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DRAMA Lynley 8.30pm BBC One Full series available on iPlayer NEW SERIES When the BBC axed NEW The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, it said it wanted to “move on”. But nearly two decades later, we find that it’s come full circle, hence this reboot starring Leo Suter as the aristocratic detective and Sofia Barclay as his working-class sidekick, DS Barbara Havers. Aside from that recasting, it’s pretty much business as usual, with Lynley still someone who’s concerned more with justice than he is with his title, while the tenacious Havers remains ever alert to the ways a suspect with wealth or privilege can use power to protect themselves. As such, theirs is an unusual partnership, though their first case feels highly conventional, dealing as it does with a suspicious death in…

2 LORD OF THE FLIES Coming soon BBC One Adolescence co-writer Jack Thorne gets stuck into another story of young male rage in this adaptation of William Golding’s seminal castaway story. But don’t expect too many familiar faces — the casting team specifically sought out lads of 10–13 with no previous acting experience to embody Ralph, Piggy, Simon, Jack and the rest. HUW FULLERTON 3 A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS 19 January Sky Atlantic Game of Thrones goes granular in this smaller-scale spin-off that follows a lowly knight aiming for gold and glory at a tournament. Familiar faces like Bertie Carvel and Daniel Ings turn up as nobles, but scrappy lead characters Ser Duncan and Squire Egg are played by newcomers Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell. HF 4 SCARPETTA…

If Amazon allows sideloading, £20 for new Stick is a bargain I completely agree with your two-star verdict on Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick 4K Select (Issue 725, page 29, pictured right). Banning sideloading is the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut. It stigmatises all those people who sideload apps for legal purposes, not to watch Premier League football without paying. But might Amazon backtrack on this stupid decision? It’s already done so to allow VPNs (Issue 725, page 7). If you think it will, then the current price of just £19.99 for the device (www.snipca.com/57247), down from £49.99, could prove to be a bargain. I might take a punt. Jim Howard CA SAYS We understand Jim’s reasoning, but we doubt Amazon will reverse its ban on sideloading. This was…

DRAMA Beyond Paradise 8.00pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer Criticism of Beyond Paradise seems almost petty, as no matter what negative observation is made, the reply will always be, “Yes, but it gets eight million viewers, so who are you to carp?” Fair point. But, in my humble opinion, series one could have done with a few more dead bodies. I’m sorry, but where there’s mystery, there ought to be murder. If Vera climbs out of her Land Rover, it’s to examine a corpse on some windswept stretch of coastline. If Sunny from Unforgotten steps into a suburban home, he should be met by the sight of a skeleton behind some recently exposed brickwork. But thankfully (and yes, this does sound inhuman to say), there is a juicy homicide for…

FILM Oasis: Supersonic ★★★★ 15 10.00pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming A lot of music bios spend too long covering the artist’s post-peak years; the overhyped comebacks and disappointing later albums. Supersonic feels no such obligation. Instead, this version of the Oasis story ends at the apex of their career — the 1996 gig at Knebworth. “It did feel like the end of something, rather than the beginning,” says Noel Gallagher. While some reviewers criticised the omission of certain events, in reality it’s this film’s sharp focus that provides its cutting edge. Do fans really need to hear more about cringey “Cool Britannia” or the Battle of Britpop with Blur? The emphasis here is on the finer details: from Noel’s array of haircuts while working as a roadie, to beefing up…

Thank you! It was a sad day when I learned that Sound & Vision was no longer to be. I received a notification that the remainder of my 25-plus-year subscription was going to be fulfilled with Stereophile. Meh! What good is a magazine that reviews high-end and high-dollar components going to do for a budget-minded 68-year-old semi-audiophile? After several issues, I discovered that I was getting an education. The more reviews I read, the more I learned about my lifelong hobby. This really kicked in when I got an issue with the Recommended Components guide. Since then, I have built the best-sounding system of my 50 years of listening. It consists of a Elac DPA 2 amplifier, Shiit Freya Plus preamp, Schiit Bifrost DAC, a pair of Philharmonic BMR monitors,…

FILM P Milli Vanilli ★★★★ 10.05pm BBC2 Catch up via iPlayer The title of smash-hit 1988 single Girl You Know It’s True proved bleakly ironic for its supposed singers, Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus. In 1990, the pair were outed as the frontmen for a pop fabrication: dancers by trade, they’d been hired by producer Frank Farian to lip-sync on stage and make-believe in interviews. In the wake of this scandal, the blockbuster success enjoyed by Milli Vanilli in the late 80s was immediately eclipsed by their new status: punchline. This documentary relates how the hoax came together, and the effect it had on Pilatus — who died in 1998 — and Morvan, who is interviewed here alongside other key figures. There’s fascinating insight into the sheer logistics of Farian’s…

REALITY The Jury: Murder Trial 9.00pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming NEW SERIES Trial by jury is at the heart of our justice system, but is the decision made by 12 random people thrown together guaranteed to be an objective and correct one? To test the system, over the next four nights two juries — each unaware of the other — hear the evidence from a real murder case (names and dates have been changed for anonymity) re-enacted word-for-word by actors in a courtroom, then consider what they’ve heard. The verdicts are compared on Thursday. “John Risedale” is accused of bludgeoning his wife “Helen” to death with a hammer. From the outset it’s clear the jurors have different opinions, life experiences, personalities, and attitudes. In their teabreaks, derogatory remarks are made…

DOCUMENTARY The Big British Beef Battle 8.00pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming Many of us have a nagging awareness that the best thing we could do tomorrow to help the planet would be to go vegan, even if we fall down on the willpower to do so. We might also know that short of that gold standard, vegetarianism is a good second-best, from an ethical point of view. Or simply cutting back on the meat we eat. There’s also the less well-charted compromise explored in this documentary: when you do eat meat, choose chicken, not beef. No preview nuggets of the programme were available, but presenter Ade Adepitan looks at the science and learns that the climate cost of beef is the highest of any foodstuff — in the UK, around…

