The very best of the week ahead
Today The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe ITV, 9pm
ITV falls back on its
PICK favourite subgenre –
OF THE dramatic adaptations of WEEK real-life stories – for its big
Easter offering, stretched out across the next four nights. This time they’ve chosen a unique story: the disappearance of the “canoe man” John Darwin, who faked his death with the help of his wife, Anne, for insurance money, after paddling out to sea in Hartlepool in March of 2002. Writer Chris Lang, best known for the downbeat cop drama Unforgotten, lays out his cards from the off, casting this as a case of a manipulative husband browbeating his weak wife into playing along: in modern parlance, coercive control (which Anne Darwin argued in court, unsuccessfully).
As the Darwins, Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan are flawless – they make believable the dynamic of a codependent couple deeply mired in marital dysfunction. To make Lang’s case, he devotes much time in episode one to Anne’s hand-wringing over her lies to the police and their adult sons about John’s exit – a pretence which she kept up for six years. It remains to be seen whether sympathy for Anne can be whipped up in viewers, but on its own merits, this story of one of the most audacious cons in recent history makes for compelling viewing. The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe: The Real Story is on Thursday. Vicki Power
Doctor Who BBC One, 7.10pm
The Doctor’s enemies the Sea Devils are brought back for this stand-alone special that marks Jodie Whittaker’s penultimate appearance. An actionpacked confrontation occurs when the Doctor arrives in 19th-century China, with epic effects and romantic sparks flying between the Time Lord and her sidekick Yaz (Mandeep p Gill). VP
Easter Monday
Yorkshire Midwives on Call BBC Two, 8pm; not Wales There’s plenty of life and take-a-deep-breath drama as this emotionally rich documentary series about the close-knit team of home-birth midwives in Bradford, and their pregnant patients, gets under way for its second series. “It’s
like Call the Midwife without the bicycles,” laughs one of the team at the outset. And that (minus the wimples, too, of course) pretty much sums up its appeal: we get to look in on – and learn about – the everyday drama of some of the biggest and most powerfully emotional moments in these new parents’ lives, magnified all the more as they take place not in the clinical environment of a hospital but rather in the far more intimate setting of their own homes. With each member of the home birth team having g around 30 women on their books, from all walks w of life, at any given time, there’s no shortage of opportunity. Ton Tonight’s opener focuses on the midw midwives Laura, Gemma and Mich Michaela as they care for and advise ad three expectant mothers, who each eac experiences a range ra of the many complications complicatio and challeng challenges that are unique to hom home births births. Gerar Gerard O’Donovan O’Donov Springtime on the Farm
Channel 5, 8pm
Over the next four evenings, Helen Skelton and Jules Hudson are back at Cannon Hall Farm in Yorkshire, where Rob and Dave Nicholson have been preparing for the arrival of a record number of newborn lambs. GO
Tuesday
Life After Life BBC Two, 9pm
Kate Atkinson’s bravura 2013 novel is adapted for the small screen over four episodes – all of which are available on iPlayer after the first episode airs tonight. Its irregular story sees heroine Ursula Todd (Thomasin McKenzie) die and then die again and again. In an early scene she is stillborn in 1910, but in the next, the doctor arrives in time and she is saved. Ursula’s demises come from childhood mishaps and diseases, but each time a subtle shift in circumstances sees her survive a little longer. It’s a bizarre construct that plays with notions of life, death and fate, even though we as viewers have no clue as to why this is happening or to what end, despite a witty voice-over
by Lesley Manville. In a way it feels like a meta-comment on the freedom that writers have with their characters, but this by no means makes it less intriguing. Ursula’s well-to-do family is beautifully rendered by Fleabag’s Sian Clifford as her brusque mother and Jessica Hynes as their housekeeper. Episode one is bookended by Ursula waving her brother off to fight in the
Second World War, so we know that she survives into adulthood at least. VP
The Lost Leonardo
Sky Arts, 9pm
This engaging documentary examines the art world through the bizarre story of the Salvator Mundi, the painting bought for a pittance in 2005 that ended up being declared an original Leonardo Da Vinci and sold to a Saudi prince for $450million. VP
Wednesday
Inside No 9 BBC Two, 10pm
There are not many shows that, as they enter their seventh series, can still wrongfoot their audience with as much regularity as Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s inventive anthology series. In part this is down to an roster of guests – Sophie Okonedo, Jason Isaacs and Daniel Mays starring this year – but also to Shearsmith and Pemberton’s mastery of pace and tone. This opener, Merrily Merrily, poises us somewhere between horror, hilarity and poignancy before the revelations begin, and ends up a considered blend of all three. It starts with the enticing prospect of Mark Gatiss, finally joining his League of Gentlemen alumni. Shearsmith’s sensitive Lawrence has gathered two friends – hapless oaf Darren (Pemberton) and urbane snob Callum (Gatiss) – for a pedalo trip. Darren’s new girlfriend (Diane Morgan) comes along for the ride, as buried resentments surface, misconceptions are corrected and truths are revealed – and all the while, a figure lurks in Lawrence’s periphery. Gabriel Tate
Secrets of the Museum BBC Two, 8pm
African photography and an upcoming fashion exhibition, the works of Auguste Rodin, a giant pop-up book from the 1970s and a mysterious object from colonial Latin America make up another rewarding selection. GT
Thursday
Chivalry
Channel 4, 10pm & 10.30pm
This entertaining six-part comedydrama, written by and starring Steve Coogan and Sarah Solemani ( Him & Her) – about sexual politics in the wake of the MeToo movement – begins with a double header. It’s set in Hollywood, where ladies’ man film-producer Cameron (Coogan) brings in womanof-the-moment indie film-maker Bobby (Solemani) to detoxify a shoot when its leading lady, Lark (Sienna Miller, clearly enjoying the role), makes a complaint about its director, Pierre. The series takes a fresh look at gender politics and the rules of modern romance, all the while offering whip-smart lines; “The Academy loves it when an auteur takes a dirt nap,” says studio executive Jean (Wanda Sykes) when told Pierre has died suddenly, and senses an Oscar. The jokes are niche but they zing – Coogan’s character takes plenty of barbs about his sex life – and there are amusing cameos by big stars, Paul Rudd among them. It mostly delivers, the chemistry between the leads works and Lolly Adefope is nicely sardonic as Cameron’s assistant. Veronica Lee
Back Pain: Britain’s Hidden Crisis? Tonight
ITV, 8.30pm
If you are one of the estimated 10million people in the UK suffering from back problems you will find this
useful. Joe Crowley finds out what people can do to help ease and, more importantly, prevent pain. VL
Friday
The Rising
Sky Max, 9pm
Ghost. DOA. Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). The high-concept idea of investigating one’s own death has been around a while, and this adaptation of the Belgian thriller Hotel Beau Sejour doesn’t depart too far from the formula as Neve Kelly (Clara Rugaard) comes to in a lake, only to find she is dead and that no one can see her (apart from the family dog). While her mother (Emily Taaffe) and stepfather (Alex Lanipekun) search for Neve, with the questionable assistance of Neve’s alcoholic father (Matthew McNulty), memories of the night before return to Neve in incoherent flashes. But then The Rising may not be about narrative coherence as much as atmosphere, in which it is steeped. Heightened by a fine score, it recalls both The Returned in its carefully elusive, otherworldly dread and Glue in its depiction of rural ennui, albeit centred, with enjoyable eccentricity, around motocross. GT
The The: The Comeback Special Sky Arts, 9pm
In 2018, post-punk band The The undertook their first tour for 20 years. This superb concert features classics Infected, This Is the Day and Uncertain Smile alongside new material. GT