SKY/NOW TV, BRITBOX & FACEBOOK WATCH
Flesh And Blood
Broadcast across four nights a few weeks ago, this domestic drama can now be binge-watched in its entirety. An all-star cast – including Stephen Rea, Francesca Annis and Imelda Staunton, as well as Russell Tovey and Sharon Small – bring to life an intriguing story involving love and jealousy.
An all-star cast – including Stephen Rea, Francesca Annis and Imelda Staunton (above) – bring to life an intriguing story involving love and jealousy in Flesh And Blood
When widowed matriarch Vivien falls for retired surgeon Mark, her three grown-up children are shocked by the speed at which she’s moved on from the recent death of their father.
Mark’s behaviour also makes them suspicious of his motives – is he everything he claims to be? Staunton plays the creepy neighbour who’s a little too close for comfort. BritBox, available now
Sacred Lies
The first series of this gripping chiller was based on Stephanie Oakes’s novel The Sacred Lies Of Minnow Bly, but the second, subtitled The Singing Bones, features a completely different story.
Inspired by a Brothers Grimm tale, as well as real-life murder cases, it focuses on a teenager’s fateful search for the father who abandoned her. Ryan Kwanten plays him, while Jordan Alexander takes the role of Elsie, the girl at the heart of the tale.
Juliette Lewis also pops up as an armchair detective whose path is about to cross theirs in an unforgettable manner. Facebook Watch, available now
Bear Grylls: Face The Wild
They say you should never meet your idols, and some of those who appear in this survival series may have learnt the hard way that there’s some truth in that old adage.
In each episode, Grylls invites a different fan and their friends, neighbours and family to accompany him on a dangerous journey into the wilderness.
Of course, they’re all going to survive in one piece, but seeing them out of their comfort zones is very entertaining indeed. Suddenly being locked indoors seems rather appealing. Facebook Watch, available now
McDonald & Dodds
Fans of Shakespeare & Hathaway should lap up this crime series. Like the BBC daytime drama, it’s light-hearted in tone, has a mismatched male-female duo at its core, and each episode focuses on a puzzling mystery.
Tala Gouveia and Jason Watkins star as ambitious DI McDonald and her sidekick, the shy and nerdy DS Dodds. Their working methods are very different, but in their two feature-length cases, they manage to combine their skills to solve the murders of a resident at an addiction clinic and an intruder at a wealthy man’s home.
Freddie Fox and Robert Lindsay are among the guest stars, while Bath provides the picturesque backdrop. BritBox, from Wednesday
Kidding
Jim Carrey reprises his role as Jeff Piccirillo, a much-loved children’s TV presenter known to his young fans as Mr Pickles. He continues to be the cheerful frontman for a multi-million-dollar empire run by his family while struggling to cope with tragedy in his personal life.
A good man, Jeff is about to face a dilemma – should he stick to his ‘honesty is the best policy’ approach to life, or tell his first-ever lie, allowing him to get his heart’s desire? Sky/NOW TV, available now
iPLAYER & ALL 4
Ride Upon The Storm
The thrilling Danish drama from Bafta-winning Borgen creator Adam Price is back for a second series. Lars Mikkelsen (House Of Cards) reprises his role as charismatic priest Johannes Krogh, who rules his family with a rod of religious iron.
Lars Mikkelsen (above with Ann Eleonora Jorgensen) reprises his role as charismatic priest Johannes Krogh in the second series of thrilling Danish drama Ride Upon The Storm
The story picks up as the clan tries to come to terms with the events of the first series.
While Emilie distances herself from the church, Christian throws himself into his writing in a bid to push aside the guilt he feels. Johannes, however, will never allow Christian to forget. All 4, from Sunday
Models: Street To Catwalk
Apparently the ‘Manchester look’ is de rigueur in the fashion world. The bosses at Nemesis are thrilled about that because it’s the city’s leading modelling agency, so they reckon they’ve got plenty of untapped talent on their doorstep who fit the bill.
In a four-part series we meet some of them as they’re put through their paces and learn if they’ve got what it takes to grace magazine covers across the globe and to step onto catwalks from Milan to New York.