DRAMA All Creatures Great and Small 9.00pm Channel 5 Catch up via My5 When we last saw Helen Herriot at series four’s end, she was expecting her first baby, and one notable feature of this Christmas special is the sound of puffing and panting coming from Skeldale House. But the anguished noises are emanating not from Helen but Richard Carmody, who’s had a rather unfortunate encounter with an animal. Details of that encounter are under embargo, as is much of the rest of this episode, so you’ll have to wait and see how serious matters are for Richard and whether the writers can resist giving us a nativity scene featuring mum-to-be Helen in lieu of the Virgin Mary. What’s a given, though, is the show’s feelgood factor, something we also see in…

REMEMBRANCE D-Day 80 from 10.15am BBC1 Catch up on iPlayer Two days of programming dedicated to remembering the events of 6 June 1944, and the immense courage and sacrifice of those involved, starts at 10.15am with Dame Helen Mirren, no less. She hosts The Allies Prepare, a live event in Portsmouth honouring the work of veterans and Home Front workers. Alongside Anita Rani and JJ Chalmers, it features spoken-word testimony and musical performances from a number of familiar faces. The One Show gets in on the act at 7pm by reuniting one surviving veteran with a restored Dakota aircraft and bringing several Wrens together to share memories of the role they played in the Normandy landings. Finally, for today at least, Tribute to the Fallen (8.30pm) has coverage from Normandy’s…

COMMEMORATION VE Day 80: the Nation Pays Tribute 10.30am BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer Thursday marks the climax of the VE Day anniversary celebrations but the party starts here. The BBC has pulled out all its many stops this week, in director general Tim Davie’s words “to bring the nation together to pay tribute to the World War II generation and ensure their legacy is remembered”. With the benefit of the Bank Holiday, more of us will be able to enjoy the morning’s live coverage of the military procession taking place in London — assuming we’re not busy stringing up bunting for our own street parties. (There will be plenty of those across the country, with correspondents bringing us a flavour of some.) The central London procession, complete with military bands…

FACTUAL Johnny Vegas’s Little Shop of Antiques 9.00pm Quest Catch up via Discovery+ NEW SERIES If you saw Johnny Vegas: Carry On Glamping, in which he upcycled vintage vehicles for his “field of dreams”, you’ll know what to expect from this — it’s just as endearingly loopy. This time the comedian — along with his long-suffering assistant Beverley ”Bev” Dixon — turns his lifelong passion for collecting quirky treasures into another of his dreams: a pop-up vintage/collectibles shop. Having decluttered his home (“I call it emptying my heart,” he says) of his impressive hoard of eclectic items, he still needs more stock for the Cheshire shop and so sets off looking for things that are “SPQR” (small profit, quick return). As he trawls shops, markets and warehouses, picking up a John Gielgud…

ART Art’s Most Erotic 9.00pm Sky Arts Catch up via Now NEW SERIES Waldemar Januszczak begins a three-part examination of art’s most controversial and tantalising pieces: horrific and satanic artworks are still to come, but he begins with the obvious crowd-pleaser of the world’s greatest sexy paintings and sculpture. A wry double entendre — or just a single one is never far from our host’s lips as he strides through a global odyssey that begins in a cave in the south of France, where a prehistoric carving of Venus boasts “big symbolic ambitions”. From there he hops over to Pompeii, where it’s revealed that the locals were in the middle of having a lovely time when the lava rudely interrupted them, and to the temples of Khajuraho in India, whose eye-watering sculptures of erotic…

DOCUMENTARY Amazing Hotels: Life beyond the Lobby 8.00pm BBC2 Catch up via iPlayer Monica Galetti — first with Giles Coren and now with Rob Rinder — has visited some truly remarkable hotels for this series, but Wonderland, just outside Shanghai, is without doubt the most surprising. It’s an “earthscraper”, built downwards into the side of a massive disused quarry. Everything is upside-down — ground level is 88 metres above the base of the building, while the higher the floor number, the lower you are. Every night there’s a spectacular light show projected onto the quarry walls, which you can watch from your balcony… in your PJs, if you want. “It’s surreal,” says Rob, “but is it a theme park or a hotel?” Well, both, because the manager describes it as…

DOCUMENTARY Hidden Treasures of the National Trust 9.00pm (9.30pm Wales) BBC2 Catch up via iPlayer Kingston Lacy in Dorset and A la Ronde in Devon couldn’t look more different, but the former owners of both properties flew in the face of convention when they were alive. Adventurer William John Bankes was forced into exile after being caught in a homosexual act that, in the early 19th century, was punishable by hanging. Yet despite knowing he would never see Kingston Lacy again, he kept commissioning beautiful pieces for it, transforming it into an opulent Venetian Renaissance palazzo full of art, gold, marble and obelisks. Sixty miles down the coast two independent unmarried cousins Mary and Jane Parminter returned from their Grand Tour (unusually for Georgian women they travelled without a male…

DOCUMENTARY 24 Hours in A&E 9.00pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming With an emergency department that treats more than 600 people a day on average, Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham has been a fantastic, bustling setting for the veteran medical documentary series since it relocated here from London a few years ago. As the cameras return for a new season, we find ourselves following 16-year-old Kaeden, who is suspected of having sepsis, former RAF pilot Steve, who’s been involved in a motorbike crash, and 63-year-old Paul, who has — brace yourselves — partially amputated his own thumb in a workplace accident. As always, the medical details run neck-and-neck in the race for our attention with the life stories told by the patients and their families. Steve’s wife Pat talks about life…

