Television
The Best of the Week
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 16
Portrait Artist of the Year (Prime, 6.00pm). The UK series that even the art critics have come around to, as a number of talented amateur and professional painters have been discovered. The contestants have only four hours to produce a portrait and are then judged by artist Tai-Shan Schierenberg, independent curator Kathleen Soriano and art historian Kate Bryan, who says that the show “is a wonderful antidote to the stuffy aspects of the art world”.
It’s a high-pressure environment, for sure, but the artists get to paint cool famous people, such as, in the first episode, Geraldine James, Matthew Goode and chef Andi Oliver. Other subjects in the season include Anna Chancellor (cheekbones!), Jodie Comer from Killing Eve, James Purefoy and, in the grand final, Tom Jones. The series is presented by Stephen Mangan and Joan Bakewell.
Vera (Vibe Vera Pop-up, Sky 306, 7.30pm). Vera fans, your time has come. Three days of Brenda Blethyn in the role that has come to define her career, the no-nonsense, brilliantly grumpy Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope. This Vibe Vera Pop-up is playing all nine seasons of Vera from now until Monday. Don’t worry, it’s not a valedictory – season 10 of Vera is set to screen in the UK next year.
The Flatey Enigma (Sky Arts, Sky 020, 8.30pm). It’s a very murder-y week, although we’d put good
money on The Flatey Enigma, or Flateyjargátan as it is properly known, being the only crime drama we’ll see all week that was made in Iceland.
It’s based on the novel by Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson about a professor of Nordic studies (Lára Jóhanna Jónsdóttir) who becomes involved in a mystery relating to the Icelandic Sagas when she returns to the island of Flatey for the funeral of her father. The year is 1971, which will explain why she comes into conflict with the misogynist hierarchy at the University of Reykjavík. Fans of The Killing and Borgen may recognise Søren Malling, who plays a Danish professor; the rest of the cast have very complicated Icelandic names.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 17
The Brokenwood Mysteries (Prime, 8.30pm). We seem to recall Midsomer Murders has knocked off a writer or two in its time and Brokenwood follows suit by doing in a world-renowned crime writer, a “tall, dark and sexually magnetic” literary rock star who has left a trail of broken hearts in Brokenwood. No shortage of suspects, then.
The unfortunate wordsmith is played by tall, dark and handsome Matt Whelan and this episode is written by screenwriting rock star Fiona Samuel and directed by awardwinning actor Aidee Walker.
Dublin Murders (SoHo, Sky 010, 8.30pm). Sunday is the night for murder, it appears. If you know Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, then you’ll either love or hate that
the BBC and Irish publicservice broadcaster RTÉ have adapted the first two novels, the much-acclaimed Into the Woods and The Likeness. As a point in their favour, we should add that the screenwriter is Sarah Phelps, whose recent Agatha Christie adaptations have been superb. Killian Scott and Sarah Greene play French’s Garda detectives Rob Riley and Cassie Maddox; they are called in when a 13-yearold girl is found dead in the woods. It’s safe to say that the crime may relate to the disappearance of three children 20 years before. “Questions large and small are flung into the air and expertly juggled against a well-conjured backdrop of increasing dread,” said the Guardian.
MONDAY NOVEMBER 18
Ray Donovan (SoHo, Sky 010, 8.30pm). We thought Ray Donovan had done its dash with season five, but then there was a sixth season – and now the guy who can make all your problems go away is back for No 7. But when you’ve buried as many bodies as Ray and his family, where else is there left to go? Apparently, to the psychiatrist’s couch, where Ray (Liev Schreiber) is giving therapy a go under the auspices of Alan Alda’s wise Dr Amiot. No prizes for guessing that Ray has daddy issues. Mickey Donovan (Jon Voigt) is consistent in his awfulness if nothing else. In other plot news, Ray is working for shady Mayor Feratti (Zach Grenier); a billionaire mogul (Josh
Hamilton) brings a new threat to Ray’s business; an NYPD cop is looking for answers to those pesky missing officers from last season; and Lena (Katherine Moennig) is as awesome as ever. Even though this is not a horror movie, it is fair to say that the family that slays together, stays together.
London Kills (UKTV, Sky 007, 9.30pm). A crime-of-the-week series, which makes a change from the police procedurals that take a whole season to come to a conclusion. It’s not too different from Crime Stories, the 2012 series also created by Paul Marquess, that used a similar hand-held, documentary-style aesthetic. The series stars Hugo Speer as the head of a metropolitan police murder squad that comprises Sharon Small, Bailey Patrick and Tori Allen-Martin. There is an ongoing story involving the disappearance of Speer’s wife, so Marquess couldn’t quite resist a season-long mystery.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 21
Paradise Hotel (TVNZ OnDemand). It appears that the American appetite for Love Island- style shenanigans is not as great as it is in the UK. The Fox network has now attempted to get Paradise
Hotel, in which contestants must share a hotel room, off the ground three times, in 2003, 2008 and this year, and has cancelled it three times. It seems that adding a layer of social media isn’t the cure for all ratings woes. In other silly-season news, Mum’s Gone Wild: Embarrassing Parents (TVNZ 2, Wednesday, 9.00pm) is a cheapie UK Channel 5 show featuring mums who appear to have a life despite their kids’ objections. It’s not all about you, you know.
Louis Theroux: Surviving America’s Most Hated Family (Prime, 9.45pm). Theroux returns, perhaps for the last time, to the deeply unpleasant Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas to see how they’re getting on in the wake of the death of their founder, Pastor Fred Phelps. It’s a sad state of affairs that they are no longer America’s most awful brood; that’s to say, in Trump’s America, outrageous statements are commonplace. Other challenges include the defection of Pastor Phelps’ granddaughter, Megan, who has written a book about her experiences. On the other hand, Theroux meets a British man who has joined the church after watching Theroux’s previous documentaries.