Among them is nervous labourer Jordan and Ethan, who’s been in and out of young offenders’ institutes for years. Can they grab this amazing, life-changing opportunity? BBC3/ iPlayer, from Sunday
The Vivienne Takes On Hollywood
Last year, James Lee Williams, aka The Vivienne, was crowned the first winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. His prize was the chance to make a music video in Hollywood, and his progress is charted in this six-part series.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner James Lee Williams, aka The Vivienne (above with Marissa Jaret Winokur), is the star of this documentary which charts his bid to take on Hollywood
Each week we’ll see how Williams’ alter ego copes with being coached by voice and acting experts while learning about the US showbiz industry – including Tinseltown’s darker underbelly.
In the first edition, he receives advice from award-winning performer Marissa Jaret Winokur. BBC3/ iPlayer, from Thursday, 6pm
The A Word
Lee Ingleby, Morven Christie and Christopher Eccleston are the familiar faces in acclaimed writer Peter Bowker’s moving domestic drama, but it’s young Max Vento who steals the show as Joe, a young boy with autism.
His dysfunctional family’s attempt to come to terms with his diagnosis is at the heart of the story, while their own social problems and issues are also brought to light.
Both series are available to stream, ahead of the imminent third run. BBC iPlayer, from Thursday
David Walliams Shows
Three of Walliams’ family dramas are back on iPlayer: Mr Stink, Gangsta Granny and, best of all, The Boy In The Dress, about a football-loving lad who is frustrated by the boring, grey world he inhabits. Celebrating creativity, difference, football and fashion, it stars Jennifer Saunders, James Buckley, Kate Moss and Walliams – it’s a family classic. BBC iPlayer, available now
nudes4sale
Reporter Ellie Flynn investigates how thousands of ordinary people, including teenagers, are selling their nude photos and videos online.
She meets Lauren, who earns £37,000 a month and rising. But then Flynn meets a young girl with a history of mental-health issues who only earns a few hundred pounds and is struggling. What are the sites doing to protect vulnerable, underage contributors? BBC3/iPlayer, from Tuesday, 6am
Why is there such a buzz about…?
Tiger King (Netflix)
It’s difficult to imagine a more emphatic demonstration of the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction. If you locked a gaggle of deranged screenwriters in a room, told them to set their imaginations free and pumped in hallucinogenic drugs, it’s unlikely they could come up with anything as bizarre as this jaw-dropping, seven-episode documentary.
It’s difficult to imagine a more emphatic demonstration of the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction than Tiger King, a documentary centred on Joe Exotic (above)
It is, essentially, about the feud between Joe Exotic, tiger breeder and owner of a zoo in Oklahoma, and his enemy Carole Baskin, who runs a big-cat rescue organisation. But that’s akin to saying Game Of Thrones is about genealogy or that The Sopranos charts the vagaries of the waste- management business.
Because Tiger King also features murder, hit men, polygamy, drugs, a doctor of ‘mystical science’, a zoo-owner who may have been the model for Tony Montana in Scarface, a missing multi-millionaire and a woman who returned to work only a couple of days after having her arm bitten off by a tiger.
A movie is reportedly in the works but, seriously, why bother?
Neil Armstrong
AMAZON
Flo And Joan: Alive On Stage
The loopy sisters (real names Nicola and Rosie Dempsey) are singing superstars in the making.
Loopy sisters Flo and Joan (real names Nicola and Rosie Dempsey, above) are singing superstars in the making and guaranteed to get you singing along
Chances are you’ve only seen them in those Nationwide TV ads, so catch them here as they air their seemingly jolly ditties, shot through with sisterly bants and cynical payoffs.
Musically excellent, lyrically playful and comedically bold, they’re guaranteed to get you singing along. Available now
Future Man
Return of the gross-out sci-fi comedy for its third and, apparently, final season. The time-travelling trio who were originally attempting to prevent medical research that would lead to an apocalypse are now fugitives, convicted of ‘time crimes’ and attempting to clean up the dreadful mess they’ve made of history.
