The very best of the week ahead
Today The British Academy Film Awards 2019
BBC ONE, 9.00PM
There are no prizes for guessing which mostly home-grown film is likely to sweep the boards at this year’s Bafta ceremony. The aptly-named The
Favourite is nominated for 12 awards; compare that to Bohemian Rhapsody,
First Man, Roma and A Star Is Born, each of which has received seven nominations. Yorgos Lanthimos, however, will face stiff competition from Roma’s Alfonso Cuarón for Best Director. On home soil, with a Golden Globe already in the bag and her status as a national treasure confirmed, Olivia Colman will be all but impossible to beat to the Best Actress gong. The same could be said for Richard E Grant in the Best Supporting Actor category: his nomination for Can You Ever Forgive
Me?, which matches the one he’s got for the Oscars, amounts to a lifetime achievement award for this muchloved character actor. As for the ceremony, it comes live from the Royal Albert Hall in London, and it’s hosted once again by the irrepressible Joanna Lumley, with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in attendance. Gerard O’Donovan
Endeavour ITV, 8.00PM
It’s 1969, Led Zeppelin are on the radio and the fallout from Fancy’s death last series is hitting hard. Morse (Shaun Evans) has been demoted to a sergeant’s uniform in a rural outpost; his former boss Thursday (Roger Allam) has suffered the same. Will investigating a shocking child murder give them a way back? GO
Monday The Making of Me CHANNEL 4, 10.00PM
The key to this new series, es, which follows a group of people le as they change gender, lies s in the way that the film-makers akers stand back, allowing those ose involved to speak for themselves without judgment. In the opening ng episode, we meet Cairo, a young transgender man n whose girlfriend Charley y is no longer sure where she he stands; Vicky, a selfconfessed “sexy diva” whose hose children think she should “dress better”; and Jackie, whose wife and “soulmate” Julie is with her all the way as she moves towards her new life. It’s not always easy. Charley admits that she feels betrayed by Cairo’s decision, while Vicky agonises over her deep voice and whether it prevents her from being female. There’s hope, too. When Jackie returns to work, it’s to a welcome banner in the ladies’ toilets, while one of the programme’s most emotional moments sees Vicky speak about her life as a black trans woman. It all adds up to a subtle and a interesting film that’s definitely definite worth watching. Sarah Hughes Hughe
MasterChef BBC ONE, 9.00PM
A new batch of would-be chefs submit their cooking to interrogation by John Torode and Gregg Wallace in the hope of succeeding s last year’s y winner Kenny Tutt as MasterChef c champion. SH
Tuesday Catastrophe CHANNEL 4, 10.00PM
The much-missed wit of Carrie Fisher dominates this episode. The death of Mia Norris, her character, is a catalyst for exposing what may turn out to be permanent fissures in the relationship between her son Rob (Rob Delaney) and wife Sharon (Sharon Horgan) during a longoverdue trip to Boston. While Rob struggles to deal with his grief, Sharon is barely able to contain her disappointment at having a holiday ruined. With all of the other series regulars missing, the focus is tightly on the relationship that has carried this show from its frenetic start to a touching and understated finish. There are plenty of laughs, of course, largely thanks to Rob’s monstrous estranged father (Mitchell Mullen), but this is a thoughtful and measured dissection of love, parenthood and partnership, as befits a show which has always had a soft spot underneath its flinty exterior. Gabriel Tate
Paxman on the Queen’s Children CHANNEL 5, 9.00PM
The itinerant former Newsnight anchor concludes his Channel 5 stint with a gently scurillous overview of the fallout from the Queen’s annus horribilis, and how she tried to take control of her children’s behaviour and profligacy. GT
Wednesday The Real Marigold on Tour BBC ONE, 9.00PM
the former USSR won’t figure high on many Brits’ lists of idyllic spots to live out their autumn years. But that isn’t stopping the show that dispatches greying British celebrities to foreign climes to test their potential as places of retirement: this week, a new run begins with a trip to Russia. Since this is the “On Tour” version of the series, each week will see a new destination and a different mix of famous faces. In the opener, veteran comrades-intravel Miriam Margolyes, Sheila Ferguson and Bobby George are joined by relative newcomer Stanley Johnson in St Petersburg, where they’re given the chance to experience retirement Russian-style. Oddly, there is no mention of the cost of living, or the drawback of the bone-chilling winters that bury the city under snow and ice for four months every year. For the most part, the group chat with Anglophile Russians, zip around the grand public squares on mobility scooters, join state-run activities for “invalids and pensioners” and visit a grim public health spa, where an “aqua massage” amounts to being hosed down by a grumpy Russian, and the only “alternative therapy” available is leeches. GO
Skint Britain: Friends without Benefits
CHANNEL 4, 9.00PM
Universal credit and the hardships suffered by its recipients when the new benefit system was rolled out in Hartlepool last year are the subjects of this hard-hitting new series, which squarely lays the blame for rising crime, homelessness and reliance on food banks at the Government’s door. GO
Thursday Hospital BBC TWO, 9.00PM
Fifteen-year-old Thomas has cerebral palsy and is desperate for an operation that will lessen the constant pain he lives with. Joan, 81, needs heart surgery. The hospital say she’s the perfect candidate – the only problem is she lives in Wales and therefore might not be eligible. Jaxon is a year old and has a slow growing tumour in his pelvis. Surgery is available but the risks are high. If the aim of this episode of Hospital, the last in the current series, is to reduce viewers to uncontrollable floods of tears then it will absolutely succeed. From Jaxon’s mother Suzie singing to her beaming baby to Thomas laying out his frustrations as he fails to meet requirements for NHS treatment and his mother’s heartbreaking and wise letter about her son, it’s filled with devastating and emotional moments. There is hope too, especially in the form of Alder Hey’s Consultant Paediatric Neurosurgeon Benedetta Pettorini, who oversees complex procedures with determination and a smile. SH
ITV, 9.00PM The Death of Aimee Spencer
Katie Piper presents this sad documentary looking at the life and death of glamour model Aimee Spencer, who was just 27 when she died after falling from the window of a first-floor flat in Brighton. While the film follows the detectives investigating Aimee’s death, it’s the interviews with her lovely family that linger. SH
Friday BBC TWO, 9.00PM; NOT WALES Monty Don’s Japanese Gardens
What a visual feast this is. Following last year’s foray into Islamic paradise gardens, Monty Don heads East again. This time he’s in Japan, where he treats us to a two-episode tour of the country’s horticultural glories during spring and autumn. The former is this week’s focus, and Don starts off in familiar territory amid the beauty of the iconic cherry blossom season. Things then take an intriguing turn, as Don explores the unique, sometimes enigmatic, traditions that govern Japanese gardening, painstaking and charged with spiritual significance. The results are uniformly ravishing. Toby Dantzic
Flat Pack Pop: Sweden’s Music Miracle
BBC FOUR, 9.00PM
Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande have had their careers boosted by Swedish music producers. Journalist James Ballardie explores how these musicians dominate the charts. TD