DOCUMENTARY Helmand: Tour of Duty 9.00pm BBC2 Catch up via iPlayer This documentary doesn’t delve into the politics, controversies and whys and wherefores of the war in Afghanistan. Instead, a decade on from the withdrawal of British troops from Helmand Province, ten soldiers from the Welsh Guards, who were stationed in the region in 2009 and fought in what would become known as the British Army’s bloodiest summer in half a century, tell their stories. Their accounts of the comrades they lost and the injuries they sustained are hypnotic and disturbing. Several say they haven’t spoken about Helmand before, and likely won’t again. One is guardsman James Barber, whose recollection of almost drowning when a troop carrier overturned is unforgettably harrowing. Their fight didn’t end after returning home. Struggles with…

DRAMA Casualty 8.45pm BBC One Catch up via iPlayer Holby’s frequent crises may be more spectacular, and we can but hope that the private lives of its staff members are far messier, but as Casualty enters its 40th-anniversary year, it remains one of the few dramas on UK television seeking to capture the head-spinning exhaustion of life at the sharp end of the NHS. Take tonight’s two fresh starters: bright-eyed Kim Chang (Jasmine Bayes) and cocksure Matty Linlaker (Aron Julius), one all pink pom-pom pencils and home-baked cookies, the other seeking to dazzle with talk of being a shoo-in for a fellowship. Yet within the space of 50 minutes, any ideals they had are looking as tarnished as Kim’s puke-stained medical scrubs. As veteran Stevie (Elinor Lawless) comments to these newbies, the…

FACTUAL Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr 8.00pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer The budding designers in this competition have gone all out to look distinctive and, in some cases, downright wacky. There are jaunty berets, waxed moustaches, Amy Winehouse eyeliner and a clown’s outfit. You dread to think how they’ll demonstrate their signature style when transforming the former nuns’ cells in a convent into bijou, B&B bedrooms. Alan Carr, fresh from renovating an Italian property, feels the same: “Will your designs be divine or holy crap?” he wonders, tongue in cheek. However, after two days’ work, some of the rooms that judges Michelle Ogundehin and Abigail Ahern view are very accomplished, with great use of texture, light and colour palette. There’s one that’s inspired by The Sound of Music,…

When Apple switched from Intel processors to its own chips in 2020, the difference was night and day. Apple silicon provides far more performance and does so with much lower power consumption, noise and heat levels. So it might sound odd to hear that Apple is considering switching back to Intel chips, but that’s the claim from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Yet things aren’t quite what they seem. According to Kuo, Intel is “expected to begin shipping Apple’s lowest-end M processor as early as 2027,” with shipments potentially taking place in the second or third quarter of that year. The tech analyst cites “industry surveys” to claim that Intel is poised to become an “advanced-node supplier” for Apple’s Mac future chip releases. Specifically, Apple will apparently use Intel’s 18A process,…

DRAMA Grantchester 9.00pm ITV1 Full series available on ITVX Due to its improbably high turnover of vicars who’ve all had a sideline in sleuthing, it’s been easy to make jokes at the expense of Grantchester over the years. But as a new series (its penultimate, sob) gets under way, it feels apt to note its subtler aspects. This first episode, for instance (there’s another at 9.00pm tomorrow), opens on a scene of Easter celebration in the parish, where home-made bonnets are being judged while eggs are raced upon spoons. But beneath the surface cheer is a degree of melancholy, with Alphy (Rishi Nair) clearly lonely despite a string of first dates, and Leonard (Al Weaver) obviously worried that partner Daniel (Oliver Dimsdale) will be exposing himself to trauma should he try to…

DOCUMENTARY Inside the Factory 8.00pm BBC One Catch up via iPlayer “I’m like a kid in a sweet shop… well, a biscuit factory,” says an excited Paddy McGuinness as he steps inside the building in Cwmbran, South Wales that’s been manufacturing bikkies since 1939. He’s following the production of Jammie Dodgers (so it’s perhaps inevitable that we hear Bob Marley’s Jamming at one point) although he can’t resist taking a nostalgic detour to another production line to see Wagon Wheels being rolled out, too. There’s the usual conveyor belt of statistics, jolly chat with workers and shots of industrial machinery churning out dough/jam/filling (delete as applicable), while Cherry Healey enjoys herself holding a scientific dunking test to see which biscuit is best for this very British habit, as well as learning about…

CORONATION STREET EMMERDALE For the Corrie characters, the stakes are already high. As Debbie and Ronnie’s wedding wraps up, Todd’s planning to leave Theo, con man Carl is escaping to Germany, and Becky, Lisa and Betsy are heading to Spain. But their best-laid plans are about to come catastrophically undone… As weeks of detective work come together, Kit deduces Becky is driving to the port in Hull with Lisa and Betsy – and he also rescues Carla (above)! But as the panicked pair pursue the trio, Carla’s phone call to her true love changes everything when Becky loses control of the car (right), triggering the accident… ‘Within a split second, it’s catastrophic,’ says Vicky Myers, AKA Lisa. ‘The moment Carla hears that crash, everything else disappears,’ adds Alison King, who plays…

DRAMA Waiting for the Out 9.30pm BBC One Full series available today on iPlayer NEW SERIES There is layer upon layer of satisfying dramatic sophistication in this new series by the playwright Dennis Kelly, whose eclectic TV CV consists of the Sharon Horgan sitcom Pulling, startling conspiracy thriller Utopia and Jude Law-led folk horror The Third Day. This is much more what you’d expect from a writer known mostly for theatre, since it includes long, talky scenes set in the prison philosophy classes led by Dan (Josh Finan), a clever but nervous young man whose troubled background has left him with obsessive behaviours and a limited capacity to cope with adulthood. As Dan’s class of prisoners challenge his attempts to school them on Locke, Descartes and the rest — either because…

DOCUMENTARY Inside Our ADHD Minds 9.00pm BBC2 (Wednesday 9.00pm in Wales) Catch up via iPlayer Just as he did with his 2023 documentary about autism, Chris Packham is out to change perceptions, this time with a focus on ADHD, which he feels has been misnamed. What’s been labelled a “disorder” is, in his words, more of a “difference”. And rather than suffering from a “deficit” in attention, the reality is that those who live with this form of neurodivergence can find it difficult to regulate their ever-jumping minds. To highlight this, the compassionate Packham gets to know 23-year-old tour guide Henry and 51-year-old council worker Jo, two people at very different stages of life who share an instinct to conceal the daily organisational challenges they face for fear of upsetting…

