The very best of the week ahead PICK OF THE WEEK
Today The Durrells
ITV, 8.00PM Last spring, this sun-drenched, Thirties-set romp based on Gerald Durrell’s books proved to be a ratings success, pulling in 8 million viewers. Now the hit period drama returns for its eagerly awaited second series. In this opening episode, Louisa (Keeley Hawes) tries to earn some money by selling homemade food at the local market, which attracts the attention of a charming Englishman (Daniel Lapaine). Meanwhile, her four eccentric children each have their own worries: aspiring novelist Larry (Josh O’Connor) is suffering writer’s block; animal-mad Gerry (Milo Parker) is trying to breed otters; trigger-happy Leslie (Callum Woodhouse) accidentally shoots Roger the dog; and boy-crazy Margo (Daisy Waterstone) sets her heart on becoming a nun. It’s wittily scripted by Simon Nye and oozing with charm: what a delight it is to have the Durrell clan back. Michael Hogan
Grantchester
ITV, 9.00PM James Norton returns as Sidney Chambers, the jazz-loving, crimesolving man of the cloth in this genteel whodunit set in Fifties Cambridge. And he’s straight back on the case with DI Geordie Keating (Robson Green) when there’s a series of murders by someone who leaves dead birds as a grisly calling card. Rachel Ward
Monday Little Boy Blue
ITV, 9.00PM In 2007, 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot dead in a pub car park on a Liverpool housing estate. The ensuing investigation engulfed the entire city, exposing the blight of gang violence that could no longer be ignored. Small wonder Jeff Pope (executive producer of
The Moorside, among many others) saw in it the raw material for another of his incisive and affecting factual dramas. He adopts two perspectives: that of senior investigating officer Dave Kelly (the excellent Stephen Graham), one of the lads, but also deadly serious about the task ahead of his team; and that of Rhys’s griefstricken parents Melanie and Steve Jones (Sinead Keenan and Brian F O’Byrne) as they channel their distress into a pursuit for justice. It is at times hard to watch but, in spite of the “some scenes have been created” disclaimer, Little Boy Blue carries the bitter tang of truth – the close involvement of Melanie and Steve should head off the sort of controversies that dogged The Moorside. Pope is less interested in the crime than its impact, both on those closest to Rhys (Sonny Beyga) and the wider community. The results are distressing but compelling. Gabriel Tate
Nature’s Weirdest Events
BBC TWO, 8.00PM Chris Packham reports on more seemingly inexplicable natural phenomena, including a boiling Peruvian river, red rain in Spain and a woman disturbed by her body making peculiar sounds – she even claims to hear her eyeballs move. GT
Tuesday Horizon: ADHD and Me with Rory Bremner
BBC TWO, 9.00PM “It’s like having a brain like a pinball machine,” says impressionist funnyman Roy Bremner of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a condition more often associated with children but from which he has long suspected he suffers. Symptoms include trouble concentrating, impulsiveness and unbridled energy, and statistics suggest that up to three per cent of adults may have ADHD although diagnosis rates are lower. Here he sets out to explores its nature, causes and medical basis before tackling the “elephant in the room” of his own diagnosis. His journey takes him to Germany, the Netherlands and back to Britain in search of the latest research into why ADHD is such a difficult condition to pin down – a fiendishly complicated mix of genetic and environmental factors that means sufferers can display seemingly infinite combinations of symptoms. What Bremner uncovers is often surprising and occasionally funny and generally informative. Most of all, though, his frantic quest for understanding – and treatment – opens a window on how trying life can be for sufferers and those around them. Gerard O’Donovan
Peter Kay’s Car Share
BBC ONE, 9.00PM “Are you on glue!?” John (Peter Kay) exclaims when Kayleigh (Sian Gibson) has the temerity to suggest he bunk off work. But her persistence pays off – the pair end up at a safari park to the strains of Train’s Drops of Jupiter, as this wonderfully nuanced comedy continues. Patrick Smith
Wednesday PARAGON
ITV, 10.40PM; STV, 11.05PM Meet Andy Grant, the self-styled fastest man on one leg. In 2009, the Royal Marine commando was on patrol in Afghanistan when an IED detonated. He suffered 27 injuries and had to have his right leg amputated below the knee. The determined Grant has since won two gold medals at Prince Harry’s Invictus Games for injured servicemen and women. This documentary follows a year in Grant’s life as he sets himself a new challenge: to become the world’s fastest single leg amputee over 10 km. As Grant embarks on his journey to break the record of 37 minutes and 53 seconds, cameras are given access to his rigorous training regime and family life. Along the way, he gets support from ex-Liverpool footballer Jamie Carragher and snooker champion Ronnie O’Sullivan. Michael Hogan
Confessions of a Junior Doctor
CHANNEL 4, 9.00PM Having only been out of medical school for a year, Morgan is overcome with nerves on her first shift in the A&E department at Northampton General, while junior doctor Dan worries about dealing with grieving relatives in difficult situations. RW
Thursday Locked Up
CHANNEL 4, 10.00PM Or not, as the case may be: Macarena (Maggie Civantos) has broken out of prison with a few fellow prisoners through a tunnel. This is where the wheels fell off for Prison Break some years ago – without the claustrophobic tension provided by incarceration, the narrative became increasingly bizarre. So far, however, Locked Up has retained much of what made the first series one of the canniest imports on
Walter Presents last year – primarily, helter-skelter storytelling, an underdog appeal and a simmering sympathy for even its least savoury characters. An early twist sees the prison break go wrong and the power balance among the escapees shift in a fascinating way, while a close shave for Zulema (Najwa Nimri) dents even her seemingly bulletproof confidence. It’s a fine set-up for the rest of the second series, which will be available on channel4.com immediately after transmission. Gabriel Tate
Joanna Lumley’s Postcards
ITV, 8.30PM Joanna Lumley’s knack of landing televised holidays continues with her latest dispatch coming from Greece. Her visit encompasses the Acropolis, naturally, but also the mountain monasteries of Meteors and a concert from Nana Mouskouri at the ancient venue of Epidaurus. GT
Friday Unreported World
CHANNEL 4, 7.30PM To most of us the Samoan Islands are a smattering of islands in the southern Pacific famed for their beauty, biodiversity and friendliness, synonymous with dreams of South Seas paradise. But why did these islands’ tiny population of 250,000 top the world’s obesity and diabetes charts in a survey conducted in 2014? In American Samoa, 93 per cent of people were recorded as obese, and one in three as diabetic. Some researchers put it down to a genetic predisposition among Polynesian peoples, others to a culture that has traditionally equated corpulence with wealth and power. But that doesn’t account for a near doubling of obesity rates over the last five decades, or that during this period these remote Islands have been flooded with unhealthy processed food from abroad and fatty offcuts of meat considered unfit for human consumption elsewhere. Reporter Sophie Morgan and director Patrick Wells set out for a taste of paradise and to discover the truth. GO
Hospital People
BBC ONE, 9.30PM Sian Gibson, brilliant in Peter Kay’s Car Share (see Tuesday), works overtime in this NHS mock-doc, elevating the patchy source material. She plays Hilary, the pent-up security boss whose affections for the cheery if inept hospital DJ Ivan Brackenbury she makes no attempt to hide. PS