TV guide: 21 of the best shows to watch this week, beginning tonight

Two Daughters

Sunday, BBC Two, 9pm

On June 5th, 2020, sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman met up to celebrate Bibaa’s birthday in a park in north London. They were murdered in the park as they relaxed, and Nicole’s boyfriend found the women’s bodies the next day. What followed was a failure of the Met police and the UK national press to treat the victims with the respect they deserved, forcing the women’s mother, Mina Smallman, Britain’s first black archdeacon, to turn activist and seek justice for her murdered daughters. This documentary is presented by Stacey Dooley, and follows the trial of the women’s killer, and the trial of two Met officers who took selfies with the women’s bodies and shared them online. The programme asks the difficult question: are women of colour who are victims of violent crime treated differently by authorities, media and society?

Midsomer Murders – 25 Years of Mayhem

Sunday, ITV, 7pm

There are plenty of telly detective shows, but how many of them can claim to have featured Orlando Bloom taking a pitchfork to the chest and Martine McCutcheon facing death by cheese? The bizarre killings are just one reason why Midsomer Murders has proved so popular and stayed on our screens for so long. Midsomer Murders – 25 Years of Mayhem celebrates the show’s success with contributors including John Nettles, who played DCI Tom Barnaby from 1997 until 2011, his successor (and on-screen cousin) Neil Dudgeon, and sidekicks past and present. It’s followed by a new episode of the drama that sees an annual scarecrow festival taking a very sinister turn.

Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen

Sunday, BBC One, 7.45pm

We don’t exactly think of the royal family as being ahead of the times, but one area where they definitely did lead the way is in home movies – they’ve been filming themselves since the 1920s. The BBC has been granted access to hundreds of reels taht have been held privately by the Royal Collection in the vaults of the British Film Institute. Shot by her parents, Prince Philip and the queen herself among others, they offer a glimpse into Elizabeth II’s life. From footage of her being pushed in a pram by her mother, and a rare glimpse of her with her grandfather, George V, to her showing off her engagement ring during Philip’s first visit to Balmoral and her days as young mother to Prince Charles and Princess Anne, this is a poignant look behind the palace doors.

Ghosts in the Ruins

Sunday, BBC Four, 8pm

Created with Coventry’s musicians, poets and communities, this site-specific performance by Nitin Sawhney explores contemporary ideas of peace and reconciliation and reflects Coventry as a city of sanctuary, with a strong history of helping refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants, and acknowledging a sense of connection with the rest of the world. The work explores themes of acceptance, healing, transcendence, hope, resilience, regeneration and reconciliation, in relation to contemporary conflicts as an acknowledgement of the destruction of the past as well as hopes for the future. Presented by Nikki Bedi.

Springwatch

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, BBC Two, 8pm

Get set for three weeks of awe-inspiring footage and facts from Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan. The duo are setting up shop at Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk, where they will bring viewers reports on the diversity of the site’s wildlife. Plus, for the first time in the show’s history, a camera has been rigged up to a bee colony so we can see how the insects interact and work. If that’s not enough, there’s a chance to follow Megan McCubbin’s road trip across northern England, during which she’ll be stopping off at such places as Kielder Forest and Hauxley Nature Reserve, while Iolo Williams showcases the flora and fauna on, above and around the Isle of Mull, including marine life and two species of eagle.

Flight MH370: The Vanishing

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday, Channel 5, 9pm

This new three-part series uses new evidence and insights from the original investigation as well as testimony from experts, to piece together what may have happened to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished in March 2014. Its final resting place remains a mystery, but the loved ones of those involved are determined it should be found. The opening episode pays particular attention to the immediate aftermath of the incident as the news broke.

Once Upon a Time in Londongrad

Tuesday, Sky Documentaries/Now TV, 9pm

It’s a story that makes The Godfather look like The Brady Bunch, featuring stabbings, hangings, poisonings and suffocation and other ways of getting whacked. This timely documentary charts the rise of the Russian oligarchs in London, and how Vladimir Putin’s toxic influence spread through the upper echelons of British society. Oscar-nominated director Jed Rothstein charts Putin’s path to invading Ukraine and tracks how London became so dependent on Russian money, it missed several opportunities to curtail the Kremlin. The six-part series covers Putin’s two decades in power, and examines 14 suspicious deaths linked to the Kremlin – including the death of oligarch Boris Berezovsky and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, along with the botched assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal using the nerve agent novichok. The only conclusion we can reach is that the West facilitated Putin in his evil ambitions.

