The very best of the week ahead
Today
The Edge
BBC TWO, 9.00PM
The sight of high-profile figures in elite sport talking about mental health is commonplace now, thanks in part to the campaign spearheaded by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. This feature-length film digs deeper by inviting members of the only England Test cricket side to reach the top of the world rankings (the 2011 vintage, coached by Andy Flower) to talk about the toll it took. Director Barney Douglas gets superb access to the key players and coaching staff, including the pivotal and divisive figure of Kevin Pietersen – who led the drive to the top, then arguably caused the ensuing collapse. For some, such as Jonathan Trott or Monty Panesar, their struggles have been well documented; others, such as the mischievous Graeme Swann, open up for the first time. There’s plenty of triumphalism as well, smartly narrated by Toby Jones, and the footage is thrilling. It all makes for an absorbing portrait. Gabriel Tate
A Suitable Boy
BBC ONE, 9.00PM
Andrew Davies’s solid adaptation of Vikram Seth’s epic novel sees a new suitor arrive in Lata’s (Tanya Maniktala) orbit as Kabir’s (Danesh Razvi) Islamic faith threatens to be an insurmountable obstacle to their possible future together. Could dashing young poet Amit (Mikhail Sen) be the one? GT
Monday
The Deceived
CHANNEL 5, 9.00PM
This four-part crime drama from rom Derry
Girls creator eator Lisa McGee, co-written with her husband Tobias obias Beer, airs nightly this week k and draws heavily on the chilling ng likes of Daphne du Maurier’s s Rebecca to tell a spine-tingling tale. At the story’s heart is Cambridge bridge student Ophelia (Emily ily Reid), who finds herself caught ught up in an affair with married professor Michael (Emmett J Scanlan). When his wife, Roisin (Catherine ne Walker), a successful l writer, dies in Ireland d in strange circumstances, es,
Ophelia travels to the couple’s remote house in Co Donegal, where the death occurred. Naturally, before long things are becoming very creepy indeed. The wolfish Michael is clearly concealing plenty of secrets, and it soon transpires that Ophelia, haunted by dreams of fire and a suspicion that Roisin isn’t actually dead, has a few of her own. A top-notch supporting cast – including Ian McElhinney as Michael’s father, Hugh, and man-ofthe-moment Paul Mescal in his first post- Normal People role as Sean, a local lad whom Ophelia befriends – are aided by a wonderfully won taut script that keeps you yo guessing right
until the end. en Sarah Hughes
Mandy
BBC TWO TWO, 10.30PM
BBC Two repeats Diane Morgan’s Mor comedy pilot about abou a woman obsessed with a white sofa, ahead ahe of a full series starting sta next week. It’s pretty pre entertaining watching wa Morgan’s Mandy Man going to increasingly incre desperate lengths lengt to obtain her dream, dream although the mouth grimaces take some getting used to. SH
Tuesday
Cuba: Castro Vs The World
BBC TWO, 9.00PM
“Little Cuba,” smiles Russian diplomat Oleg Darusenkov. “Just 110,000 square kilometres yet it acted almost like a superpower in the international arena.” This two-part documentary from Bafta-winning filmmaker Norma Percy assembles those at the heart of Cuba’s story – presidents and prime ministers, soldiers and spies, ambassadors and activists – to explain how Fidel Castro tried to foment revolution across the globe. It begins with a look at Castro’s early years, his guerrilla army and rise to power, which earned Soviet support but the hostility of the Kennedy administration – a combustible situation that culminated in the botched Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the most unstable periods of the Cold War and the closest we came to nuclear armageddon. The programme also recounts how Castro supported struggles for liberation in Algeria, Bolivia and Angola, and his closest comrade Che Guevara’s role in the spread of communism. Archive footage and testimony from those who were there tell the story of how a small Caribbean island rewrote the rule book and spent 60 years confronting the world. Michael Hogan
Little Birds
SKY ATLANTIC/NOW TV, 9.00PM & 10.00PM
