TV PICKS OF THE WEEK
THE EARTHSHOT PRIZE 2021 Tonight, BBC1, 8pm
Next month, all eyes will be on Glasgow as the UK hosts the crucial Cop26 climate summit.
Just in case you think it’s all doom and gloom regarding the state of the planet, Dermot O’Leary and Clara Amfo present the awards ceremony celebrating projects tackling the climate crisis, and providing funding to help them achieve their goals in the next decade.
Sir David Attenborough speaks on the challenges these issues are facing, while music comes from Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Yemi Alade, KSI and Shawn Mendes..
ALMA’S NOT NORMAL Tomorrow, BBC2, regions vary
It’s going to be hard saying goodbye to this whip-smart comedy drama, but at least we can hope for a second series or more delights from creator Sophie Willan.
The episode begins as things between Lin and Joan are not going well, while the news that Alma will be leaving for a six-month tour could well push Lin over the edge.
When the social worker visits, she snaps and disappears, leaving Alma fearing that her mum may have turned back to her old ways.
Siobhan Finneran and Lorraine Ashbourne also star.
ASHLEY BANJO: BRITAIN IN BLACK AND WHITE
Tuesday, ITV, 9pm
Last summer, Diversity performed a Black Lives Matter-themed routine on Britain’s Got Talent.
It was one of the most complained-about TV moments in Ofcom history, and won the group a Bafta
award, but it wasn’t the first or last time choreographer Ashley Banjo examined this issue.
Here, he looks at how race and racism have impacted his life and those of his loved ones. Ashley investigates the UK’s Black civil rights movement, meeting trailblazers and learning about the dangers they faced.
SHETLAND Wednesday, BBC1, 9pm
Douglas Henshall and Alison O’Donnell are back for a new, six-part run of the bleak but
beautiful crime drama, which sees the team probing the doorstep murder of a prominent local figure, a case which strikes at the heart of the Shetland Isles and its people.
As DI Jimmy Perez and his crew uncover a kaleidoscope of motives for the murder, their investigation soon takes a shockingly sinister turn.
HANDMADE: BRITAIN’S BEST WOODWORKER
Thursday, Channel 4, 8pm
Mel Giedroyc presents the latest entry in the hobby show genre, as nine of the country’s most talented craftspeople compete in a workshop, nestled in the ancient woodland of
Wales’ Glanusk Estate.
They face a big build that supersizes the skills they’ve honed at home and a surprise challenge that tests their core abilities.
In this opening episode, the woodworkers have two days to complete a bed of dreams that may become the stuff of nightmares.
ZAPPA
Friday, BBC Four, 9pm
Years in the making, this all-access documentary tells the story of Frank Zappa, the 1970s icon of eccentric rock whose work included serious orchestral composition, film-making and social activism.
The in-depth film conveys the scope of his varied creative output, and the breadth of his extraordinary life. The team was granted exclusive access by Frank’s wife Gail to a vast collection of Zappa’s unreleased music, movies,
incomplete projects, unseen interviews and unheard recordings.
THE 80S – MUSIC’S GREATEST DECADE? WITH DYLAN JONES Saturday, BBC2, 8.55pm
Journalist and author Dylan Jones celebrates the music of the decade, arguing that this maligned era is one of the most inventive periods of pop culture and hearing from leading musicians and producers who were at the forefront.
Featuring interviews with Nile Rodgers, Bananarama, Bobby Gillespie, Mark Ronson, Trevor Horn and Jazzie B.