The momentous return of the festival after three difficult years necessitates a big star as headline act, and this time Glastonbury has pulled off a great coup. Eighteen years after his first and only gig at the festival, Macca is back. And after recently blowing out the candles on his 80th birthday cake, it makes him the oldest artist ever to top the Pyramid Stage.
Jo Whiley introduces a set that will include a string of Beatles hits, the catchiest Wings tunes and other solo tracks (his 2004 outing featured 33 songs). It’s been rumoured that McCartney will even stage a virtual duet with John Lennon, as he did on his recent US tour, with footage of Lennon singing I’ve Got a Feeling from Let It Be projected onto a big screen – a bittersweet reunion likely to delight every Beatles fan. McCartney’s recent shows around his birthday celebrations have featured star turns from Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen, so don’t be surprised to see a guest or two pop up here. All in all, this is an event not to be missed. His stint comes after a packed day of great music, and he’s preceded on the Pyramid Stage by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (BBC Two, 9pm) in Gallagher’s first non-Oasis appearance at the event. VP
Cricket: England v New Zealand
There’s a banquet of Test cricket this week, as England continue their third and final match against New Zealand at Headingley on day three. On Monday, England Women face South Africa Women in a one-off Test match at Taunton (Sky Sports Mix, 10.30am), ahead of six limited over games in July. It is South Africa’s first Test match in seven years. Finally, the men hastily put their whites back on to play the Covid-delayed fifth and final Test match of their 2021 series against India, which takes place at Edgbaston (Fri, Sky Main Event, 9.30am). India lead the series 2-1, but face a much-changed England. VP
It’s a case of “remember the names” as the future stars of British boxing line up at the Coventry Skydome. The headline act is the electrifying young lightweight Adam Azim, who is billed as “the next Amir Khan”, while the undercard features the professional debut of 2020 Olympic medallist Karriss Artingstall. VP
The odds are stacked against Martin and Shirlie Kemp on this celebrity edition of the game show, as they compete against sportswomen Kadeena Cox and Perri Shakes-Drayton in catching balls falling from the ceiling. It’s all a bit repetitive, but at least cheery host Paddy McGuinness doesn’t take it too seriously. VP
Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow
Alan Carr serves up a new dollop of nostalgia with an edition of Bullseye, the darts-themed 1980s game show. Episodes run for twice as long as the original, so returns would diminish faster over the hour were it not for Carr in the hot seat. He can really work an audience with his daft jokes and gentle mickey-taking. VP
The last celebrity special in the run sees ex-EastEnders star Rita Simons and other showbiz types tackling the tricky quiz. Plenty of tactical errors are made as four duos compete to identify obscure wildlife, faraway cities and native New Yorkers, with added fun in the quickfire banter between guests and hosts Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman. VP
A fresh archaeological dig in Pompeii kicks off this gripping six-part series of excavations intended to shed new light on the Roman Empire at its peak. Archaeologists in the lost city unearth a sacrificial skull and the mummy of a freed slave who was curiously wealthy, and even venture into narrow tunnels running beneath the central bathhouse. A deeply fascinating and engaging history lesson. VP
Hampton Court: Behind Closed Doors
Tonight’s enlightening peek behind the scenes of Henry VIII’s favourite palace yields beguiling secrets. Curator Tracy Borman looks at a tender missive between Henry and his illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, while the gardening team honour Queen Mary II’s rare tulip collection with 120,000 bulbs for the tulip festival. VP
Any evening is brightened by a dose of the Big Yin, whose best TV outings are gathered here in a feature-length documentary. The likes of Jimmy Tarbuck, Richard Digance and Dave Gorman giggle at clips of his stand-up routines, sketches and memorable chat show turns, while Richard Herring sums up Connolly best of all as “a little boy laughing at all the grown-ups”. VP
Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine runs the American Bar in the eponymous Moroccan city, while Ingrid Bergman is the old flame who forces him to choose between his heart and the good fight against Nazism. Even now, a full 80 years later, Michael Curtiz’s Oscar-winning drama manages to make the spirit soar to great heights, thanks to the finely drawn characters, richly quotable dialogue and haunting music.
