AMAZON
Mr Robot
Rami Malek is now best known for his Oscar-winning performance as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (he’s the next Bond villain too), but he first found fame via this Golden Globe-winning series, which concluded in December.
Rami Malek is now best known for his Oscar-winning performance as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, but he first found fame via the Golden Globe-winning series, Mr Robot
If you missed it, don’t panic – all four seasons are still available to stream. Malek plays Elliot, a troubled young man suffering from mental-health issues.
He’s also a skilled hacker who’s recruited by a mysterious anarchist – and that’s when his troubles really begin… Christian Slater, BD Wong and Grace Gummer also star. Available now
Inspector George Gently
Based on a series of novels by Alan Hunter, but with the action moved from the original setting of East Anglia to Northumberland, this deceptively tough period detective drama was a sleeper hit for the BBC across eight seasons from 2010 to 2017.
The first four are now available to stream and star Martin Shaw as the title character, a former Scotland Yard detective who initially moves north to track down his wife’s killer but sticks around to help the local constabulary. Lee Ingleby plays his sidekick, DS John Bacchus. Available now
NETFLIX
Unabomber: In His Own Words
The streaming giant’s latest crime documentary focuses on Ted J Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated former maths professor who killed three people and injured 23 more with hand-delivered or mailed bombs.
Netflix’s latest crime documentary focuses on Ted J Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated former maths professor who killed three people and injured 23 more with hand-delivered bombs
Executive producers Elliott Halpern and Elizabeth Trojian spent three years piecing the film together, using previously unheard tapes of a then 16-year-old Kaczynski undergoing controversial psychological experiments, interviews he gave at the start of his life sentence and correspondence with both the killer and his brother David, who was instrumental in his capture in 1996. Available now
Spenser: Confidential
This comedy thriller teams director Peter Berg with star Mark Wahlberg once more (having collaborated on Mile 22, Patriots Day and Lone Survivor).
But it’s the presence of Alan Arkin that makes it truly memorable. The Oscar-winner is on typically quirky form as Henry, a grizzled boxing coach who takes ex-cop Spenser (Wahlberg) under his wing after he’s released from jail.
Henry asks Spenser to help him train a promising young fighter, who reveals other skills that come in handy when the disgraced detective begins delving into the murders of two former colleagues. From Friday
All The Bright Places
Jennifer Niven has adapted her own best-selling YA (young adult) novel for the screen alongside Liz Hannah, who’s best known for penning Steven Spielberg’s The Post.
Jennifer Niven has adapted her own best-selling YA novel about two troubled teens (Elle Fanning and Justice Smith, above) desperate for a fresh start for the small screen
The result is the tale of Violet and Theodore, two troubled teens desperate for a fresh start. She’s struggling to cope with survivor’s guilt following her sister’s death, while he suffers from depression.
They form a bond that offers them hope, despite interference from the adults in their lives. Elle Fanning and Justice Smith are charming in the lead roles. Available now
Love Is Blind
Blind Date played Cupid using saucy innuendo. Naked Attraction got more directly to the, er, point. But Love Is Blind is even more outrageous, marrying couples before they’ve even met!
The contestants in this show, all singles from Atlanta, Georgia, chat to each other from within special sealed pods and, if all goes well, the men have to propose – based only on what they’ve heard. If that sounds like a recipe for chaos, calamity and disaster… it is! But it beats Love Island… Available now
Queen Sono
Netflix’s first original African series stars Quantico’s Pearl Thusi as a top operative working for a shadowy agency. She juggles tackling dangerous missions with meeting personal challenges head-on – those longing for a female James Bond may have their appetite sated here.
It’s the brainchild of actor-director Kagiso Lediga and, if successful, could be the first of many shows from the continent. Available now
Ru Paul’s Drag Race
Rejoice as the outrageous RuPaul and Strictly’s Michelle Visage return to the US for Drag Race’s 12th season.
With brand new killer queens with names like Brita Filter and Crystal Methyd competing for the coveted title of America’s Next Drag Superstar and famous guest judges including Chaka Khan, Daisy Ridley and Jeff Goldblum, this season will be as fabulous as ever.