The Black Death: Lucy Worsley Investigates

Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

The historian turns her sleuthing skills to the pestilence of 1348, which wiped out almost half the population in a little over a year. For centuries it was unclear what had caused the Black Death – until a plague pit containing the bones of hundreds of victims was uncovered in Smithfield, London, in the 1980s. Worsley discovers how DNA tests on the skeletons identified a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis, a pathogen to which the mediaeval population had no immunity. As well as exploring the causes of the Black Death, Worsley examines the effects, including its impact on the social structure. In the wake of the plague, workers were in short supply, meaning they could demand higher wages, while women were given an opportunity to take on roles previously denied to them.

Inside No 9

Wednesday, BBC Two, 11.15pm

Anyone who grew up during the 1970s and 1980s will be fast-tracked onto memory lane by the final episode in the current run of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s wildly inventive dark comedy series. Back then, short information films warning children of various dangers were commonplace on British screens. Some of them were genuinely scary and still send shivers down the spine. However, the chaps appear to have been inspired by the easier-on-the-eye animated Charlie Says ads, but with a character known as Wise Owl as the main focus. His words have had a lasting impact on Ronnie, who has spent his entire life trying to do the right thing. But now, Ronnie is left wondering what exactly the right thing is, and the wrong thing, for that matter.

The Midwich Cuckoos

Thursday, Sky Max/Now TV, 9pm

Something creepy is stirring in the sleepy town of Midwich, but the kids are alright – it’s the grown-ups who need to be very, very afraid. Keeley Hawes stars in this sci-fi series based on the classic novel by John Wyndham. It all begins when everyone in a part of the town suddenly passes out. When they wake, everything seems normal – except that now every woman of childbearing age who was in the blackout zone is pregnant. No prizes for guessing that some nasty green men landed from space, administered some intergalactic rohypnol and impregnated these women with alien kids while they were out for the count. Pretty soon, the entire town is under the malevolent rule of these extraterrestrial brats, but what is their ultimate purpose? You can bet it’s not just staying up late, eating sweets and playing on the Xbox for as long as they like.

The Works Presents

Thursday, RTÉ One, 11.15pm

John Kelly sits down with Jennifer Walshe, an Irish composer whose work has been performed all over the world. Whether for a small ensemble, an orchestra, or in a full opera production, her work is known for its intensity, imagination and humour. Defying categorisation within the contemporary classical world, it combines, in radical ways, the fields of composition, performance, video and text.

She also performs frequently as a vocalist, specialising in what are known as “extended techniques2 – again working in the sort of adventurous territory that makes her a unique and trail-blazing figure in Irish music. In 2021, Walshe was appointed Professor of Composition at Oxford.

Making Sense of Cancer with Hannah Fry

Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm

In March 2020, Prof Hannah Fry received a letter from the NHS, calling her in for a routine three-yearly smear test. However, due to her work commitments and Covid restrictions, she missed the test. Unfortunately, Fry was later diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer and told that she needed radical surgery to save her life. As a way of coping with the news, she decided to document her experience from the run-up to the treatment and throughout her recovery. Despite the positive outcome, the radically invasive operation she underwent changed her life forever. No one knew it at the time, but the odds of Fry dying were much smaller than was feared. Now she wants to use her insight and skills as a mathematician to interrogate the calculations used for treating cancer.

Tuca & Bertie

Friday, E4, 1.50am

The return of the animated Adult Swim series following the friendship between two 30-year-old bird-women who live in the same apartment building. They are Tuca (Tiffany Haddish), a cocky, care-free toucan, and Bertie (Ali Wong), an anxious, daydreaming songbird. Tonight, now that Tuca is starting to grapple with her childhood trauma and anxiety, she wants to find a therapist to start working through some of her issues. In particular, Bertie wants help managing her panic attacks, as it’s her anniversary, and Speckle has booked a reservation at a fancy restaurant in town.

The Crown Jewels

Friday, BBC One, 7.30pm

In case you hadn’t noticed, the queen’s platinum jubilee will be celebrated this weekend, and her loyal subjects are being granted an extra bank holiday to mark the occasion. Which is nice. In the run-up there will be no shortage of programmes about Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne, and we quite fancy having a rummage around the queen’s jewellery box and getting a close gawp at the royal gems. Presenter Clive Myrie has been given rare permission to lay a hand on the crown jewels (he’ll be wearing protective gloves) as he examines all 13 crowns, set with nearly 24,000 precious stones, using cutting-edge technology, and exploring the history of the crown jewels, from the time of William the Conqueror to the present day.

Gardeners’ World

Friday, BBC Two, 8pm

Planting tomatoes in grow bags is a perfect method for many gardeners – you can increase the amount of water and nutrients available to each tomato plant, and therefore increase your crop.