The third instalment in the wildly popular series that began in 1995 sees the reunion of detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) as they join the Miami PD’s elite AMMO team on a mission to bring cartel leader Armando Armas and his mother Isabel to justice. While it suffers from the lack of Michael Bay’s bombastic direction, the action stands on its own and it’s a nostalgic journey that ends the trilogy well.
Janus Metz Pedersen casts Sverrir Gudnason as the ice-cool Björn Borg and Shia LaBeouf as hot-headed John McEnroe in the run-up to their storied clash in the famous 1980 Wimbledon final. The tennis sequences themselves can be a bit iffy but the real meat is in the backstories, a rich mélange of psychological turmoil and fiery interpersonal conflict. Stellan Skarsgård, as Borg’s coach, is excellent. Put the Pimm’s on ice, this one is perfect for a long heatwave.
One of the most awful and baffling murders of the past decade gets the true-crime treatment in Catey Sexton’s three-part documentary, on until Tuesday. In September 2012, British tourists Saad al-Hilli, his wife, Iqbal, her mother, Suhaila, and a passing French cyclist were shot and killed in the French Alps near Annecy. Saad and Iqbal’s two daughters survived, and the perpetrators have never been brought to justice.
French and British investigators, friends and neighbours, and Saad’s brother Zaid (who was at one point was arrested in connection with the case) are among contributors to a story which takes a series of stranger-than-fiction turns involving Swiss bank accounts, the FBI, Mossad, Saddam Hussein and a family inheritance dispute, while ominous allusions are made to racist reasoning in the police and media; some of those involved concede that it could have been better handled. The reconstructions here are tasteful and the approach methodical, with the perspective of 10 years allowing an emotional distance without it ever feeling clinical. All three parts – narrated by Mercury Prize-winning British rapper Speech Debelle – are available on All 4 after broadcast. GT
BBC One/Two/Four, from 5pm
With Diana Ross reeling off the classics at 6.45pm on BBC One and Herbie Hancock, Angélique Kidjo and Pet Shop Boys on BBC Four from 8pm, one-time Prince protégée Lianne La Havas and Dublin post-punkers Fontaines DC take the early shift on BBC Two before Elbow, Lorde and Years & Years tee up Kendrick Lamar for a set that marks both the end of the festival and his long-anticipated Glastonbury debut. GT
Tonight, the “boys” take used cars on a tank assault course and go for a spin in a Maserati MC20 and an electric pick-up truck. GT
Another amiable rummage in Somerset, as the detectives investigate the death of a F1 driver during a pitstop. Paul McGann has a ball as egomaniacal team boss Archie Addington, with Claire Skinner and Kelvin Fletcher among the other guest stars. At the lighter end of ITV’s whodunit fare, a good time-passer. GT
Eddie Hall: the Beast vs the Mountain
The World’s Strongest Men all love a nickname. Here, two previous champions – Stoke’s Eddie “The Beast” Hall and Icelander Hafþór Björnsson, better known as Lena Headey’s looming guard “The Mountain” in Game of Thrones – prepare for a grudge match in Dubai, five years after Hall’s title win was mired in accusations of cheating. Expect plenty of grunting, boasting and a frank examination of the physical toll of Hall’s dedication to the sport. GT
Following her public announcement last Sunday that she is gay, Kelly Holmes discusses her life and career in this deeply personal film. Other subjects on the table are her struggles with depression and, of course, her Olympic glory. GT
Two days after launching in its entirety on Walter Presents, this Norwegian psychological thriller debuts on Channel 4. On the surface it is a workaday policier, with detectives Max Sørensen (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Sander Holm (Anders Baasmo) looking into the deaths of four immigrant boys and clashing over their methods and theories about the culprit. But vaguely supernatural allusions and a couple of distinctly unsettling eels give Seizure both a real freshness and a deeply disquieting air. GT
Loyal British knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe (played by the sturdy Robert Taylor) sets out on a mission to free the kidnapped King of England, Richard the Lionheart (Norman Wooland), in this rousing and romantic adventure tale. Ivanhoe has a busy time of it, defeating the evil Prince John (Guy Rolfe) and juggling the affections of ladies Rowena and Rebecca (played by Joan Fontaine and Elizabeth Taylor, both at the height of their powers). A tough life.