DOCUMENTARY Lives Well Lived 6.00pm BBC2 Catch up via iPlayer A better title for this two-part obituary programme might be Lives Famously Lived. It is not dedicated to community leaders and teachers, you won’t be surprised to hear; they don’t have clips in the archives. No, we’re talking famous lives, mainly much-loved actors; people we all feel we knew, despite never having met. Chief among them this year is the great Dame Maggie Smith, who died in September at the age of 89 and is the subject of a number of programmes on BBC2 and BBC4 tonight (see below). Friends who worked with Dame Maggie, including Frances de la Tour, Charles Dance and Alex Jennings, reflect on her life and career, and with luck we’ll also be treated to examples of her…

DRAMA Dead and Buried 10.30pm, 11.20pm (regions vary, see listings) BBC1 Full series available via iPlayer NEW SERIES Actor Colin Morgan must have a morally ambiguous face, as this is the second time in recent months he’s been seen on screen as someone whose motives are unclear. In ITV1’s The Killing Kind, he was introduced as merely a potential psychopath, whereas in this revenge thriller (first shown in September in Northern Ireland) set on the Derry/Donegal border, we’re being asked to consider whether his character Michael is a changed man following a conviction for murder 20 years prior. Michael is now free with a family and a decent job, but teacher Cathy (Annabel Scholey), whose brother he killed two decades ago, doesn’t believe he’s suffered enough. And following a chance…

DOCUMENTARY Monty Don’s Spanish Gardens 8.00pm BBC2 Catch up via iPlayer NEW SERIES Traditionally, Spanish gardens have Islamic influences, following the pattern of a courtyard using symmetry and a water feature to make it a tranquil oasis away from the extreme heat of the outside world. However, Monty Don, resplendent in battered panama hat and linen jacket, is surprised in this first episode of a three-part series by the variety of gardens — whether public or private, formal or relaxed — that he visits in central Spain. They’re all uplifting and inspiring. Capital city Madrid’s majestic railway station, for instance, contains an enormous exotic garden, while a school, housed in a very modern building, has gardens within so they’re “included in the warp and weft of the curriculum”. Almost as radical is…

COMEDY DRAMA Douglas Is Cancelled 9.00pm ITV1 All episodes on ITVX What a cliffhanger. The final frame of last week’s episode was a doozy, and now writer Steven Moffat leaves us suspended in motion. What happens after Douglas (Hugh Bonneville) asks those cameras to stop filming dangles determinedly in the air — for at least another hour, in fact. And what a horribly uncomfortable hour this is. Instead, we dig into the timeline of Douglas’s working relationship with Madeline (Karen Gillan), rewinding to her first encounter with him at a book signing while she was at university and fast-forwarding to her interview (if it can be called that) for the Live at 6 job, conducted in a hotel suite by producer Toby (Ben Miles). Her dread rises as the questions…

DOCUMENTARY 20 Days in Mariupol 11.20pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming This Bafta-winning and, at time of writing, Oscar-nominated documentary offers an unflinching look at the start of Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine. Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov was in the port city of Mariupol for the invasion’s opening salvo in February 2022, and he determinedly filmed the following 20 days of bombardment before being forced to flee for his own safety. Chernov accompanies his edited footage with voiceover narration that gives context to the imagery as well as poignant reflections on his duties as a reporter. He also talks to bereaved, displaced and sometimes hostile citizens, giving voice directly to those under assault. More dramatically, he shows us, virtually in real time, the beginnings of social collapse as…

SITCOM Two Doors Down 9.30pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer The reliably chucklesome Two Doors Down comes with a sad caveat this year — shortly after filming concluded on this seventh series, co-creator and writer Simon Carlyle passed away suddenly, leaving these episodes as his last work. A lot of credit must go to the rest of the team for working through what must have been a very difficult time to finish off the show and provide warmth and laughter to viewers. Certainly, there’s not a hint of melancholy in this bombastic first episode, which sees the return of Doon MacKichan as scene-stealing monster Cathy following her absence last series. Dumped husband Colin (Jonathan Watson) is all set to throw the perfect surprise party for his new girlfriend when Cathy unexpectedly turns…

FILM P A Man Called Otto ★★★ 15 9.00pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming Tom Hanks is on fine grumpy form as the eponymous character in this dark comedy. A remake of 2015’s quirky Swedish film A Man Called Ove, this sees Hanks’s old-timer trying to maintain order in a chaotic suburban neighbourhood. Most annoyingly, all his neighbours keep being nice to him. How dare they? Hanks channels Victor Meldrew as he yells at delivery drivers and shouts at cats. The actor’s real-life family are along for the ride, too. Son Truman convincingly plays Otto’s younger self in flashbacks, while Tom’s wife Rita Wilson not only produces but also provides a song. A word of warning, though: while the film is a largely feel-good experience, Otto is still mourning his recently…

DRAMA Matlock 9.00pm Sky Witness Catch up via Now NEW SERIES The original 1980s’ series of Matlock, which starred Andy Griffith as a folksy lawyer, didn’t receive the same exposure here as it did in America. So, this new version starring Kathy Bates won’t have much in the way of name recognition for UK viewers. But no matter: all you need know is that legal eagle Madeleine Matlock shares a surname with Griffith’s character and that, within this universe, the old TV show aired as it did in the real world. So, this is less a revival, more a brand-new drama that occasionally references the source material. More importantly, what we have here is one of the most surprising US imports I’ve seen in a long while. Bates is, as…

