The very best of the week ahead
Today Murder in the Alps Channel 4, 9pm
One of the most awful and baffling murders of the past decade gets the true-crime treatment in Catey Sexton’s three-part documentary, on until Tuesday. In September 2012, British tourists Saad al-Hilli, his wife, Iqbal, her mother, Suhaila, and a passing French cyclist were shot and killed in the French Alps near Annecy. Saad and Iqbal’s two daughters survived, and the perpetrators have never been brought to justice. French and British investigators, friends and neighbours, and Saad’s brother Zaid (who was at one point was arrested in connection with the case) are among contributors to a story which takes a series of stranger-than-fiction turns involving Swiss bank accounts, the FBI, Mossad, Saddam Hussein and a family inheritance dispute, while ominous allusions are made to racist reasoning in the police and media; some of those involved concede that it could have been better handled. The reconstructions here are tasteful and the approach methodical, with the perspective of 10 years allowing an emotional distance without it ever feeling clinical. All parts are available on All 4 after broadcast. Gabriel Tate
Glastonbury 2022
BBC One/Two/Four, from 5pm
With Diana Ross reeling off the classics at 6.45pm on BBC One and Herbie Hancock, Angélique Kidjo and Pet Shop Boys on BBC Four from 8pm, one-time Prince protegée Lianne La Havas and Dublin post-punkers Fontaines DC take the early shift on BBC Two before Elbow, Lorde and Years & Years tee up Kendrick Lamar for a set that marks his longanticipated Glastonbury debut. GT
Monday Aids: The Unheard Tapes
BBC Two, 9.30pm; NI, I, 11.15pm This documentary is a poignant reminder of how devastating vastating the Aids epidemic was. as. This first of three parts features atures gay men recalling coming g of age in early 1980s London: the nightclub Heaven had just opened ned and despite widespread prejudice the community flourished. rished. Then the mysterious “gay cancer” started killing ng swathes of them. Chief ief among the commentators are re Rupert Whitaker and Martyn n Butler, founders in 1982 of The Terrence Higgins Trust, named d after
Whitaker’s partner, one of the first British victims of Aids. The narrative is punctuated by audio tapes with gay men dying of Aids, their dialogue lip-synced so well by actors that you won’t realise they’re not the person speaking. It’s an effective way to bring the visceral experience of the disease into the present day and, sadly, reminds us of how cruelly victims were treated. On the flip side, doctors explain how they grappled with this new unknown virus and contributors recall the gay community bonding bo d g as they t did their best to navigate the devastation.
Vicki Power Pow
River Cottage Cot Reunited
More4, 9pm
Watching Watch
Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall’s Whi return to the t Dorset cottage, cot from which he first urged us to live liv closer to the land lan nearly 25 years ago, ago is a retro pleasure. pl His hair is more m grey now, but his enthusiasm for simple, sim natural food
remains undimmed as, tonight, Hugh joins forager Emma Gunn for a seaside lunch of limpet and seaweed. VP
Tuesday Only Murders in the Building
Disney+
This frothy comedy was one of the breakout hits of last year, a delightful romp featuring a light murder mystery that poked fun at true-crime obsessives. Faded actor Charles Haden Savage (Steve Martin, who dreamed up the series), struggling theatre director Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and the mysterious Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) not only solved a murder, but made a hit podcast about it. They’re back but everything’s changed – because this time they’re the ones suspected of murder. In the closing minutes of series one, another condo resident was found skewered by a knitting needle in Mabel’s flat, and the trio became persons of interest. As the new series opens, Charles and Oliver are lapping up their notoriety, while Mabel considers an offer made by art gallery owner Alice (Cara Delevingne). But the fresh death derails it all and
takes us back to the enjoyable dynamic of Mabel puncturing old men’s inflated egos as they sleuth in The Arconia’s olde-worlde apartments. The opening double bill introduces guest stars Amy Schumer and Shirley MacLaine. Light as soufflé and just as tasty. VP
Sherwood BBC One, 9pm
DCS Ian St Clair’s (David Morrissey) obsession with unveiling the spy cop
affects his marriage and job in tonight’s finale of the crime drama, just before a massive Freudian slip jolts the plot forward. Scriptwriter James Graham has delivered an impressive saga about a community torn asunder by murder and political discord. VP
Wednesday Atlanta Disney+
Reaffirming its position as one of TV’s most audacious, sophisticated and inventive series, Atlanta’s longawaited third season starts off strong with a creepy and provocative story. After a brief, nightmarish prologue of meandering then pointed takes on race, the story moves onto the life of Loquareeous (Christopher Farrar), who is taken away from his abusive mother (Nicole Lockley) and put into the foster care of a hippy-ish lesbian couple. What all this has to do with Glover’s Earn, hip-hop star Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) or their friend Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) is both nothing and everything: the themes, allegories and conversations it raises are at once potent and elusive. The third series, which arrives as a boxset and is on Disney+ after the first two seasons aired on BBC Two, moves on to see the characters in the middle of a European tour, with episodes set in Amsterdam, London and Paris. But, as ever, nothing is what it seems and the show remains as distinctive as ever. GT
Lenny Henry’s Caribbean Britain BBC Two, 9.30pm
The realisation of the BritishCaribbean identity through the arts is Henry’s subject for the second, excellent half of his series. David Harewood, Benjamin Zephaniah, Sonia Boyce and the late Jamal Edwards are among those offering a frank assessment of what they have achieved, what they were up against and how far we all still have to go. GT
Thursday The Undeclared War Channel 4, 9pm
Every now and then
PICK Channel 4 comes up with a OF THE humdinger of a series ( It’s WEEK a Sin, Humans and Utopia,
among others) that insists upon itself because there is simply nothing else like it. Peter Kosminsky’s razor-sharp cyber thriller takes us into the future of 2024, to look at the world of the British intelligence malware analysts working at GCHQ, fighting the good fight against an onslaught of potentially catastrophic cyber attacks emanating, mostly, from Russia. We’re plunged straight into the mindscape of Saara Parvin (Hannah KhaliqueBrown), a new intern whose first day throws her in the deep end of the battle against an invisible enemy. Kosminsky avoids a surfeit of tech geekery by expanding the drama into the world of global realpolitik, with a superb cast including Adrian Lester as Britain’s prime minister (said to have deposed Boris Johnson 15 months previously), Hattie Morahan, Ed Stoppard and Alex Jennings as various Cabinet ministers, and Simon Pegg as the GCHQ boss torn between the demands of his political masters. All episodes are on All 4 from today and it will take some restraint to not binge. Gerard O’Donovan
Bradford on Duty BBC Two, 9.30pm
An episode focusing on the ambitious £800million project which intends to regenerate Bradford city centre, along with the effort being made to make it a safer place to live, as seen through the eyes of some of the city’s 150-plus community support officers. GO
Friday Stranger Things
Netflix
After a compelling first volume of season four, the second drops in two lengthy episodes to complete the series. Released in May, volume one became Netflix’s most watched show, and – as an added extra – even managed to put Kate Bush back at the top of the charts after her 1985 song
Running Up That Hill was featured. The show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, have intimated that not all of its beloved characters will make it to the final season, which is expected to come in 2023. Most of the fan speculation concerns the fate of Steve (Joe Keery), but more pressing is whether Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Murray (Brett German) can rescue Hopper (David Harbour) from the Russians, despite the Demogorgon guarding their way out. Retro joy. Veronica Lee
World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys
Channel 5, 8pm
Bill Nighy narrates a ride through the Rockies as we learn about the mid 19th-century Gold Rush and the USA’s continental divide (and that train manager Zac takes it personally if anyone ends their journey hungry). VL