Pop star Rihanna makes her feature-animation voice debut in this DreamWorks family movie from director Tim Johnson (Over the Hedge, Antz). Despite its high concept, it suffers from a lack of originality. When a race of benign purple aliens colonise Earth, resettling humans to other parts of the planet, 11-year-old Tip is separated from her mother. On her journey to be reunited she teams up with a daft, outcast alien (The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons).
Ben Foster’s physicality (he lost four stone in weight) and the commitment he brings to the role is the real anchor of this biopic of Harry Haft, a boxing heavyweight in post-war Germany who survived Auschwitz by fighting fellow inmates for the guards’ entertainment. Some of the time-skipping from director Barry Levinson (Good Morning Vietnam) is confusing, but it’s a powerful tale of a man searching for redemption.
BBC Two, 9.30pm; NI, 11.15pm
This documentary series, coming at the end of Pride Month, is a poignant reminder of just how devastating the Aids epidemic was. Tonight’s first of three parts, titled Ignorance, features gay men recalling coming of age in early 1980s London: the nightclub Heaven had just opened and despite widespread prejudice the community flourished. Then the mysterious “gay cancer” started killing swathes of them. Chief among the commentators are Rupert Whitaker and Martyn Butler, founders in 1982 of The Terrence Higgins Trust, named after Whitaker’s partner, one of the first British victims of Aids.
The documentary’s narrative is punctuated by clips from audio tapes recorded back then with gay men dying of Aids, their dialogue lip-synced so well by actors that you won’t realise they’re not the person speaking. It’s an effective way to bring the visceral experience of the disease into the present day and, sadly, reminds us of how cruelly victims were often treated by the public, press and, occasionally, the medical fraternity. On the flip side, doctors at the forefront of Aids research explain how they grappled with this new unknown virus and contributors recall the gay community bonding together as they all did their best to navigate the devastation. VP
The BBC and the All England Club is the longest partnership in sports broadcasting history, with 2022 marking 95 years of coverage (85 of which have been on television). Remarkably, Sue Barker has been the host for 30 of those years, but this will be her final foray from SW19. While we speculate as to who might replace her in 2023 (Tim Henman? Clare Balding? Boris Becker?), the Beeb has its usual sterling coverage, beginning each day on BBC Two at 11am with BBC rising star Isa Guha, before Barker takes over later in the day. McEnroe, Navratilova, Cash and co will provide the expert analysis, while Balding is on her traditional evening duties with Today at Wimbledon (BBC Two, 8.30pm). This year’s innovations include a podcast, Wimbledon Daily, hosted by Jonathan Overend. On the courts, defending champion Novak Djokovic is the No 1 male seed, while Poland’s Iga Świątek leads the women. Emma Raducanu is seeded 10th; Andy Murray is unseeded. VP
Come Dine with Me: The Professionals
An inspired twist on the competitive cookery format, this series pits three restaurateur duos against each other. There are big egos around the table tonight in Yorkshire, where name-dropping chef Brian claims he’s cooked for Bill Clinton and the Queen. VP
Food Unwrapped’s Breakfast Buffet
Bacon texture and cereal crispness are investigated in this episode of the food magazine show. Constant cheeriness from its presenters can’t entirely mitigate the queasy sense induced by some of the revelations about our breakfast favourites, such as the fact that vibrant egg yolk colours are generated by dye in chicken feed. VP
