Television
The Best of the Week
MONDAY MARCH 23
Bang (TVNZ OnDemand).
It’s fair to say that Scandi noir, starting with The Killing, put paid to the notion that viewers won’t watch subtitled TV series – and that there has been a flow-on effect. We now have Russian, Indian and French series at our fingertips on streaming services such as Netflix and making a series in a language other than English is more achievable.
Enter Bang, which was first broadcast on Welsh-language channel S4C even though, shockingly, it’s bilingual. The series’ creator, Roger Williams, wanted to attract both Welsh and English speakers and also, he told the Guardian, reflect the linguistic diversity of Port Talbot, where the drama is set. “For all of us who are bilingual, the reality is that we live our lives through two languages.” In the eight-part series, loner Sam (Jacob Ifan) is asked by his dodgy neighbour to look after a package that turns out to be a gun. Meanwhile, his sister Gina (Catrin Stewart),
a policewoman, is part of the team investigating a murder.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 25
The Pale Horse (SoHo, Sky 010, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done it again. The British screenwriter’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation is a fever dream of suspicion and English folk paganism set in 1961. That means nice cars and Rufus Sewell looking pretty good in a suit as his life crumbles. He is antiques dealer Mark Easterbrook, whose name is found on a list in the shoe of a murdered woman. Sean Pertwee’s Inspector Lejeune is investigating, but Easterbrook’s own search leads him to the village of Much Deeping and a supposed trio of “witches”. Meanwhile, his new wife,