SOAP Hollyoaks 7.00pm E4 Catch up via C4 streaming In 1995, Brookside was at the peak of its popularity. Channel 4’s flagship soap opera’s sensational “body under the patio” plot was a national talking point, eerily running in parallel with gruesome discoveries in Fred West’s garden, silencing critics who claimed soaps were becoming unrealistic. Basking in Brookside’s success, it’s creator Phil Redmond launched Hollyoaks, a companion show aimed at an adolescent audience. Brookie bowed out in 2003 and passed its taboo-breaking mantle to its sassy spin-off. To celebrate Hollyoaks’s 30th anniversary, there’s a nostalgic nod to its beginnings in this crossover. Yes, we’re back on Brookside Close, as Hollyoaks’s Donny Clark — who’s striking resemblance to Brookie’s Mick Johnson will no doubt be addressed — is strangely drawn to the…

FANTASY House of the Dragon 2.00am (Mon am), 9.00pm Sky Atlantic Catch up via Now Whether you’re watching Game of Thrones or this prequel, you can usually expect violence — but it’s hard to think of anything on the level of the harrowing murder in last week’s episode. It sends shockwaves through Westeros, undermining Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) claim to the throne and destroying her reputation. As a wronged daughter cheated out of her royal inheritance, Rhaenyra has been easy to support. But can we still root for her if she’s (arguably) complicit in atrocities? And as a counterpoint, what happens when her foes show moments of true heart? It’s hard not to feel sorry for her rival Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) as he alone mourns a personal loss. And even the…

“The storm came rattling over the Heights in full fury”Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, recently adapted for the big screen by director Emerald Fennell SENSE OF THE SEASON Sweet violets Delicate purple sweet violet flowers (left) pop up around now in woodlands and hedgerows, with late February’s milder, warmer air intensifying their soft, powdery perfume. Legend has it that you can only smell them once before they steal your sense of smell, so breathe deeply and enjoy while you can. These tiny perennial blooms, tucked into heart-shaped deep-green leaves, traditionally symbolised loyalty and devotion. Today, they offer hope as they liven up the landscape with a carpet of colour in a month still draped in winter’s shroud. MEET THE MAKER NAOMI SISSONS, SEED HOME DESIGNS Bring sunshine into your home in…

COMMEMORATION The Repair Shop: VE Day Special 8.00pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer We are hearing many extraordinary stories this week as part of the VE Day 80 commemorations, but the items brought into the barn for this edition evoke some especially moving personal memories. Horologist Steve Fletcher and his watchmaker son Fred are honoured to get an RAF cockpit clock ticking again for its Royal Navy veteran owner, 101-year-old John Holloway, who served as an engineer on aircraft carrier HMS Formidable. Meanwhile, the Teddy Bear ladies need to call in plastics restorer Charlotte Abbott to help them renovate Haisi, a fragile doll that comforted a then three-year-old Jewish orphan during her journey from Nazi-occupied Austria to the safety of the UK. Hatter Jayesh Vaghela works on a battle-scarred RAF cap…

DOCUMENTARY Glitter: the Popstar Paedophile 9.00pm ITV1 Catch up via ITVX Gary Glitter was a strange pop star. He sold 20 million hook-filled records, positioning himself at the novelty end of glam rock, all twitchy stage moves and startled expression. But to anyone watching TV in the 1970s, he didn’t seem much stranger than plenty of other public figures. Except that, like Jimmy Savile, Glitter was a monster hiding in plain sight. This documentary includes footage of the pair sniggering on a chat show about their young female fans, one of many disturbing clips and interviews as we follow how justice caught up with Glitter (real name Paul Gadd) in 1999 when he was convicted of possessing child pornography. After a short sentence, he escaped to Asia but was jailed…

TODAY AT EURO 2024 Serbia v England 7.00pm (kick-off 8pm)BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer With a cast worthy of any primetime Sunday-evening drama, captain Harry Kane will lead his Three Lions ensemble into their opening game in Group C. Yes, it all starts here for Gareth Southgate’s England at Euro 2024. Jude Bellingham, fresh from lifting the Champions League trophy with Real Madrid, is set to play a starring role in Gelsenkirchen, while Arsenal duo Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice, plus Premier League player of the season Phil Foden, are all tipped to feature in the opener. Southgate will be determined to keep his players’ feet on the ground against Serbia, who have qualified for their first European Championships under this country name, since they were known as FR Yugoslavia…

SITCOM Amandaland 9.00pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer NEW SERIES If Motherland fans had a vote on which of the beloved sitcom’s characters would get their own spin-off, Amanda may not have been everyone’s first choice. However, writer Holly Walsh has said that of all the characters, there was “something unresolved” about Amanda’s story, and based on this first episode, the decision to shine the spotlight on the hoity toity horror is spot-on. In the wake of her divorce, Amanda (Lucy Punch) has upended her life. The kids have changed schools and she’s had to downsize to South Harlesden. Or “SoHar”, as she insists it’s called. There are still some familiar faces; Philippa Dunne returns as eager Anne and the sublime Joanna Lumley again steals every scene as mum Felicity. But new…

DOCUMENTARY Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith 9.00pm More4 Catch up via C4 streaming NEW SERIES Grand houses make for great TV. This is a prime example, a charming tour of not-so-stately homes as the owners fight to stay solvent. Meet James and Emma, for instance: they want to make a going concern of their historic Elizabethan home — Chavenage House in Gloucestershire — but alas, James tells us, “These estates aren’t designed to make money. They’re designed to eat money.” Later, he pauses by his battered Skoda and points out, “No estate owner ever has a smart car.” As James and Emma make plans for retreats, yoga studios and sauna pods, we can sit back and revel in the sprawling weirdness of their home — its haunted bedrooms, antique…