Who will be the first contestant to face the ‘lip-sync for your life’ battle? And who will death-drop their way to the final? Available now
Why is there such a buzz about..?
I Am Not Okay With This (Netflix)
Jonathan Entwistle, the director of this new seven-episode comedy-drama, describes it as ‘X-Men meets Lady Bird meets The Breakfast Club’. In other words, it ticks plenty of boxes.
I Am Not Okay With This is funny and fresh. Above: Sophia Lillis and Sofia Bryant
Seventeen-year-old Sydney (Sophia Lillis) is struggling to come to terms with her father’s death and with her feelings for her best friend Dina (Sofia Bryant). Oh, and the fact that when she’s angry or upset – which is a lot of the time – she unleashes telekinetic powers over which she has little control.
To prepare for filming, Entwistle (The End Of The F***ing World) asked his cast to watch John Hughes films (one whole episode is an homage to The Breakfast Club) and the TV series Dawson’s Creek.
Although ostensibly a YA show, its producers, who also worked on Stranger Things, expect it to appeal to an older audience too, and its Eighties-orientated soundtrack underlines that. I Am Not Okay With This is funny, irreverent and, despite its obvious influences, fresh.
Neil Armstrong
SKY, BRITBOX, BT & APPLE TV+
Amazing Stories
Thirty-five years ago, Steven Spielberg launched Amazing Stories, an offbeat anthology series reminiscent of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.
Despite attracting major stars, it was axed after only two series. Apple is hoping its reboot – also executive produced by Spielberg – fares better.
Five episodes have been made, although the plots are being kept under wraps for now… Apple TV+, from Friday
Intelligence
David Schwimmer stars as a brash American spook, seconded to Cheltenham GCHQ in this zippy, knockabout, workplace farce. Schwimmer goofs it up as the fish-out-of-water cyber-security expert Jerry alongside creator and co-star Nick Mohammed as the equally hapless junior analyst Joseph.
With Little Britain’s Matt Lipsey at the helm ensuring the pratfalls keep coming, there’s more than enough to keep Schwimmer fans entertained ahead of May’s Friends reunion. Sky/NOW, available now
Avenue 5
A slow burner of a nine-part comedy, Armando Iannucci’s ‘space-com’ experienced an initially bumpy ride before slotting into comedy cruise control.
The wisecracking script and assured performances from the likes of Hugh Laurie (above) combine to chalk up Avenue 5 as another winning addition to Iannucci’s impeccable TV CV
Hugh Laurie is the clueless captain of cruise ship Avenue 5, which gets knocked off course and ends up lost in space, with Josh Gad (Frozen’s Olaf) as its Trumpishly idiotic owner and Rebecca Front heading up the bolshie passengers.
The wisecracking script and assured performances combine to chalk up another winning addition to Iannucci’s impeccable TV CV, and season two has just been announced. Sky/NOW, available now
Greavsie
He was famously replaced by Geoff Hurst when injured ahead of the 1966 World Cup quarter-final, and the rest is history.
Jimmy Greaves’s scoring record has never been bettered, making him the most prolific English striker of all time. Now 80 and disabled, he’s lauded in this tribute film
But Jimmy Greaves’s scoring record has never been bettered, making him the most prolific English striker of all time.
Now 80 and disabled following a stroke in 2015, Greavsie is lauded in this tribute film, which hears from contemporaries Hurst, Harry Redknapp, Ian St John, Alan Mullery, Pat Jennings and Ron Harris. BTsport.com, available now
Worricker Trilogy
Bill Nighy is always good value, and never more so than as Johnny Worricker, a world-weary MI5 officer created by playwright David Hare.
Worricker is introduced in Page Eight, as he investigates a potentially explosive file left to him by his boss. Rachel Weisz also appears as a political activist.
Then, in Turks & Caicos, Christopher Walken, Helena Bonham Carter and Winona Ryder co-star in a tale of shady goings-on among US businessmen.