The penultimate episode of this superlative crime drama digs into the bad blood stewing between DI Kevin Salisbury (Robert Glenister) and DCS Ian St Clair (David Morrissey), which is derived from the period when they were young plods back during the fraught days of the miners’ strike. While this all takes place, an on-the-run Andy Fisher (Adeel Akhtar) grapples with his conscience. VP
Watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s return to the Dorset cottage, from which he first urged us to live closer to the land nearly 25 years ago, is a retro pleasure. His hair is more grey now, but his enthusiasm for simple, natural food remains undimmed as, tonight, Hugh joins forager Emma Gunn for a seaside lunch of limpet and seaweed. VP
The dark and convoluted sci-fi drama, set in a world that humans share with robot “hosts”, returns for a fourth mind-boggling run. Characters we thought “dead”, such as William (Ed Harris) and Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) are back, though there are plenty of open questions as to how. As ever, the sky-high concept is rewarded by close attention to both plot and acting by a top-notch cast including Jeffrey Wright and Thandiwe Newton. VP
Ukraine: Life Under Attack: Dispatches
Cate Blanchett narrates tonight’s special episode of the news strand, an upsetting report following the battle for Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv. Cameras follow a fireman and paramedics for 10 weeks as they try to help civilians struggling to survive under constant bombardment. VP
This quirky small-town satire is as smart as they come. Reese Witherspoon plays Tracy Flick – model pupil and overachiever. She’s unopposed in her bid to be elected as the student president, much to Matthew Broderick’s horror, who plays the teacher who attempts to scupper her campaign with the help of the football team. Alexander Payne, who co-wrote and directed, avoids taking sides. It’s knife-sharp, with real currency even today.
This high-tech film is in many ways a continuation of the 1970s spy thriller The Conversation, which starred Gene Hackman. Here, he plays a surveillance expert who helps Will Smith’s framed attorney to escape the clutches of some corrupt government spooks (led by Jon Voight). Directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun), it’s a consistently riveting ride. While the script doesn’t bring any major surprises, the interplay between the two leads is magnificent.
Jennifer Lawrence is exceptional in this deeply polarising film by director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan). It’s a psychological horror set within an introvert’s worst nightmare: a housewife (Lawrence) and her author husband (Javier Bardem) find their new relationship tested when an increasing number of uninvited guests (Michelle Pfeiffer among them) visit their rural home and refuse to leave, ramping up to a totally outrageous climax.
Only Murders in the Building
This frothy comedy was one of the breakout hits of last year, a delightful romp featuring a light murder mystery that poked fun at true-crime obsessives. Faded actor Charles Haden Savage (Steve Martin, who dreamed up the series), faded theatre director Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and the mysterious Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) not only solved a murder, but made a hit podcast about it. They’re back but everything’s changed – because this time they’re the ones suspected of murder.
