The Best of the Week
SATURDAY APRIL 7
Antiques Roadshow (Prime, 6.00pm). Antiques Roadshow is back and all’s right with the world. The most comforting of comfort telly returns for season 39 – amazing – and begins at Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, which was founded at the end of the 11th century and bought by the good people of Tewkesbury parish after Henry VIII disbanded it in 1540 and seized its valuables. Treasures include dolls and their house dating from 1705 that set an expert’s spidey senses tingling. The words “national importance” are uttered. A new feature is “the Enigma”, in which an expert offers several different purposes for a mystery object and presenter Fiona Bruce is asked to guess. Bruce can also be seen in the new season of Fake or Fortune? (Sky Arts, Sky 020, Thursday, 8.30pm), in which she and art dealer Philip Mould try to determine the authenticity of artworks. The series features a Constable, possible works by Paul Gauguin and a painting said to be by Australian impressionist Tom Roberts.
SUNDAY APRIL 8
The Race for Motutapu (Three, 5.30pm). British cricket commentator John Lloyd expressed amazement at the ubiquity of Mark Richardson’s televisual presence, and here he is again, putting the rest of us to shame by competing in the Partners Life Dual. The multisport event takes place across the islands of Motutapu and Rangitoto in the Hauraki Gulf and raises money for the restoration of Motutapu. Participants can walk, run, swim or mountain bike around the islands in seven different events; it’s the only time of the year that mountain bikes are allowed on the islands. Richardson throws in some history of the conservation efforts that have seen the eradication of pests, the planting of 16,000 trees a year and the introduction of kiwi and other birds.
Bear’s Mission with Rob Brydon (Choice TV, 7.30pm). Once you’ve seen one of Bear Grylls’s survival adventures, you’ve usually seen them all, but seeing as how his companion this time is comedian Rob Brydon, we might make an exception. He and Grylls are in the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales,
attempting to “survive”. More to the point, how’s Bear’s Michael Caine impression? In similar comedians-on-holiday news, Ed Byrne and Dara Ó Briain head into Southeast Asia in Dara & Ed’s Road to Mandalay (Choice TV, Monday, 7.30pm).
In the three-part series, the Irish funny guys visit Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar.
MONDAY APRIL 9
Killing Eve (TVNZ Ondemand, 6.00pm). Phoebe Waller-Bridge is principally known for her comedy series Fleabag, but she turns her hand to crime as the creator and writer of this series based on the Villanelle novels of Luke Jennings. Sandra Oh ( Grey’s Anatomy) stars as a mid-level CIA operative who becomes entangled with the scary psycho killer Villanelle (Jodie Comer). It arrives on TVNZ OnDemand on the same day as its US screening, so no reviews yet, but hopefully the president of BBC America’s description of “a brilliantly fresh take on the cat-and-mouse thriller” is true.
All Star Family Feud (Three, 7.30pm). A bunch of competitive sporting types up against a group of arty musicians? We wouldn’t put money on it. Portia Woodman, Steve Gurney, DJ Forbes and Monty Betham play Ladi6, Jon Toogood, Kings and Barnaby Weir in this Sport vs Music special edition.
9-1-1 (Three, 8.30pm). Looks like Ryan Murphy has another hit on his hands with this emergency-service procedural. To be fair, his producing partners, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear, have also had a hand in the show’s success. It’s the final episode of the first season tonight, but never fear, it has been renewed for a longer second season.
Jericho (Vibe, Sky 006, 8.30pm). It was supposed to be a British Hell on Wheels, or perhaps Deadwood, but this period drama about the building
of a railway viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales didn’t quite match the violent verve of either of those two shows. Nevertheless, it does star the lovely Jessica Raine ( Call the Midwife), Mark Addy and Clarke Peters and is fun in a soapy kind of way – or, if you’re being unkind, like the Telegraph, spoof mining drama Brass.
TUESDAY APRIL 10
Endeavour (Vibe, Sky 006, 8.30pm). As a nod to the 30th anniversary of Inspector Morse, Endeavour’s fourth season is peppered with more references than usual to its originating series. John Thaw’s wife, Sheila Hancock, puts in an appearance and Thaw’s daughter, Abigail, continues her role as newspaperwoman Dorothea Frazil. The season begins just two weeks after the bank robbery that sent
Joan Thursday (Sara Vickers) scarpering from Oxford – that pained look on Morse’s face is his inability to admit his love and he and Fred Thursday
(the great Roger Allam) are deep in grief. As this is 1967, there are era-appropriate stories, such as a chess match between a Russian master and an early computer; a Mary Whitehouse-style morals campaigner; and a rock group hanging out in a country mansion. Needless to say, Morse (Shaun Evans) does not fit in.
Russell Howard & Mum: Road Trip (Comedy Central, Sky 011, 10.20pm). Apart from actual road trips, the latest thing for British comedians seems to be getting one of their parents on camera: Jack Whitehall visited Asia with his dad, Michael, for his Netflix series; Romesh Ranganathan was sent to Sri Lanka by his mum, Shanthi, for Asian Provocateur; and now Russell Howard is on the road in the US with his mum, Ninette. Well, he does use her in his standup routines, so she should get something back. Meanwhile, Irish personality Baz Ashmawy is calling it a day on his Emmy-winning series 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy for fear, he told the Irish Mirror, “he’ll kill her off for real”.
THURSDAY APRIL 12
Paddington Station 24/7 (Prime, 7.30pm). Planes and boats and trains are all grist for the obsdoc mill and terrific PR as well. Perhaps London commuters will think twice before they are tempted to complain about the train service after they watch staff at Paddington coping with some of the 30 million passengers who pass through the famous Victorian station every year. In the first episode, 20,000 Italian and Spanish football fans arrive and leave for Cardiff for the Champions League final. Then, as staff prepare to send them on their merry way, there is a terrorist incident on London Bridge.