The very best of the week ahead
Sunday Atlanta BBC TWO, 10.00PM; NI, 10.55PM; WALES, 11.00PM
As a comedian, writer, director, actor and musician, Donald Glover’s star continues to rise. Ahead of the showing of the second series of his critically acclaimed comedy, which is being shown on Fox UK in June, BBC Two is airing the first one. The premise is simple: Earn (Glover), a university dropout, returns to Atlanta, where his cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry), AKA up-and-coming rapper Paper Boi, is on the verge of making it big. The penniless Earn hopes to piggyback on Paper Boi’s burgeoning career, but swiftly discovers the road to riches is not so easy. Sarah Hughes
British Academy Television Awards 2018
BBC ONE, 8.00PM
Sue Perkins is our guide for the year’s biggest TV awards. Among the gongs up for grabs are Best Drama, which sees The Crown up against Line of
Duty, Peaky Blinders and The End of
the F---ing World. There is also a nod for the beleaguered presenter Ant McPartlin and his partner Dec with
Saturday Night Takeaway. SH
Monday Innocent ITV, 9.00PM
“I’ve had seven years of my life stolen, and now I want justice,” says a defiant David Collins (Lee Ingleby), who is released from jail on a technicality for the murder of his wife at the start of ITV’s new crime series. Screened over four successive nights, the drama follows Collins as he attempts ts to prove his innocence and punish sh those who’ve wronged him. m. Chief among Collins’ targets ts are his wife’s hostile sister Alice (Hermione Norris), who’s currently raising his two children, and his former mer best friend Tom (Elliot Cowan), owan), who scotched his alibi bi for the night of the killing. ng. The police, meanwhile, are anxious to save face. They charge beady-eyed DI Cathy Hudson (Angel Coulby) to look at the case afresh, but she soon finds worrying inconsistencies in the former investigation. The show hardly breaks new ground, but it’s compellingly acted, with both Ingleby and Norris on fine, emotionally intense form. Toby Dantzic
Heart Transplant: A Chance to Live BBC TWO, 9.00PM
“It’s the challenge of turning death into life,” says the voice-over in this film following seven patients waiting for heart transplants at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital. The film shows how a groundbreaking process means that organs can now be sourced from further afield, therefore widening the donor pool. TD
Tuesday Tu
The Windsors Royal We Wedding Special
CHANNEL CH 4, 9.00PM
It would take a particularly thin-skinned member of the Windsor clan to take offence at this gleefully idiotic comedy. Back for a one-off episode, this special sprinkles just enough grains of truth (or plausibility, at least) to give it a satirical pungency that is reminiscent of peak-era Spitting Image. Here, Prince Harry (Richard Goulding) seems more excited about his stag do than his wedding to Meghan Markle (Kathryn Drysdale); the Duchess of Cambridge (Louise Ford) is battling both the machinations of her jealous sibling Pippa (Morgana Robinson) to retake centre-stage, and her husband the Duke of Cambridge’s (Hugh Skinner) attempts to dodge a vasectomy. From dance routines and dream sequences to Windsor council’s Trampcatcher (Paul Kaye), this is daft and shrewd, but never mean-spirited. Gabriel Tate
The Split BBC ONE, 9.00PM
An extramarital dating website is hacked, which means that business picks up at both law firms Defoes and Noble & Hale, as Abi Morgan’s fun melodrama continues. But as the wedding of Rose (Fiona Button) draws near, it becomes clear that the repercussions of the hack are close to home. GT
Wednesday What Makes a Woman? CHANNEL 4, 10.00PM
Transgender model and activist Munroe Bergdorf came into the spotlight last year when L’Oreal sacked her over controversial Facebook posts; then the Labour Party appointed her as an LGBT adviser, for her to quit after protests ensued. In light of that, this documentary might be seen as an attempt by Bergdorf to rehabilitate her image; it’s a personal film focusing on the stages of her transition from male to female. Cameras follow Bergdorf as she undergoes facial feminisation surgery and walks the runway at New York Fashion Week, and as she discloses information about incidents of violence and online abuse that she’s suffered. Bergdorf has a warm message about acceptance, and showcasing her so sympathetically is likely to give her image a muchneeded boost as well as educate viewers on the genderquake shaking up society. Vicki Power
The Secret Life of the Zoo CHANNEL 4, 8.00PM
Cute spider monkeys and an infant capybara provide the ahh factor in this trip to Chester Zoo. But not all of the new arrivals are welcomed into the bosom of their family – newborn naked mole rats get trampled during a vicious jostle for power to be queen. VP
Thursday Humans CHANNEL 4, 9.00PM
It may have half the budget of Sky Atlantic’s Westworld but Humans has always been (forgive me) the more human show. This is particularly obvious with this third series, which like its US counterpart, follows the fallout from its synths gaining collective consciousness. Where Westworld chooses to couch that fallout in flashy scenes and tricksy games, Humans tells a more interesting story of distrust, betrayal and the price of slavery. The story picks up a year after what is now being termed Year Zero, with memorials held for the thousands who died. Meanwhile, politicians are calling for the destruction of “green-eye” synths, and synthetics companies have already created a new army of compliant “orange-eyes”. As for our various protagonists, Laura (Katherine Parkinson) discovers that representing synths has severe drawbacks, while Anita (Gemma Chan) and Max (Ivanno Jeremiah) are struggling to convince their fellow synths that friendship holds the key. It all makes for tense opening, although, as always, the series is at its best in its smallest moments – a talk about synth safety to class of primary schoolchildren is especially well observed. SH
Britain’s Best Home Cook BBC ONE, 8.00PM
It might seem like a mishmash of every other cooking show, but I’m increasingly taken with the BBC’s attempt to replace Bake Off. Claudia Winkleman does a great job as host, Mary Berry is Mary Berry and this week the gang have to cook pies. What’s not to love? SH
Friday The Royal Wedding: They’re Getting Married in the Morning
BBC ONE, 7.00PM
With less than 24 hours to go before the wedding, broadcasters are going into overdrive with an onslaught of royal-themed programming. First comes They’re Getting Married in the Morning, the tone of which should be given away by its One Show time slot. The unlikely trio of Kirsty Young, Huw Edwards and Dermot O’Leary will be reporting the latest news, including interviews both with those due to play key roles on the day and members of the public who have been getting as close as they can to St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. For a different take on events, The Meghan Markle Effect (Channel 4, 11.00pm) sees Fatima Manji wrangle a panel of experts and interested parties to assess the likely impact of Markle, the wedding itself and indeed what it tells us about the future of the monarchy. Finally, for the fluffiest perspective possible, there’s Harry & Meghan: a Royal Romance (Lifetime, 10.00pm), with relative unknowns Murray Fraser and Parisa Fitz-Henley playing the happy couple in a magnificently cheesy and loose interpretation of what might have happened. GT
The Bridge BBC TWO, 9.00PM
Saga (Sofia Helin) was last seen leaving a trail of blood on the prison floor as she walked to freedom. We now find her in hospital, but in what sort of condition? Henrik (Thure Lindhardt) and his unpleasant new colleague Jonas (Mikael Birkkjaer), meanwhile, are following their murder investigation into Red October when another body turns up in Sweden. GT