Monty Don reveals how to get the best from the plants and the bags. He also demonstrates how to divide agapanthus, and there is a look at developments in the revamped dry garden. Also tonight, Adam Frost shares the progress at his new plot and tackles planting in a shady border against a north-facing wall. Plus, Frances Tophill meets a Worcestershire couple who created a garden inspired by their travels.

ON DEMAND

Pistol

From Tuesday, Disney+

When Disney announced it was making a series about The Sex Pistols, it was inevitable that some snotty noses would be put out of joint. The series, directed by Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire man Danny Boyle, is based on the memoir of band guitarist Steve Jones, but singer John Lydon wasn’t ‘avin’ it, and tried to block Sex Pistols songs from being used in the series. A court battle settled the matter, and now we can look forward to hearing Pretty Vacant, Anarchy in the UK and God Save the Queen in this tale of the ultimate firework band who crashed and burned after just one album, leaving a scorched earth in its wake. It’s also handy that the series drops on the weekend of the queen’s platinum jubilee. Anson Boon stars as Johnny Rotten, with Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious, Toby Wallace as Jones, and Jacob Slater as Paul Cook.

Borgen: Power and Glory

From Thursday, Netflix

Sidse Babett Knudsen is back after a gap of nine years as Birgitte Nyborg who, as those who binge-watched series three or have very good memories will already know, is Denmark’s minister for foreign affairs. The new fourth run begins after oil has been found by a drilling firm in Greenland. Nyborg tries to keep the crude in the ground, but the event prompts an international struggle for power in the Arctic. Although hugely experienced, Nyborg must repeatedly accept that, despite Denmark’s “big brother” relationship with Greenland, when it comes to the international superpowers, her nation is a minor player. Meanwhile, Katrine Fonsmark returns to journalism after landing a job as head of the news department for a national TV station.

The Boys

From Friday, Amazon Prime

What happens when superheroes decide not to use their powers for good, but to basically indulge their basest instincts and wreak havoc in the world of mortals? You have potential for lots of fun, violence and mayhem, which probably explains the enduring popularity of this series based on the comic strips by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. We’re in series three, and the Seven appear to be subdued, as an uneasy calm settles on an embattled world. But their thirst for blood and brutality can’t be kept down for long, and vigilante group The Boys are preparing for another one-sided battle

against these caped crusaders for corruption. But when they learn of the existence of an anti-Supe weapon, the Boys see their chance to “level the f**king playing field”.

Mr Good: Cop or Crook?

From Friday, Netflix

This gripping documentary traces the incredible true criminal case against Norway’s most famous cop, Eirik Jensen, and attempts to answer the question that has riveted the nation since his arrest in 2013: is Jensen the best policeman in the country’s history, or is he in fact the biggest drug trafficker Scandinavia has ever known? With unique access to Jensen, the series also features charismatic, colourful characters and tells their unbelievable stories from their first meeting with him in the 1990s to the courtroom of 2020. Viewers can find out what happened via the internet, but watching it unfold is far more intriguing.

Hollywood Stargirl

From Friday, Disney+

Grace VanderWaal returns as Susan “Stargirl” Caraway in this charming sequel to the original Disney+ flick. We catch up with the talented teenager as she sets off on a journey out of Mica, Arizona, and into a bigger world of music, dreams and possibilities. When her mother (Judy Greer) lands a job as the costume designer on a movie, they head out to Los Angeles, where Stargirl quickly becomes involved with an eclectic assortment of characters. They include aspiring film-maker brothers (Elijah Richardson and Tyrel Jackson Williams), neighbour Mr Mitchell (Judd Hirsch) and musician Roxanne Martel, played by the fabulous Uma Thurman.

Physical

From Friday, Apple TV+

Rose Byrne is back with big hair, a punchy attitude and more spandex than you can shake a stick at in series two of Annie Weisman’s ‘80s-set drama. Having successfully launched her first fitness video, San Diego housewife-turned-fitness guru Sheila Rubin tries to enjoy the moment: only to run straight into some new and bigger obstacles. She is torn between loyalty to her husband (Rory Scovel) and the values he represents, and a dangerous attraction to someone else. Even worse, as she’s no longer the only game in town, Sheila is forced to outrun some fierce competitors as she vows to build a fully-fledged fitness empire. The cracking cast also includes Dierdre Friel, Della Saba and Paul Sparks.

TV guide: 21 of the best shows to watch this week, beginning tonight

Two Daughters, Once Upon a Time in Londongrad, Pistol, Borgen: Power and Glory