The very best of the week ahead
Today The Cry BBC ONE, 9.00PM
Just as the BBC’s 2017 drama The Replacement preyed on the anxieties of new motherhood, The Cry has created a vice-tight psychological thriller out of similar and, for many, sadly familiar issues. But unlike its predecessor, this series keeps its focus and seriousness to the very end. The narrative may stretch credulity from time to time, but the emotional drama is pinpoint accurate, and the conclusion is all the more admirable for its refusal to give everyone – or anyone, really – a truly happy ending. Last week revealed that Joanna (Jenna Coleman) was on trial for killing her husband Alastair (Ewen Leslie). Frankly, you couldn’t blame her, given the controlling, manipulative monster we now know he is. As the jumbled narratives start to coalesce, the police investigation is scaled back and the poison in Joanna and Alastair’s marriage spreads. The truth behind everything we’ve seen turns out to be messier than expected. The Cry isn’t quite a blockbuster on the scale of Bodyguard, but it’s still an accomplished, grown-up potboiler to savour. Gabriel Tate
Butterfly ITV, 9.00PM
Tony Marchant’s thoughtful drama continues. Maxine (Callum BoothFord) is determined to continue her transition, forcing her father Stephen (Emmett J Scanlan) to struggle to overcome his prejudices, and her mother Vicky (Anna Friel) into a drastic decision. GT
Monday Only Connect BBC TWO, 8.00PM
It’s television’s nerdiest quiz by a country mile – though, ironically, the show’s title, pinched from a line in EM Forster’s novel Howard’s End, d, was the basis of one of the few questions that left contestants baffled in the e 2013 final. Now it begins a 14th series of lateralthinking challenges and vexing conundrums, with the contestants looking for connections that you’d think only a Mensa member could spot. As ever, two teams of three competitors choose their questions using a quartet of Egyptian hieroglyphs, as presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell presides. In this opening match, the Hotpots take on the Poptimists, with one team working out what connects “Beethoven’s 7th”, “centre of gravity”, “3rd of November” and “very beginning”. How lucky they are, to be given such an easy one to get them under way. Gerard O’Donovan
Cannabis: Time to End the Ban? Channel 4 Dispatches
CHANNEL 4, 8.00PM
With figures suggesting that 2.4million Britons smoke it, and that police often no longer prosecute for possession, should we follow other countries and legalise cannabis? In this edition of Dispatches, former Met chief Lord Hogan-Howe considers the cases for and against. GO
Tuesday Imagine: Tracey Emin: Where Do You Draw the Line?
BBC ONE, 10.45PM; NI, 12.10AM; WALES, 11.10PM
Margate’s most famous daughter, Tracey Emin, is the subject of this absorbing film. Formerly known as the wildest of the wild Young British Artists who dominated the Nineties scene, Emin has always been a surprising and subversive talent whose highly personal work reaches back through time to make connections with everything from protest art to women’s crafts, and even that other famous Margate inhabitant, JMW Turner. This film goes some way to placing her in context, but it’s also a wonderful portrait of a woman in menopause – or, as the mischievous Emin puts it, gesturing at her newest works:
“I feel like I’m going to spontaneously combust, and those feelings go here.” Approaching what she describes as “the last stage of my life”, Emin shows no sign of slowing down. While there’s great power in the footage shot during her Nineties infamy, it’s today’s artist – clever, provocative, eccentric and always entirely herself – who really shines through. Sarah Hughes
The Great British Bake Off CHANNEL 4, 8.00PM
This series of Great British Bake Off has been patchy at times, but all is forgiven with this cracking semi-final that features a technical challenge described by Noel Fielding as “an almost impossible task” and a showstopper in which one contestant mixes up sugar and salt. SH
Wednesday Trevor McDonald and the Killer Nurse
ITV, 9.00PM
For his latest documentary chronicling a serious crime and its effects on both victims and perpetrators, Trevor McDonald revisits a case he covered back in 1991, that of nurse Beverley Allitt, who, at the age of 22, murdered four children in her care and attacked a further nine. In this film, McDonald examines police archives and speaks to some of Allitt’s surviving victims. He also listens to Allitt’s chilling interview tapes, where she can be heard joking with officers and denying the allegations. Above all, McDonald emphasises the lasting impact of her crimes. He meets Bradley Gibson, who was five years old when Allitt caused his heart to stop for a staggering 32 minutes. Meanwhile, the mother of Kayley Asher, who was just 15 months old when Allitt attacked her, tells McDonald of how her daughter still suffers from flashbacks to this day. It’s harrowing stuff. Toby Dantzic
Without Limits: Australia BBC ONE, 8.00PM
The wounded war veterans round off their 1,000-mile Outback journey with an expedition into the East Kimberley wilderness, sharing inspirational stories along the way. Once back in Sydney, they meet the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and debrief them on the trek. TD
Thursday 100 Days to Victory BBC TWO, 8.00PM
Most people are familiar with Field Marshal Haig and Marshal Foch, and how they came to embody the idea of “lions being led by donkeys” on the Western Front, but fewer will have heard of the generals to whom they eventually came to defer. 100 Days to Victory joins the Allied war effort at its lowest ebb, over-run by German offensives and awaiting American aid to fill the gap left by Russia’s withdrawal. Enter John Monash and Arthur Currie, an Australian aesthete of German heritage and an embezzler from Canada. In this new two-part docudrama, Don Featherstone argues that it was this pair who revitalised the Allied war effort through their innovative, unorthodox counter-offensive strategies at Amiens. Overall, 100 Days
to Victory is an enlightening examination of a pivotal but underreported moment in history. GT
Vitamin Pills: Miracle or Myth? BBC TWO, 9.00PM
The vitamin industry is worth more than £400m a year in the UK. Giles Yeo’s dauntless piece of investigative science uncovers some alarming information about the alleged properties of many of the supplements that are touted as having miraculous properties – not least antioxidants. GT
Friday Stand Up to Cancer 2018 CHANNEL 4, FROM 7.00PM
The charity fundraiser returns for a sixth year, having already raised over £38 million since its launch in 2012. SU2C veterans Alan Carr and Adam Hills are at the helm, alongside rising star Maya Jama. As ever, it’s an extravaganza running into the early hours, with lots of well-known faces – Prue Leith, Gareth Southgate and Jodie Comer, among them – getting involved with sketches and celebrity versions of popular shows. Among the highlights are special editions of Carpool Karaoke (with Michael Bublé), Gogglebox: Celebrity Special and Celebrity Bake Off. There are performances from John Legend, Little Mix and Liam Gallagher. Richard Ayoade and Noel Fielding will also be on hand, exploring some of the ground-breaking research already funded by viewers’ contributions. GO
Made in Great Britain BBC TWO, 9.00PM
Steph McGovern presents a new series in which she takes craftspeople to industrial locations across the UK, exploring how Britain’s shift from crafts to mass manufacturing reshaped our towns and cities. This week, they relive Sheffield’s rapid evolution from sleepy market town to Steel City. GO