The very best of the week ahead
Sunday Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards 2022
BBC One, 6pm After two years of virtual and socially distanced bashes, tonight’s gala, hosted by Richard Ayoade, represents a return to normality. Leading the nominations is Russell T Davies’s Aids drama It’s a Sin, which is up against Olivia Colman vehicle Landscapers, ITV’s Stephen and the Sean Bean prison drama Time for Best Miniseries. Squid Game, meanwhile, will be hoping to continue to defy all expectations by taking home the Best International award. And though Kate Winslet may have three film Baftas, this is her first TV nomination (for the excellent Mare of Easttown). But can she see off five-time nominee (and one-time winner) Jodie Comer in Help? And will all this be enough to draw in TV fans at home? Even with gowns and glamour back at the Royal Albert Hall, March’s Bafta Film Awards lost the ratings war to Dancing on Ice. Let’s hope for a moratorium on dull speeches and perhaps a surprise or two to keep it lively. Vicki Power
The Andrew Neil Show Channel 4, 6pm
After leaving the BBC and making an abortive move to GB News, the doyenne of political interviewers lands at Channel 4. Jacob Rees-Mogg will be the first politican to submit to Neil’s forensic interrogation techniques and the debate is guaranteed to be contentious. VP
Monday The Spy Who Died Twice
Channel 4, 9pm In 1974, John Stonehouse MP was presumed dead after his clothes were found on Miami Beach. The media soon started reporting about business problems and a mistress – and an allegation that the Labour r politician was a spy for the e Soviet bloc. When he was s found alive a few weeks later in Australia, living under a false identity, he was brought back to the UK, found guilty of f fraud and served a three-year sentence. But the spying? ?
No charges were laid – and d now Keely Winstone’s revealing film shows how w Stonehouse, who died in 1988, colluded with the Czech security service while he was a government minister and – most remarkably – how three prime ministers chose not to investigate the spying allegations. Much of this was previously known but the film features testimony – some of it shown for the first time – from his Czech handlers as well as extensive news archive and political talking heads. Did Stonehouse spy for political beliefs or financial gain? Harold Wilson’s aide Bernard Donoughue says simply: “He was a chancer.” But why Wilson, Jim Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher didn’t prosecute him remains a mystery. y y Veronica Lee
Fergal Keane: Living With PTSD
BBC Two, Tw 9pm In early 2020, the BBC News correspo correspondent Fergal Keane had to s step back from his career bec because he was suffering po post-traumatic stress disorder d after decades of o reporting on conflicts and famine. In this Horizon documentary he explains how PTSD has affected him and investigates the latest scientific approach to its it treatment. VL
Tuesday Will Young: Losing My Twin Rupert
Channel 4, 10.05pm A profoundly moving, courageous and insightful treatise on living with addiction, this soul-baring love lettercum-eulogy also has a campaigning edge. While the singer Will Young was able to fund his twin brother Rupert’s many visits to rehab prior to his death by suicide in July 2020, affordable, accessible treatments for alcohol dependency are woefully thin on the ground and desperately underfunded, the result in part of the stigmas attached. Young speaks fondly and wittily of Rupert, who basked shamelessly in the reflected glory of his brother’s chart success (“This is his idea of heaven,” says Will of the documentary). He is also admirably candid about his conflicted feelings as addiction took hold, tightening its grip to the extent that Will was eventually forced to kick Rupert out of his home. Their parents also appear, still grieving and bewildered by their son’s decline. It is understandably light on hope, but there is comfort to be found here through the effectiveness of residential rehab for those that can access it, and in the art therapy some relatives of addicts have taken up. Gabriel Tate
Eurovision Semi-Finals 2022
BBC Three, 8pm The first of the semi-finals from Turin, with, tonight, 17 countries competing for 10 places in Saturday’s final. Scott Mills and Rylan Clark introduce the acts, with notably imaginative song titles including Eat Your Salad (from Latvia’s Citi Zēni) and Give That Wolf a Banana (Norway’s eccentric Subwoolfer). All eyes and ears, however, will be on Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra and their song Stefania. The rap and folk collective are favourites to win this year’s competition. The second semi-final is on Thursday night. GT
Wednesday Inside No 9 BBC Two, 10pm
Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s darkly comic anthology series continues its triumphant seventh series with another twisty tale. Attracting more strong guest actors, this week’s tour de force comes from Sophie Okonedo as a Detective Inspector called Katrina, a dogged sleuth who wakes in the middle of the night to pore over her latest pressing case – that of a missing boy called Ashley. She’s a maverick cop and single mother with a drink problem who lives for her job and gives speeches about how she’ll step on any misogynist who gets in her way. If DI Katrina sounds like a bit of a TV cliché, then that’s as much of a clue as we can dispense about this episode, except that, in a nod to classic cop dramas, Between the Lines’ Siobhan Redmond also guest stars alongside Okonedo, Shearsmith and Pemberton. It’s another heightened playlet that cleverly delivers Twilight Zone- style plots with a literary sensibility and a deft mix of comedy, psychological insight and well-drawn characters. VP
DNA Family Secrets BBC Two, 9pm
The BBC’s science-based answer to Long Lost Family returns for an emotional second series hosted by Stacey Dooley. Tonight’s subjects seeking answers about their identities include Janet, 62, who once overheard a house guest mention that her father had a love child. VP
Thursday The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years in the Baking BBC One, 8pm
This is the BBC’s opening salvo in a wealth of programming to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. This one-off follows the five home bakers who first beat almost 5,000 hopefuls, and then the 45 other finalists whose creations were judged from recipe alone, to vie for the position of creator of a new celebratory dessert. Susan, Jemma, Shabnam, Kathryn and Sam duly arrive at the famous London luxury emporium to prepare their respective dishes, inspired by their life experiences and ably aided by F&M’s pastry chef Roger Pizey. For once, there is no time limit, but there is of course a stellar panel of judges chaired by – who else? – Mary Berry, and, including Monica Galetti, 2018 Bake Off champion Rahul Mandal, food writer Jane Dunn and pastry chef Matt Adlard. After the deliberations, HRH the Duchess of Cornwall will announce the winner, with the recipe available on the BBC website after broadcast. GT
The Staircase Sky Atlantic, 9pm
A cast so fine it can reduce Juliette Binoche to a small supporting role still struggles to breathe life into this unnecessary dramatisation of the documentary miniseries, which approaches its midpoint tonight. The first three episodes are available on Sky On Demand and NOW. GT
Friday The Essex Serpent Apple TV+
This terrific six-part PICK adaptation by Anna Symon OF THE of Sarah Perry’s bestselling WEEK 2016 novel has lots going for it – a mythical beast, religious fervour and illicit attraction, plus a superb cast led by Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes. Set in 1893, the action moves between London and the atmospheric marshes on Mersea Island in Essex, where Cora Seaborne (Danes), a newly widowed woman, moves to take up palaeontology; she soon becomes intrigued by the locals’ belief that the area might be haunted by a sea serpent. In the first two episodes available today, Cora strikes up a friendship with local pastor Will Ransome (Hiddleston), his wife Stella (Clémence Poésy) and their family, and, as they bat arguments about science and religion back and forth, we can see that the sparks flying between them will turn into something more than friendship. But then a tragedy occurs in the village. VL
Let’s Make a Love Scene Channel 4, 10pm
Ellie Taylor presents this dating show, which adds to Channel 4’s soft porn range ( Naked Attraction et al). Three hopeful lads recreate a romantic film scene – this week from Ghost, The Notebook and Fifty Shades of Grey – to “test out their chemistry” with beauty consultant Starr and win a date. VL