This period melodrama, loosely inspired by Anaïs Nin’s collection of erotic short stories, weaves together desire and political strife. It’s 1955, and American debutante Lucy Savage (Juno Temple) arrives in colonial Tangier. Her buttoned-up fiancé, Lord Hugo Canvenish-Smyth (Hugh Skinner) awaits, but it’s dominatrix Cherifa Lamour (Yumna Marwan) who captures her imagination. MH
Wednesday
Harlots
BBC TWO, 9.00PM & 9.50PM Drawing inspiration from historian Hallie Rubenhold’s ground-breaking study of Georgian prostitutes, The
Covent Garden Ladies, Moira Buffini and Alison Newman spin an addictive tale of two rival madams, the girls who work for them and the men who (foolishly) see them as easy prey. On one side is Samantha Morton’s Margaret Wells, who has dragged herself from the streets to the relative respectability of running her own house. On the other is the pouting and poisonous Lydia Quigley (Lesley Manville), who runs an outwardly more upmarket establishment, all classical tableaux and carefully vetted girls, but who hides secrets under her carefully powdered visage. The scene is set for a gaudy, bawdy delight. SH Surviving the Virus: My Brother & Me
BBC ONE, 9.00PM
The seemingly interminable supply of documentaries about the Covid-19 pandemic keeps coming. This one from medical twins, Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken stands out, however, because of a deft combination of the personal – Xand’s own experience with the disease – with the realities of life on the medical frontline. SH
Thursday
Semi-Detached
BBC TWO, 10.00PM
In this full series, commissioned after last year’s well-received pilot, Lee Mack is supported by a seasoned comic cast and a premise – each episode takes place in real time – that ensures no let-up. Picking up four months on, Stuart’s (Mack) muchyounger girlfriend April (Ellie White) has given birth to their baby girl, domestic mayhem is ascendant and their relationship is on the rocks, despite Stuart’s bumbling efforts to impress her and manage a midlife crisis – embodied by his moustache. “I try,” he pleads, “I try so hard but everything I do goes wrong.” A make-or-break date is derailed by the various plotting of Stuart’s bong-smoking, promiscuous father (louche Clive Russell), his ex-wife’s husband (pompous Patrick Baladi) and his dodgy brother (wheedling Neil Fitzmaurice). GT
Red Dwarf: The First Three Million Years
DAVE, 9.00PM
After 32 years and 74 episodes, the mining ship Red Dwarf continues its journey through space and time. This revealing three-part documentary tells the story of the sitcom through its key players, including cast linchpins Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Chris Barrie and Robert Llewellyn. We begin with the early years, when they rode out reshoots, rewrites and terrible reviews en route to immortality. GT
Friday
Unreported World
CHANNEL 4, 7.30PM
The investigative series returns with this disturbing report from Marcel Theroux. He’s in Japan, where would-be pop star Yune spends her time recording concerts, posing for photographs and chatting to fans online. The issue? Yune is just 11 years old, and most of those fans are men in their mid-thirties and older. This is the world of “junior idols”, a Japanese subculture centred around (very) young female singers. As the documentary progresses, Theroux becomes increasingly concerned about what it all might mean. He’s not the only one. While Yune’s mother and manager both insist that she is protected from any predatory fans, neither can be sure that such fans don’t exist, and there are uncomfortable scenes of Yune and fellow “idols” performing in front of rapt middle-aged men. Theroux also asks why Yune so wishes to be famous, and looks at how much the rising problem with loneliness in Japan drives this subculture, interviewing fans who see Yune as the daughter they believe they’ll never have. SH Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian
BBC TWO, 9.00PM
The notion of Australia as a “lucky” country comes under examination as the irrepressible Margolyes concludes her tour around her adopted home. Never one to shy from difficult questions, the actress discovers the price paid by Australia’s indigenous people for the nation’s wealth. SH