DRAMA Miss Austen 9.05pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer NEW SERIES All we need to know about Jane Austen can be found within the pages of her novels. Not my words, but those spoken here by her older sister Cassandra (played by Keeley Hawes), who would go on to earn the ire of Janeites when she destroyed a trove of her sibling’s letters in what was believed to be a bid to protect her reputation. But what was the catalyst for the torching of the correspondence? This intriguing new four-parter, adapted from Gill Hornby’s novel and rich in period detail, imagines the story surrounding the burning by taking us first to 1830 and the Berkshire village of Kintbury, which Cassandra is visiting 13 years after Jane’s death. It’s here that…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Read all ebook formats with ReadEra In your answer to Tom Rathbone’s question about ebook formats (Issue 724, page 69) you could have mentioned the app ReadEra (https://readera.org). I installed it on my iPad earlier this year and it supports so many different ebook formats that I’ve not found one I can’t open. You just import a book then read. Most of its features are free and there are also options to convert the text into audio through the ‘Text to Speech’ feature. There are some handy customisation settings including making the font thicker and changing the line spacing (pictured). Incidentally, I’m not the only fan of ReadEra. While installing it on my wife’s Android phone I noticed it has a 4.9-star rating on the Google…

DRAMA The Assembly 10.40pm (11.10pm Wales) BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer To mark World Autism Acceptance Week (2–8 April), the BBC has commissioned an unusual one-off, designed to give a voice to people who may find communication or social interaction hard — and who rarely make it onto peak-time television. The idea is adapted from a successful French format, in which a panel of autistic and neurodivergent interviewers question a celebrity. In one case, they grilled President Emmanuel Macron himself — he was asked with admirable frankness whether he thought it set a good example to marry your teacher… Here, the interviewee is actor Michael Sheen. He has agreed to put himself through what is likely to be a no-holds-barred conversation with a panel of 30 or so autistic volunteers,…

FILM P The Old Oak 11.00pm BBC Two Catch up via iPlayer Ken Loach’s latest drama, released in 2023, feels like a career summary for one of Britain’s major directors. The end of a trilogy focusing on the effects of austerity economics in the north-east of England, it follows an ailing boozer in an old coal town. Landlord TJ (Dave Turner) and Syrian refugee Yara (Ebla Mari) are at the centre of a story that begins with a group of migrants moving into the community and expands into something incisive and hopeful. The Old Oak also marks the likely conclusion to Loach’s three-decade collaboration with screenwriter Paul Laverty, though according to Loach the duo continue to chat over the phone most days, even batting around new film ideas. The director…

FILM P Back to Black ★★★ 15 10.00pm BBC Two Catch up via iPlayer It took a while before Marisa Abela felt ready to accept the role of Amy Winehouse in this 2024 biopic. You can understand the hesitation. It’s almost 15 years since Winehouse died, but the legendary singer-songwriter still has a massive and dedicated fanbase ready to pounce on perceived misrepresentations. But if anyone could rise to the challenge it would have to be Abela, one of the UK’s brightest young talents, as she showed in the hit BBC series Industry. Abela went into “full boot-camp mode”, as she put it, to study the role, learning guitar and singing in her own voice, to “tell [Amy’s] emotional story through the songs”. Abela recalls singing live in front of…

As someone who is essentially perfect, I’m lucky enough not to need my own New Year’s resolutions. This is excellent news for the world, because it means I can dedicate all my efforts and focus to creating world-bettering resolutions for others instead. You’re welcome. Your first New Year’s resolution, dear tech manufacturers, is to sort out the Deals Deals Deals method of retailing. Only six left! Selling fast! Discounted from £999 to £849, don’t miss out! How I long for honest pricing, where you could trust that the figure you saw was fair and you weren’t forced to hunt for discount codes and historic pricing to see if you’re being conned. This all ties into the theme of “enshittification” that runs through this month’s issue, starting with our interview with…

Have attempts to drive under-age visitors from pornography sites worked? The raw numbers would suggest so. Visits to porn sites fell by a third in the three months after age-gating came into effect last July, according to regulator Ofcom, with one site reporting UK traffic falling by as much as three-quarters. How many of those were under-age visitors is impossible to tell, but it’s not enough to satisfy some: VPNs are now in the firing line. The Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza told the BBC in the summer that the age-gate-avoiding VPNs are “absolutely a loophole that needs closing”, while tech minister Baroness Lloyd suggested that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to protecting children online. With Ofcom now conducting research into VPN usage in the UK, will…

Well. I checked outside my window when news broke of a Steam Machine 2.0—no pigs. So with a bit of circular logic, I’ll say that Will shouldn’t have doubted the return of Valve’s living room gaming console. It is true that the first Steam Machine didn’t take. The world largely regarded it as a curiosity. Valve’s hardware partners and their subdued marketing didn’t do much to help that perception. No one knew what to make of a thing that was not quite a PC or console, with less ability to play games. I’ve seen this initial attempt called a failure, most recently by IGN in its news writeup of this reborn Steam Machine. But Valve held on for a long while—it gave the attempt several years. To me, its eventual…

DRAMA Love and Death 10.00pm ITV1 Full series on ITVX NEW SERIES Anyone who saw the 2022 Disney+ mini-series Candy will have a sense of déjà vu watching this seven-part drama, as it tells the same true-life story of 1970s Texas housewife Candy Montgomery, who went before a jury after an affair with a married man from her neighbourhood led to a killing. There are, though, notable differences, both in structure and style, with this series laying out events in a more linear fashion and terrific lead star Elizabeth Olsen humanising Candy in a way Jessica Biel wasn’t required to when she played the part. So gone are the bubble perm and bubbling rage, and in comes a more sympathetic depiction of a woman for whom suburban pressure to conform…

1 Wintoys www.snipca.com/55189 Wintoys was by far your most-downloaded tool of 2025, rising from 12th place in 2024. This brilliant system-optimisation app (it’s only available from the Microsoft Store) was updated throughout the year and made frequent appearances in our Best Free Software section. However, it was Wintoys’ inclusion in our ‘Best free software you’ll master in minutes’ Cover Feature in Issue 713 (pictured above) that attracted the majority of your clicks. Here we praised the app’s simple but feature-packed design, which saves you installing several separate PC-cleanup programs. Wintoys’ Cleanup options delete junk files, browser caches, old Windows updates and system-restore points, and its ‘Fast startup’ setting can speed up your boot time by 50 per cent. We particularly like its Tweaks tab (see screenshot below left), which lets…

