the workers continue their vital, thankless labours. Andrew Mueller

Inventions That Rocked the World

9pm, Quest

The history of popular music has also been one of technical innovations. With expert talking heads such as Paul Gambaccini, we cast back to the age of the phonograph, which captured the recordings of Enrico Caruso, through to the rise of the 78rpm disc, then the long-playing album, followed by cassettes, CDs and MP3s. Guests, including the Kinks’ Dave Davies, Rick Wakeman, Don Letts and Annie Nightingale reflect on the implications of these new formats. David Stubbs

American Horror Story: Hotel

10pm, FOX

Although her acting debut has been met warily by US critics, there’s no doubt that Judas-worshipping, meat-wearing Lady Gaga fits this horror anthology’s eerie ambience perfectly. This week’s episode explores the backstory of her bloodthirsty hotelier character, the Countess. Told almost entirely in flashback form, it’s the tale of a Hollywood ingenue corrupted by sex, lies and vampires. While it’s true that the pop provocateuse’s face is largely static, that in itself lends a certain menace. Hannah J Davies

Catastrophe

10pm, Channel 4

With Sharon having kicked Rob out after he came clean about what happened at work with the flirty French woman, the second series of Horgan and Delaney’s sitcom sees the pair thrown into a simulacrum of their dysfunctional single lives of about three years ago. Rob Delaney might be a capable foil, but Sharon Horgan is the real draw here; in her namesake she has created one of the most self-possessed, aspirational and intentionally funny women on television since Elaine in Seinfeld. Rachel Aroesti

Film choice

Richard Farnsworth in The Straight Story. Photograph: Can/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999)
9pm, TCM
Whimsical, slow and unfailingly gentle, this is exactly what you wouldn’t expect from weird David Lynch of Blue Velvet infamy. Fine old western character actor Richard Farnsworth exudes charm and dignity as Iowa farmer Alvin Straight, who hops on to his motorised lawnmower to visit his dying brother. It’s a long road, dotted with eccentrics, rich with Lynch’s sly vision of American life. Paul Howlett

Today’s best live sport

Snooker: UK Championship The tournament, won by Ronnie O’Sullivan last year, continues. 1pm, BBC2

International Hockey: Great Britain v Belgium After the Davis Cup tennis, the nations face off again, this time in a Men’s Hero Hockey World League Final Pool A clash. 3pm, BT Sport 1

Capital One Cup Football: Middlesbrough v Everton Quarter-final action from the Riverside stadium. Can Boro cause another upset against a Premier League side? 7.30pm, Sky Sports 1