Finally, Salting The Battlefield sees Worricker trying to evade the authority figures on his trail. Helena Bonham Carter returns, alongside Ralph Fiennes. BritBox, from Thursday
BBC iPLAYER, ALL 4 & ITV HUB
Endeavour
This year’s series of the Inspector Morse prequel runs to an all too brief three episodes, so here’s the chance to hoover them all up in one go. It’s 1970, and the new decade begins with a murder on a misty Oxford towpath.
This year’s series of the Inspector Morse prequel runs to an all too brief three episodes, so here’s the chance to hoover them all up in one go. Above: Shaun Evans and Roger Allam
But young Morse (Shaun Evans) is away in Venice, locked in a passionate snog with a glamorous fellow opera-lover. We know that the morose Morse of the future had always been unlucky in love. So how likely is it that this tryst will have a happy ending?
Cultural references, from Don’t Look Now to The Who’s Tommy, run through the episodes as the canalside murder casts a long shadow and relations between Morse and Fred Thursday (Roger Allam) turn frosty.
Endeavour fans should relish all six languid hours: series eight won’t be around until next year. ITV Hub, available now
My Left Nut
They say you should write what you know, which is just what Michael Patrick did when he and Oisín Kearney turned his teenage fight with testicular cancer into an award-winning stage play.
Now, in their first project for the BBC, they have expanded it into a three-part comedy drama, executive produced by Kay Mellor.
Nathan Quinn-O’Rawe plays 15-year-old Mick, who is juggling the usual trials and tribulations of teenage life with a worrying swelling in a delicate area. Sinead Keenan (Being Human, Little Boy Blue) co-stars as one of the people he’s too embarrassed to discuss the matter with – his mother. BBC iPlayer, from Sunday
Dirty Streaming: The Internet’s Big Secret
The global smash hit Despacito has been streamed five billion times – equivalent to the amount of energy used by five African countries across an entire year.
Beth Webb visits a data centre in Virginia (home to much of the internet) to investigate how streaming to your device sends data shooting around the world – directly powered by fossil-fuelled energy.
Conundrum of the week: do you stream this film, directly contributing to climate change? BBC iPlayer, from Thursday
Mrs Wilson
Ruth Wilson (His Dark Materials) gives a powerful portrayal of her real-life grandmother in this three-part series.
Alison met Alexander (played by Iain Glen) during the Second World War while working at MI6. It was only after his death in 1963 that she began to uncover the truth about his multiple lives as a bigamist and spy.
As she found out more and more surprising secrets about the man she was married to for 22 years, she struggled to protect her two sons from the truth. Keeley Hawes and Fiona Shaw also star. BBC iPlayer, available now
FILMS
Official secrets
Keira Knightley puts in perhaps her best performance as Katharine Gun, the GCHQ whistleblower who exposed an American dirty tricks campaign leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Keira Knightley puts in perhaps her best performance as Katharine Gun, the whistleblower who exposed an American dirty tricks campaign leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003
It’s a true story, played with great insight by Knightley, who captures Gun’s doggedness and courage under pressure, notably when the Official Secrets Act enforcers come calling.
The cast is equally impressive, including Ralph Fiennes as her barrister Ben Emmerson, and Matt Smith as the journalist who broke the story. BFI Player, available now
Luce
Echoes of Get Out abound in a discomfiting tale of a popular black schoolboy who is athletic and a gifted speaker, and is revered by his white teachers and friends – but may be more complex than his stereotypical profile.
Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr) is an adopted former Eritrean child soldier whose idea of homework is researching the violent overthrow of oppressive white colonial regimes.
Which comes as something of a shock to his liberal, Caucasian foster parents, Amy (Naomi Watts) and Peter (Tim Roth). Sky Store, available to buy from Monday
The Good Liar
In the fine tradition of Hollywood greats Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, watch the sparks fly as Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen are teamed in a sharp battle of wits.
McKellen is seasoned conman Roy, a smooth-talking villain whose latest project, to fleece the wily and widowed Oxford professor Betty (Mirren) of her fortune, becomes a deadly game of cat and mouse when it becomes clear she isn’t going to be a pushover.
Lies pile upon lies, twists upon twists, eventually leading to the bittersweet truth. Sky Store, available to buy from Monday