DRAMA Casualty 9.10pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer Life can move swiftly and cruelly, as Dylan is discovering, having now been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter by gross negligence. He ought not to be being questioned but Dylan, who has in the past been the subject of speculation as to whether he’s autistic, can find it difficult to paint his actions in the best light. And despite the public at large arguably being more psychiatrically literate than ever before, the police here appear to find it difficult to comprehend Dylan’s bluntness. Dylan is understandably eager to get a call through to a pregnant Sophia, who has a medical abortion scheduled for the following morning. But, frustratingly, the priorities of the investigating officers do not match his. The resulting fallout also ends…

DRAMA The Gold 9.00pm BBC1 Full series via iPlayer SERIES FINALE In writing and creating The Gold, Neil Forsyth conducted extensive research, but hasn’t shied away from taking a fair chunk of dramatic licence. It’s that smelting of facts from the ore of the story, yet allowing embellishments to be sprinkled, that has let this series shine. The holiday is well and truly over for Charlie Miller (Sam Spruell) and John Palmer (Tom Cullen), who are each in the dock on opposite sides of the Atlantic (Palmer deciding to represent himself at the Old Bailey feels like one of the more fanciful aspects of the story, yet did actually happen). More familiar faces return, and there’s a searing, standout turn from Jack Lowden as a cornered Kenneth Noye. It’s gripping…

DRAMA Shetland 9.00pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer SERIES FINALE Many Radio Times readers have been left feeling that a swear box should have been introduced to this latest case alongside new lead star Ashley Jensen. And I take their point — after all, Shetland had existed for seven series without there being much in the way of bad language and now they’re all at it. Even Downton Abbey’s Mrs Hughes, aka actor Phyllis Logan, is snarling out the odd f-bomb in this finale. But try not to let the cussing mar your enjoyment of what’s a decently constructed conclusion. And it’s worth watching if only to witness the ominous flashback sequences featuring murder victim Ellen Quinn (Maisie Norma Seaton) on the night of her death wearing a red puffer jacket. There’s…

DOCUMENTARY Hell Jumper 9.00pm BBC2 Catch up via iPlayer A few days after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Chris Parry flew to Poland. The 27-year-old from Cornwall wanted to help in whatever way he could. He crossed into Ukraine and began working as a civilian evacuator, called in to help people (“the poor, old and stubborn”) trapped in homes near the front line, who needed to escape the fighting. The charity posted videos of rescues on social media to help raise funds. In a searing ten-minute sequence at the heart of this documentary, we see Chris’s bodycam footage as he dashes through a shattered housing complex in Bakhmut, searching amid the rubble and debris for the basement where a group of elderly people are waiting for him — all while…

DOCUMENTARY The Push: Murder on the Cliff 9.00pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming Kashif Anwar and Fawziyah Javed met by chance one day in Leeds. He seemed a caring and confident man, whose Muslim faith was important to him; they appeared happy together and got married. But, in September 2021, while they were walking along the top of Edinburgh’s Arthur’s Seat, she plunged over the edge and subsequently died. Kashif maintained that it was a tragic accident — she had slipped — and with no eyewitnesses, that might have been the end of it. This two-part documentary takes us inside the courtroom as Kashif was tried for murder. It’s extraordinary to watch it but what’s so distressing is hearing recordings of abusive, controlling conversations such as when he told her, “You’re…

FILM P Mrs Harris Goes to Paris ★★★★ PG 9.15pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming Lesley Manville has been on a cinematic hot streak since her best supporting actress Oscar nomination in 2018 for dressmaking drama Phantom Thread. Between roles in TV shows such as Mum and Magpie Murders, the star has put in memorably gritty turns as an unhinged US Southern matriarch in Let Him Go (2020) and a jungle-dwelling drug expert in last year’s Queer. By comparison, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (2022) is a light and optimistic affair. Set in 1957, it sees Manville’s cleaner receiving a war widow’s pension and travelling to the French capital to purchase a bespoke Dior dress. However, she encounters snobbery and competition from fellow fashion lovers that may derail her haute couture…

MUSIC Glastonbury from 5pm BBC2/7pm BBC4/9.10pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” is one of Neil Young’s most quoted lines, but the folk-rock agitator, who turns 80 this year, is showing no signs of doing either. Even for such a huge festival, he’s a coup of a headliner, although at the time of going to press the BBC’s coverage of his set is shrouded in uncertainty. Young initially declined to play owing to the BBC’s “corporate control” of Glastonbury, but if the feud does get resolved he’ll be on BBC2 from 10.10pm. A much safer bet for a small-screen appearance is the multi-award-winning R&B/soul singer/songwriter Raye (9.10pm BBC1), who wears her Amy Winehouse influences in her choice of eyeliner as well as her impressive…

DRAMA Becoming Elizabeth 9.15pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming NEW SERIES In the dead of night, a coffin is opened and it is confirmed: King Henry VIII has died. As the news ricochets around court, his wife Catherine Parr (Jessica Raine) has the smallest of smiles and the grandest of plans written on her face. It seems she has already considered her next move. First shown on Lionsgate+ last year, this snappy eight-part drama is a taut and rollicking take on the Tudor story. It has a starry cast (including Romola Garai and The Last of UsÕs Bella Ramsey) and is from playwright Anya Reiss. While Catherine, erm, “consoles” herself with Thomas Seymour (Tom Cullen, wringing everything he can from his casting as a scoundrel), Henry’s son Prince Edward (Oliver Zetterstrom)…