But they’re still cracking adolescent gags and spoofing classic sci-fi tropes. It’s difficult not to be swept along by this show’s exuberant silliness. Available now
Star Trek: Picard
When it was announced that Patrick Stewart was returning to our screens as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Trekkies went into meltdown. And then the worry set in – what if the series didn’t live up to expectations?
Thankfully it did (although some have complained it’s a little too dark for their tastes), and as the final episode dropped last week, the entire run is now available to stream.
Stewart slips back into character with ease as the now retired Admiral Picard who, after a visit from a young woman in trouble, must confront his past. Available now
NETFLIX
Brews Brothers
Brothers Greg and Jeff Schaffer are the brains behind this new US sitcom, but one hopes it wasn’t inspired by their own relationship.
Brothers Greg and Jeff Schaffer are the brains behind this new sitcom about estranged siblings (Mike Castle and Alan Aisenberg, above) who find themselves running a brewery together
Mike Castle and Orange Is The New Black’s Alan Aisenberg play Adam and Wilhelm Rodman, siblings and beer brewers who have been estranged for years.
Although experts in their field, they are like chalk and cheese, both in terms of their personality and their approach to their craft – and that’s going to cause big problems when they find themselves running a brewery together. From Friday
Tigertail
Alan Yang, co-creator of Aziz Ansari’s Emmy-winning comedy-drama Master Of None, is the writer-director of this multi-generational drama. The story begins in Fifties Taiwan, just as factory worker Pin-Jui decides to head for the US in search of a better life.
Unfortunately, his American dream soon turns into a nightmare and, years later, we find him disillusioned, alienated from his daughter and lonely. However, there is hope on the horizon, but only if Pin-Jui can reconnect with his past. From Friday
Safe
If you’ve been enjoying The Stranger, then check out another thriller based on a novel by the American writer Harlan Coben. Safe, too, is fast paced and has a fine cast, led here by former Dexter star Michael C Hall, whose English accent in a British show is more than passable.
He plays Tom, a recently widowed paediatric surgeon living in a respectable gated community, but when he goes looking for a missing daughter, all manner of secrets emerge from behind the tidy facades. Amanda Abbington and Audrey Fleurot, of Spiral fame, also star. Available now
FILMS
Emma
Anya Taylor-Joy is a joy to watch in this bright new adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1815 social satire. The 23-year-old Floridian is magnetic, both coquettish and sly, as Emma Woodhouse, the meddling rich young lady whose misplaced belief in her matchmaking skills leads to turmoil, especially for her friend Harriet (Mia Goth).
With Miranda Hart as loquacious Miss Bates, it’s clear that director Autumn de Wilde wants to introduce some fun. And a little bawdiness: in its brief flashing of Mr Knightley’s bare bottom, this Emma has its own Colin Firth moment. What would Ms Austen say? Sky Store, available now
Hustlers
‘I always wanted to work with animals,’ says an imperious Jennifer Lopez of the baying Wall Street bankers who frequent the strip club where she is Queen Bee.
Director Lorene Scafaria based Hustlers on a seedy true story, but J-Lo (above) – leading a cast that includes Constance Wu and Lizzo – lends it A-list glamour and a Tina Turner-esque strut
When the bankers’ greed brings about the 2008 crash, the club’s MO changes and she and her fellow exotic dancers – including Constance Wu, rapper Cardi B and pop star Lizzo – devise a plan to fleece the rich men, who now expect more than just a pole dance.
Director Lorene Scafaria based the film on a seedy true story, but J-Lo lends it A-list glamour and a Tina Turner-esque strut. Amazon, available now
The Invisible Man
Cecilia Kass’s brilliant but abusive ex-partner, an optics expert, found a way to become invisible, faked his own death and is now continuing to torture her. At least, that’s what she says. #Believeher right? Or is Cecilia actually losing her mind?
This is the first leading role in a big studio film for the reliably superb Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) and she reaches new levels of excellence. It’s an almost unbearably intense, edge-of-your-seat thriller with some genuinely shocking scenes that provoked gasps in the cinema. Sky Store, available now
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