In the closing minutes of series one, another condo resident was found skewered by a knitting needle in Mabel’s flat, and the trio became persons of interest. As the new series opens, Charles and Oliver are lapping up their newfound notoriety, while Mabel considers an offer made by art gallery owner Alice (Cara Delevingne). But the fresh death derails it all and takes us straight back to the enjoyable dynamic of Mabel puncturing old men’s inflated egos as they sleuth in The Arconia’s glorious olde-worlde apartments. Tonight’s double bill also brings back favourites such as Tina Fey and introduces guest stars aplenty, including Amy Schumer and the legend that is Shirley MacLaine. Light as soufflé and just as tasty. VP
DCS Ian St Clair’s (David Morrissey) obsession with unveiling the spy cop affects his marriage and job in tonight’s finale of the crime drama, just before a massive Freudian slip jolts the plot forward. Scriptwriter James Graham has delivered a saga about a community torn asunder by murder and political discord. VP
Last year, 98 people were killed when a 13-storey Miami apartment block collapsed in seconds. This documentary recalls the visceral horror of the tragedy through bodycam and eyewitness footage before pivoting to look at what might have caused it – and, unexpectedly, heading to Scotland to explore its crumbling city housing with similar flaws. VP
The Bridge: Race to a Fortune
After 11 days’ trying to build a bridge to reach prize money, contestants are in a fractious mood as the survival-style series reaches its penultimate episode. One team is floored by a betrayal in their ranks, while a delicious twist sees both teams allowed to bid for a carpenter to help. The finale is tomorrow. VP
Swipe, Match, Murder: The Disappearance of Grace Millane
The New Zealand police officers assigned to the 2018 disappearance of British backpacker Grace Millane talk us through their investigation in this true-crime documentary. It builds a sense of tension effectively – though truly heartbreakingly – by juxtaposing the talking heads with CCTV footage of Millane’s seemingly carefree final hours. VP
With Wimbledon upon us, this film about the competition’s first black champion is well-timed. It’s a nuanced piece using Arthur Ashe’s own words to describe his rise in a sport dominated by white players and his transformation into a civil-rights activist. Enjoy the glorious clips of Ashe absolutely dismantling Jimmy Connors to win at Wimbledon in 1975. VP
The Late Late Show with James Corden
James Corden is back and presenting his chat show from his homeland for the first time in three years (and for the final time – he’s leaving the show next year). At London’s Freemasons’ Hall for four nights, the host chats to A-listers and marshals the usual music and comedy segments, combining British flavour with a big American budget. VP
The Big Sky (1952), b/w ★★★★
Kirk Douglas plays Jim, a Kentucky mountain man who joins an expedition along the Missouri river to trade furs with the Blackfoot Indians, in Howard Hawks’s fine Western. Jim romances Sioux princess Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt) along the way, but conflict within the group begins to threaten the integrity of the mission. The beautifully shot scenery is imposing and gorgeous, only accentuated by black and white cinematography.
When the Rocky saga began in 1976, Sylvester Stallone couldn’t have anticipated still being in the ring three decades later. But “the Italian Stallion” returns to star in this improbable tale. Balboa (Stallone), now a restaurateur (yes, really), agrees to one last fight against the current world heavyweight champion (Antonio Tarver). The film is by no means perfect – a little too sentimental at times – but it’s still a better final instalment than Rocky V.
Jonathan Glazer’s best film is a staggering exercise in gonzo existentialism, with Scarlett Johansson’s alien honeytrap browsing the streets of Glasgow for male victims who can’t believe their luck. Light on dialogue and heavy on mood, this is an exploration of loneliness, sex and modernity that gets more out of Johansson than any of her vehicles since. It’s a mix of arthouse horror and science fiction that will leave you confused but in all senses compelled.
Reaffirming its position as one of television’s most audacious, sophisticated and inventive series, Atlanta’s long-awaited third season starts off strong with a supremely creepy and provocative story, one neither set in Atlanta nor featuring (barring a short cameo from creator-star Donald Glover) any of its regular characters. After a brief, nightmarish prologue of meandering then pointed takes on race, the story moves onto the life of a young boy, Loquareeous (Christopher Farrar), who is first taken out of school and then away from his abusive mother (Nicole Lockley) and put into the foster care of a hippy-ish lesbian couple.
