Alan Carr: Chatty Man Summer Special (Channel 4, 9pm)

THE irrepressible Alan Carr makes a welcome return to Friday evenings which have become about as exciting as the offer of a high five with David Cameron. This two-parter continues in the mould of the bespectacled one, who decided to go it alone back in 2009 when he and then-comedy partner Justin Lee Collins parted ways after presenting The Friday/Sunday Night Project for three years.

"As long as we keep going up a gear, I'll keep wanting to do it, know what I mean? I mean, the guests we had - Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Jamie Foxx, Channing Tatum, Miley, it was good, it was building up momentum, and I felt like, 'Yes, this is going somewhere.'

"A favourite on many levels were Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx. Chatty Man's great for getting those hot guests, like Gaga and Rihanna, but the ones that we don't get, that Graham Norton and Jonathan Ross do, is the A-list Hollywood set, you know what I mean? And so they came on, and they were so great, so much fun,” Carr says.

He’s well-known for pouring booze down his guests' neck, and there has been more than one occasion when his interviewee has left the sofa a little bit tipsy. He remembers David Hasslehoff as one of them.

"I think he was already there, to be honest. I prefer him when he's unguarded, he was really sounding off about Britain's Got Talent the last time we had him on.

"And also when we had Courtney Love on, she was a little bit tiddly and stuff. It makes for a better interview."

Tonight Miranda Hart will be getting comfy on the sofa to chat about her latest stand-up arena tour, while Vin Diesel drops by to plug his film, Guardians of the Galaxy. Meanwhile, the Inbetweeners stars James Buckley, Simon Bird, Blake Harrison and Joe Thomas have taken time out of their busy schedule to discuss the second film in the franchise.

And music comes courtesy of Rizzle Kicks, who perform their latest single Tell Her.

Northern Soul: Living for the Weekend (BBC4, 9.30pm)

THIS one-off documentary follows the rise of music and dance movement Northern Soul throughout the decade of the 1970s, explaining how it was a unique and peculiar genre of music - and it all began with DJ Russ Winstanley and the Wigan Casino. This was a time when rare American soul tunes and their heavy beats were sought after by obsessive DJs from northern British towns; a time that influenced fashions as much as it did dance moves.

While using archive footage and vivid first-hand accounts, the programme also hears from Northern Soul DJs Ian Levine, Kev Roberts, Ian Dewhirst, Richard Searling and Colin Curtis. Plus, the likes of author Bob Stanley, Radio 2 DJ Tony Blackburn and DJ and producer Pete Waterman offer their thoughts and memories.

The Secret History of Our Streets (BBC2, 9pm)

BACK in 2012, the documentary told the story of six London locations from Victorian times to the present day, including Portland Road in Notting Hill and its diversity of residents, and Caledonian Road, which has always been resolutely working class. In the first episode of this series, we're looking at Edinburgh's Moray Estate, which the Earl of Moray commissioned architect James Gillespie Graham to design in 1822 as an expansion of the New Town - which even today remains one of the most upmarket and exclusive areas of the Scottish capital.