The future looks grim, so bring on the dancing dogs

THE HANDMAID’S TALE (CHANNEL 4)

While I still reckon it’s the best thing on TV, The Handmaid’s Tale is getting bleaker by the minute.

Not that we’d expect anything about Margaret Atwood’s disturbing dystopian future – where the few fertile women surviving in New England are used as breeders for the ruling regime’s elite – to be rosy.

Series one offered some light and shade but now we know the true horror of Gilead – and are getting glimpses of how it came to be – things are looking even more grim for our handmaidens.

Now independent from the original source material, season two doesn’t pull any punches.

June, brilliantly portrayed by Elizabeth Moss, has faced the gallows and torture before making her big escape, burning her symbolic red cloak and reclaiming her name…not to mention her sex life.

We’ve also seen what happened to the “transgressives” banished to the toxic wastes, where rebel handmaid Emily now labours.

Flashbacks explain how the former biology professor lost her job, her family and freedom all for daring to love another woman.

I think what makes this show so horrifying is the way it depicts how easily this kind of patriarchial oppression could be enforced.

But it all promises to make the handmaidens’ revenge (it has to happen, surely!) all the sweeter.

In the meantime, it’s still a gut-wrenchingly brilliant watch.

BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT (ITV)

A week of live semi-final shenanigans including shocks, stage invasions, power cuts, magic, laughs and tears, leads to tonight’s grand finale.

Is it just me who’s a little sad to see a distinct lack of canine competitors this year though?