What all this has to do with Glover’s Earn, hip-hop star Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) or their friend Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) is both nothing and everything: the themes, allegories and conversations it raises are at once potent and elusive. The third series, which arrives as a boxset and is now on Disney+ after the first two seasons aired on BBC Two, moves on to see the characters in the middle of a European tour, with episodes set in Amsterdam, London and Paris. But, as ever, nothing in Atlanta is either what it seems or what the viewer expects and it remains as essential and distinctive as ever. GT
The Prince’s Master Crafters: the Next Generation
The climax of this charming series heads to the Prince of Wales’s private residence of Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, where the remaining contenders will be presenting their graduation pieces for his assessment. Before we get to all that, we witness their bold creative processes, as they have four weeks to bring their masterpieces to fruition. GT
The Great British Sewing Bee
Spandex and D-rings make an appearance in tonight’s grand finale of the clothes-making competition, as the sewers must rustle up an amorphous dress from a piece of elastane, a party outfit out of all the scraps assembled from previous weeks, and a red-carpet jumpsuit. Sara Pascoe presides as always, while Esme Young and Patrick Grant pick the winner. GT
George Clarke’s Flipping Fast
George Clarke’s frantic series concludes with three teams vying for the £100,000 prize as they nurse their shrinking budgets and race to hit deadlines before the most profitable property developer is confirmed. GT
Producer Ronan Farrow and directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp, The Boys of Baraka) find alarming and often depressingly unsurprising evidence of the free press, democracy and the idea of fact itself under siege across the globe in this powerful documentary, which travels to find stories of repression and defiance everywhere from Sao Paolo to Mexico City. GT
Lenny Henry’s Caribbean Britain
The realisation of the British-Caribbean identity through the arts is Lenny Henry’s subject for the second, excellent half of his documentary series. David Harewood, Benjamin Zephaniah, Sonia Boyce and the late Jamal Edwards are among those offering a frank assessment of what they have achieved, what they were up against and how far we all still have to go. GT
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Jeanette Winterson’s wonderful adaptation of her semi-autobiographical book boasts alchemical casting in the late Charlotte Coleman as young Jess, coming to terms with her sexuality, and Geraldine McEwan as her mother. All three episodes air tonight, and Winterson talks with Jeremy Isaacs at 12.50am in Face to Face. GT
In Sydney Pollack’s packed melodrama, which unfolds against a backdrop of the turbulent US political scene between the 1930s and 1960s, Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford play a couple whose relationship was doomed from the start. It may stretch credulity but this is an astute tear-jerker, lifted by fine turns from the leads, who manage to wring plenty of genuinely moving pathos from the rock solid Arthur Laurents script.
Adapted by David Miller from Edward Abbey’s novel The Brave Cowboy, this noir Western stars Kirk Douglas as a Korean War veteran who chooses to eschew modern technology and fights to free his old riding buddy, who has been placed under arrest for helping illegal immigrants. It adds some original modern beats to the genre – the scene of a helicopter pursuing a lone horseman across the wastes will linger in the memory.
Clint Eastwood rides into town with a gun and a cigar to make a few quick bucks, settle some scores and invent a whole new genre of movie. Sergio Leone’s first “Spaghetti Western” adapts Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and sets a high bar (albeit one he surpasses with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) with its understated direction, epic landscapes and magnetic star. Ennio Morricone, who died in 2020, provides one of the most recognisable scores in cinema history.
Every now and then Channel 4 comes up with a humdinger of a drama series (It’s a Sin, Humans and Utopia, among others) that insists upon itself because there is simply nothing else like it. Peter Kosminsky’s razor-sharp cyber thriller takes us into the future of 2024, to look at the world of the British intelligence malware analysts working at GCHQ, fighting the informational good fight against an onslaught of potentially catastrophic cyber attacks emanating, mostly, from Russia. We’re grabbed from the outset, plunged straight into the mindscape of Saara Parvin (Hannah Khalique-Brown), a new intern whose first day throws her in the deep end of the battle against an invisible enemy.
Kosminsky avoids a surfeit of tech geekery by expanding the drama into the world of global realpolitik, with a superb cast including Adrian Lester as Britain’s prime minister (said to have deposed Boris Johnson 15 months previously), Hattie Morahan, Ed Stoppard and Alex Jennings as various Cabinet ministers, and Simon Pegg as the GCHQ boss torn between the demands of his political masters. All episodes are on All 4 from today and it will take some restraint to not binge one of 2022’s most compelling dramas. GO
Traditionally played one week before The Open, this PGA event has often struggled to attract a stellar field. This year, however, it has moved back a week, so expect to see the world’s best sharpening their game ahead of a trip to St Andrews in mid July. GO
Sarah Beeny’s Little House, Big Plans
A pair of novice DIYers in Poole want to make more space in their pokey 1930s semi by creating an open-plan kitchen-diner but money is very tight; and in Plymouth a couple set about supersizing their three-bed bungalow into a seven-bedroom, three-floor home with the help of a modular building company. GO
Who Do You Think You Are?