Definitive Audio in Bellevue, Washington, near Seattle—one of the premier dealerships in the Pacific Northwest—continued its 50th anniversary celebration with an event it called “Icons and Innovators.” Highlighted by showings of the new JBL Everest series and Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus and 801 Abbey Road edition loudspeakers, the event drew a full house to the first of two sessions. JBL/D’Agostino/dCS/Clearaudio My first stop was at the first showing of JBL’s Summit Makalu loudspeakers ($60,000/pair). The name derives from Makalu mountain near Mount Everest. On hand were Chris Hagen, the principal acoustic engineer for the Summit series; Dave Tovissi, vice president and general manager of Harman’s Luxury Audio division; and Jim Garrett, senior director of product strategy and planning for Harman’s Luxury Audio division. “The Summit series is JBL’s latest effort…

HISTORY The Great Plague with Rob Rinder and Ruth Goodman 9.00pm 5 Catch up via 5 streaming This isn’t quite as immersive as the factual series that made Ruth Goodman’s name as a TV historian, but it’s on roughly similar lines. Here she helps us imagine what life was like for ordinary, impoverished Londoners in 1665, the year the Great Plague struck. She strides through what are now modern brick passages, explaining that back then they would have been dirty, teeming alleyways, and tries on pattens, the wooden overshoes popular among those living in streets strewn with excrement. But what of the rich? Rob Rinder embodies them, moving more into Lucy Worsley territory as he dons wigs and throws out hammy ad libs in the character of a wealthy city-dweller who is…

COMEDY Taskmaster 9.00pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming It feels like yesterday that we welcomed this new cohort of Taskmaster victims — sorry, contestants — onto our screens, and yet it’s already the penultimate episode of the series. And as the plucky comedians perform a twisted version of school PE classic ‘The Bleep Test,’ create new heads on the back of their own heads (it makes sense on screen) and do dance routines with Alex Horne, we’re edging ever closer to declaring Taskmaster’s 17th winner. As for who that winner will be, it’s tight at the top. Stand-up John Robins has been racking up episode wins, but Inside No. 9’s Steve Pemberton has given him a run for his money in terms of sheer creativity, and Irish comic/podcaster Joanne…

DESIGN Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr: the Final 8.00pm BBC1 Catch up via iPlayer FINAL EPISODE While they have both come on in leaps and bounds since the start of the competition, the design styles of the two finalists couldn’t be more different. Don’t read on if you haven’t watched the semi-final yet, because you’ll guess who has got through when I say that one likes brutalist architecture and texture, while the other specialises in bright colour and clashing patterns. Even so, Alan Carr is quick to tell each of them that he loves what they’re doing, and he wants them to win (shades of Bruce Forsyth’s “You’re my favourite” here). The pair are revamping a couple of holiday lodges in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, no less: one…

INTERVIEW Louis Theroux Interviews Anthony Joshua 9.00pm BBC2 Catch up via iPlayer There’s a telling moment in Louis Theroux’s latest profile. It’s a warm, revealing portrait of the two-time world heavyweight champion boxer, who comes across as everything you would hope from his public image — a sharp, funny, head-screwed-on kind of guy. He knows his aura has slipped since losing his belts, but insists his heart is still in it, that he still has the drive to fight his way back to being world champion. Then there’s a sequence where Theroux and Joshua go to Watford, where he grew up, and call at the house of his aunt. The two reminisce on a sofa and look at old family photos. “You will get the belts back,” she assures him, adding, “Three-times…

FOOD The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer 7.40pm C4 Catch up via C4 streaming Jodie Whittaker may no longer have to worry about Daleks, but she gets into an altogether more terrifying mechanical fight in the tent. While using a food mixer, the whisk appears to take on a mind of its own and suddenly becomes more lethal than a Dalek’s gunstick as it spins out of control, sending things smashing to the floor. This is just the sort of chaos you come to expect in Celebrity Bake Off, and this first batch of celebrities delivers on the disorder. Paloma Faith (wearing a tin foil dress, very on brand) wants to create cake pops in an unspeakable form before using her knee to do some dough kneading. Then…

TRAVEL Martin Clunes’s Islands of the Atlantic 9.00pm ITV1 Catch up via ITVX NEW SERIES Following on from his jolly — and often squiffy — travels around France with his mate Neil Morrissey on U&Gold, Martin Clunes gets a bit more serious by exploring some of the lesser-known islands in the Atlantic Ocean. He starts 150 miles west of Africa on São Tomé and Príncipe, which I, for one, knew nothing about. This tiny island country was colonised by the Portuguese in the 15th century and endured a dark period of slavery on its sugar and cacao plantations. Now its traditions are woven into everyday life: Clunes learns (with characteristic enthusiasm and a big grin) about both palm and cashew wine, the theatrical dance performance that is tchiloli, and how the women…

DRAMA Beck 9.00pm BBC4 Catch up via iPlayer Remember Beck? The long-running steady Eddie of crime dramas is back for a new series, and it’s as absorbingly downbeat as ever. (I say “series”, but don’t get your hopes up: there are only two episodes.) Hangdog detective Martin Beck has been on Swedish screens since 1997. He was in his 40s then — now he’s in his 70s and sidelined from the Stockholm murder squad he once led. Heaven knows why he hasn’t retired; it can’t be because he loves the work. In fact, Martin (Peter Haber) barely features in this 51st episode. It focuses instead on his headstrong grandson Vilhelm (Valter Skarsgard, son of Stellan). Vilhelm is a young uniform copper who hasn’t entirely processed the trauma he experienced in the…

Ahead of the launch for Fallout Season Two, I got the chance to talk to some of the key cast members: Walton Goggins, Ella Purnell, and Aaron Moten. My number one question for the cast: have they played any of the Fallout games? “No, I haven’t sat down to play the games,” says Goggins, who plays pre-war movie star Cooper Howard and his post-war counterpart The Ghoul. “And I won’t. I won’t. I won’t play the games. I’m not interested.” The reason is actually pretty simple: Goggins doesn’t want to think of the world or the characters of Fallout as elements of a game. “I WON’T. I WON’T. I WON’T PLAY THE GAMES. I’M NOT INTERESTED” “All of a sudden, I’m looking at this world from a very different perspective,…