YOUR GUIDE TO NEW STREAMING SERVICE PARAMOUNT+

What is it? A subscription service for film and TV from Paramount Global, owner of the movie studio Paramount Pictures, US channels CBS,

MTV, Nickelodeon and Showtime, and Ch5 in the UK. Paramount+ already exists in the US, and launches here on Wednesday with 8,000 hours of films and TV. Some shows arrive as box sets, others weekly.

What does it cost? £6.99 a month or £69.90 a year, after a seven-day free trial. It also comes free as part of a Sky Cinema subscription.

How do I watch it? If you have Sky, via your Sky box, or if you have an Amazon account, as an add-on subscription via Amazon

Prime Video. Otherwise, via the Paramount+ app on Apple and Android devices, smart TVS and streaming sticks. It’s not currently available through Now.

What are the TV highlights? The biggest of the many shows available at launch is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (above left), a pre-kirk era show that captures the wonder of the original series but gives it a witty twist, and has special effects that’ll knock your socks off. Other standouts include White House drama The First Lady (see feature, page 11), and

The Offer, a colourful account of how The Godfather was made, with a lot of swaggering Hollywood types and Juno Temple as a wily personal assistant. The most offbeat drama highlight is The Man Who Fell To Earth, a sequel to the original, with Chiwetel Ejiofor playing a visiting alien and Bill Nighy in the David Bowie role.

Western fans are served by 1883, the prequel to Yellowstone, the new, third season of which is also available from launch, and lovers of sci-fi action can turn to video game adaptation Halo (below left). There’s real-life corporate skulduggery with Joseph Gordon-levitt in

Super Pumped: The

Battle For Uber, and, for a total change of gear,

Graham Norton in drag queen singing contest Queen

Of The Universe.

And the films? Six Star Trek movies, two Transformers and

Mission Impossible: Fallout, with I-III of the latter to follow on 1 July – Paramount own all three franchises. Other films include Grease, Mean Girls, Footloose, Clifford The Big Red Dog (above, from Friday) and Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening in the real-life lottery comedy

Jerry & Marge Go Large, which is bypassing a cinema release.

And in future?

Renee Zellweger on lively form as the murderer Pam Hupp (left) in truecrime drama The Thing About Pam

(21 July), and a new series of crime thriller City On A Hill, starring Kevin Bacon (11 July).