One of the better editions of the current run sees Death in Paradise star Ralf Little track back though both sides of his family to find evidence of some wealthy antecedents from his hometown of Manchester, and to get to the bottom of rumours of former sporting glory in his football-mad genes. GO
The Murder of Logan Mwangi
Another shocking true-life tale of appalling child neglect, abuse and murder follows the rock solid police investigation, and subsequent trial and convictions, that followed the tragic discovery, in July of last year, of the body of five-year-old Logan Mwangi in a river 300 metres from his home in Bridgend, south Wales. GO
Alex Polizzi tackles the Grade II listed Caer Beris Manor in the Brecon Beacons. This family run establishment has 22 bedrooms, a 30-seat restaurant and two very ambitious owners who are reaching for the (Michelin) stars. But first, they may do well to tackle the dodgy decor and employ a professional chef. Polizzi has the unenviable task of levelling their enthusiasm in order to go back to basics. GO
Sky’s time-bending thriller may be a little creaky around the edges at times but it is helped by a charismatic central performance by leading man Paapa Essiedu as George. Tonight, George ignores Archie’s (Anjli Mohindra) instructions to step back and, as he turns for help to the project’s sworn enemy, Rebrov (Tom Burke), he gets a glimpse of a far darker side to the organisation than he ever suspected. GO
An episode entitled The Greater Good explores the ambitious £800 million project which intends to regenerate Bradford city centre, along with the street-level effort being made to make it a more pleasant, safer place to live, as seen through the eyes of some of the city’s 150-plus community support officers. GO
Joe Penna’s Arctic delivers what might be called Max Mads: a heady, sustained and sinew-stiffening hit of the Danish actor, ideal for Mikkelsen fans. This is a snowbound endurance thriller featuring the star of Another Round and Hannibal at his most icily charismatic, as the sole survivor (or so he thinks) of a plane crash, north of the 66th parallel. But as the story unfolds, his suffering reaches sadistic heights.
You’ll never look at Tom Wilkinson in the same way again after you’ve seen him gyrate on stage as a male stripper in Peter Cattaneo’s lovable comedy. The film follows six Sheffield men (including Robert Carlyle, Hugo Speer and Mark Addy) who, depressed and out of work, form a male dance troupe in order to raise some funds. And they’re willing to reveal all – to surprising acclaim. Disney+ is reviving this as a new series with the original cast.
Ingrid Bergman received a Best Actress Academy-Award nomination for her performance in Victor Fleming’s (Gone with the Wind) pseudo-historical epic about the still-popular French farm girl turned saint. Fleming’s adaptation, from Maxwell Anderson’s Broadway stage hit Joan of Lorraine, is low on action but heavy on the dialogue. Some eyebrows were also raised at Bergman playing the role of a 15-year-old while aged 33, but it works.
After a compelling first volume of season four, with momentous events in both Hawkins, Indiana and the Upside Down, the second volume drops in two lengthy episodes (85 minutes and a whopping two hours, 30 minutes) to complete the series. Released in May, volume one became Netflix’s most watched show, and – as an added extra – even managed to put Kate Bush back at the top of the charts after her 1985 song Running Up That Hill was featured prominently.
