The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
ISOLATION STORIES
ITV, 9.00pm
Given that we are all dependent like never before on our trusty television sets, the TV industry is having to improvise rapidly. Step forward Jeff Pope, the screenwriter behind such real-life dramas as Little Boy Blue, Philomena and Hatton Garden, who has corralled a few of his colleagues to create four housebound 15-minute dramas, which will air over the next four nights. Each has been a logistical challenge, with actors’ family members suddenly finding themselves in starring roles.
The first is Mel, starring a heavily pregnant Sheridan Smith as the heavily pregnant Mel. She faces the prospect of giving birth alone, because the father of her child – a married man with kids – has chosen to go into lockdown with his family. The writer, Gaby
Chiappe, has apparently based this on a real-life tale from coronavirus Britain. Tomorrow night has Robert Glenister and his son, Tom, in Ron & Russell, written by Pope, while Wednesday night’s Mike & Rochelle stars Darren Boyd and Angela Griffin. And thanks to the fact that actors Eddie Marsan and David Threlfall are neighbours, the pair are able to appear together – at a short distance – in Karen, the last of the four on Thursday. Chris Bennion
6.00 am Milkshake!
9.15 Jeremy Vine (S)
11.15 Deadly Secrets by the Lake (2017, TVM) Murder mystery starring Stefanie von Pfetten (S) pm The Golden Girls (R) (S)
News (S)
Home and Away (AD) (R) (S)
Neighbours (AD) (S)
Killer Reputation (2019, TVM) Thriller starring Anna Hutchison (S)
Friends (R) (S)
Friends (R) (S)
News (S)
Neighbours (AD) (R) (S) Access (S)
Celebrity 5 Go Motorhoming (R) (S)
DISNEY GALLERY: THE MANDALORIAN
Disney+
May the fourth be with you. For Star Wars Day, not only has Disney+ brought us the latest film, The Rise of Skywalker, two months early (see page 20), it has also launched this eight-part series which goes behind the making of The Mandalorian.