The show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, have intimated that not all of its beloved characters will necessarily make it to the fifth and final season, which is expected to come in 2023. Most of the fan speculation concerns the fate of Steve (Joe Keery) but the brothers have thrown googlies before and might do so again. More pressing in these two episodes is whether Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Murray (Brett German) can rescue Hopper (David Harbour) from the Russians, despite the Demogorgon guarding their way out. Will Nancy (Natalia Dyer) manage to escape the Upside Down, where she is held in the clutches of super-baddie Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower)? And is Hawkins High School counsellor Ms Kelly (Regina Ting Chen) really as lovely as she first appears? VL
For the first time in its 118 years, the Tour de France will set off from Denmark, with today’s Grand Départ a 13 km individual time trial in Copenhagen. Following two more stages in Scandinavia, the Tour moves to northern France on July 5, before ending in Paris on July 24, via sojourns in Belgium and Switzerland. A wonderfully varied route will take in cobblestones, Alpe d’Huez, Carcassonne and La Planche des Belles Filles. Geraint Thomas is in good nick following his Tour de Suisse win, but it is hard to look beyond the mighty Tadej Pogačar. VL
Chris Pratt stars in this eight-part psychological drama adapted from Jack Carr’s novel. He plays James Reece, leader of a platoon of US Navy Seals who are killed while on a covert mission; returning home, he is questioned – but his memories differ from the official records. One for conspiracy fans. VL
Stephen Dunn relocates Russell T Davies’s seminal gay drama series, shown on Channel 4 in 1999, to present-day New Orleans. It’s brash and lively, with transgender and gender-fluid characters now part of the colourful mix, but it can’t match the original’s superlatively exuberant taboo-breaking. Kim Cattrall plays the mother of the central character, commitment-phobe Brodie (Devin Way). VL
Claudia Winkleman hosts as more contestants sit on the comfy sofa in this deceptively simple game show. Each pair is given the answer to a question (this week’s set includes “What is square?”) but then have to eliminate 19 incorrect questions to find the right one, with Winkleman offering clues that will cost them part of the £100,000 prize. VL
World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys
All aboard the luxury Rocky Mountaineer, starting in Denver, Colorado, journeying through the Rockies in what was once the Wild West to Moab, Utah. Bill Nighy narrates as we learn about the mid 19th-century Gold Rush, and the USA’s continental divide (geological in this case, not political) – and that train manager Zac takes it as a personal affront if anyone ends their journey hungry. The views are majestic. VL
British Planes That Won the War With Rob Bell
The documentary series about military aviation continues by examining the “fearsome” Lancaster bomber, which was used in the Dambusters raid. Historians – including this paper’s former editor, Max Hastings – and aviation experts talk about the plane’s central importance to the Allies in the Second World War. VL
Shown as part of the Walter Presents strand, this suspenseful Swedish crime thriller with a multinational cast follows a “damage regulator”, Andrea Burell (Catherine Walker), who investigates a fatal accident on an oil rig shut for maintenance over Christmas. There’s only a skeleton crew, but everyone has a secret. VL
Will Smith stars in this sports biopic as Richard Williams, father and early coach of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. Reinaldo Marcus Green’s film follows the Williams family from Compton, Los Angeles, in the mid-1980s to the Florida tennis academy where the sisters trained under Rick Macci (a very funny Jon Bernthal), until the beginnings of Venus’s professional career in 1994. It’s a satisfying, if sanitised, image of parental drive.
The Inbetweeners’ Joe Thomas stars as Nick, a drippy and freshly single graduate, in this spiritual sequel to that franchise from Iain Morris, who co-created it with Damon Beesley. With its reliance on the same gross-out scatology and cringeworthy encounters, The Festival could almost be a post-uni catch-up with Thomas’s lovelorn Simon, older but none the wiser when it comes to sensing when his romantic chances are zip.
After the amateur heroics on display in 2010’s Kick-Ass, a new generation of crime fighters have risen up to don ridiculous costumes and patrol the streets. But Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has returned from the dead and re-branded himself with an unprintable moniker. He’s killing off the heroes, so Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) must team up with Chloë Grace Moretz’s Hit-Girl and Jim Carrey’s Colonel Stars and Stripes to save the day.
Jack Taylor (JT), Veronica Lee (VL), Gerard O’Donovan (GO), Vicki Power (VP), Gabriel Tate (GT) and Chris Bennion (CB)
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