The very best of the week ahead
Sunday
Paul Hollywood Eats Mexico Channel 4, 9pm
Whether you love him or hate him, Paul Hollywood has carved out an enviable gig as Channel 4’s “bloke who will eat anything, anywhere”. Following on from a jolly across Japan, Channel 4 have shipped him off to Mexico – where the bewildered baker tries, and fails, to make sense of its raucous patchwork of cultures and cuisines. In this first episode of three, Hollywood heads to the nation’s sprawling capital, Mexico City, and gets a crash course in the king of Mexican street food: the taco. Hollywood is a good eater, not such a great journalist. At Central de Abasto, the gargantuan wholesale food market in the capital, he happily scarfs down a panoply of exotic fruits under the watchful eye of armed government agents. They’re monitoring the supply of avocados, or “green gold”, now such a valuable commodity that drug cartels have taken notice. This element of Mexican life is glossed over, before he’s off again battering piñatas and munching on deep-fried sushi. It’s good-natured fun, and doubtless whets the appetite, but there’s a sense we aren’t seeing much beyond the veil. Jack Taylor
The Girl From Plainville Starzplay
The death of 18-year-old Conrad Roy was one of the most disturbing cases of digital manipulation in US criminal history. This moody, if laboured, eight-part dramatisation tells of the events leading up to Roy’s suicide and his girlfriend Michelle Carter’s involuntary manslaughter conviction. Elle Fanning is sickly sweet as Carter, who convinced him through a campaign of texts and calls to kill himself. JT
Monday Ackley Bridge Channel 4, 10pm & 10.30pm
At first it may feel like e an odd piece of scheduling to show this post-teatime Hollyoaks- aks- goes-totoschool drama across the week late in the evening, but ut it also recognises changing g viewing patterns among ong its audience. Whether er watched live or binged ed on All 4, this fifth series ies once again showcases es
Ackley Bridge’s strengths gths and occasional shortcomings, tackling ng hot-button issues and d juggling its storylines s with deceptive ease.
Written by Suhayla El-Bushra and directed by Top Boy’s Ashley Walters, the opening double bill finds Marina (Megan Morgan) covering for her chaotic home life and poor academic performance by enacting increasingly provocative behaviour, much to the concern of her mother and mother’s partner (Rob James-Collier), who also happens to be the headteacher. Episode two focuses on Marina’s bête noire Kayla (Robyn Cara), nervously contemplating “doing it” with her boyfriend. Gabriel Tate
The Invisible Pilot Sky Documentaries, 9pm
Produced by Adam Ad McKay ( The Big Short, Don’t Look Up) and directed by joint Emmy - winners Ari Mark and Phil Lott, this peculiar pe true story addresses the ostensible suicide of crop-duster pilot Gary Betzner whose seemingly normal life disguised a chaotic side hustle of drug-smuggling–still only the tip of the iceberg as far as this eye-opening open three-part documentary documen is concerned. concerne GT
Tuesday Better Call Saul Netflix
The best spin-off series in TV history approaches its end with the first of six weekly blockbuster episodes. Part one of the final season aired earlier in the year and, as with predecessor Breaking Bad, we’ve been forced to wait for a conclusion. Can they stick the landing? It’s a tough task considering the mass of loose ends, but creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have barely put a foot wrong so far. The end of part one saw cartel supervillain Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) return from the shadows to calmly pop a bullet into the head of Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) – Jimmy/Saul’s (Bob Odenkirk) longtime adversary. Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), meanwhile, continues the work of fortifying his “laundry” facility before the coming showdown with the Salamanca clan. Much we already know from Breaking Bad, less certain is how we get there. Jimmy is yet to totally embrace his alter-ego Saul Goodman – lawyer to criminals, cheats and chemistry teachers. Then, of course, there’s the appearance of a certain Walter White and Jesse Pinkman that is promised some point. Stylish, witty and unnerving, it’s been a hell of a ride. JT
SAS Death Squads Exposed: A British War Crime?
BBC One, 9pm; NI, 10.40pm Panorama investigates the activities of our own special forces in Afghanistan, who killed hundreds of people in night
raids. The SAS say they posed an imminent threat. Anyone who’s seen Once Upon a Time in Iraq will find the claims hard to stomach, and there are allegations that some of the shootings were executions. Reporter Richard Bilton speaks to witnesses who claim they saw unarmed Afghans murdered in cold blood. JT
Wednesday Camilla’s Country Life ITV, 9pm
Whether it is the Duke of Cambridge selling copies of the Big Issue or the Prince of Wales guest-starring in EastEnders, the next generations of Windsors have shown just as much appetite as the Queen (who only recently shared the screen with Paddington, lest we forget) for imaginative media appearances. The latest finds the Duchess of Cornwall taking the reins as guest editor of Country Life magazine to mark its 125th year and her 75th. While it seems unlikely that she chaired a features meeting or pulled an all-nighter to put the title to bed, her stint should make for enlightening viewing as she handpicks writers and meets those championing favoured causes, including tackling knife crime and domestic abuse. Away from her editorial obligations, she talks to Paul O’Grady and Judi Dench, accompanies Prince Charles to the state opening of Parliament and reminisces with her sister about a much-loved teddy bear and the rift it caused between them. GT
The Real Mo Farah BBC One, 9pm
He has told his life story before, but this documentary promises to dig deeper than ever as the four-time Olympic gold medallist talks about his arrival in the UK as an nine-year-old refugee, his journey to international stardom and beyond. GT
Thursday Super Telescope: Mission to the Edge of the Universe BBC Two, 8pm
The launch last Christmas Day of the James Webb Space Telescope was a momentous event. The world’s largest telescope – “Hubble on steroids”, as one science wag calls it – cost £8bn and was 17 years in the making; it will relay to us information about the births of the first stars and hopefully find out if there is life on other planets. On July 12, Nasa will release the first of the fullcolour images from the telescope as it starts its mission to unlock the secrets of the universe. This fascinating episode of the BBC’s Horizon strand follows its construction over many years. Nasa’s top brass as well as The Sky at Night’s Maggie Aderin-Pocock explain what the mission will achieve and it all gets a bit emotional as we watch its launch in French Guiana and the nerve-shredding moment when the tricky unfolding, in space, of its massive sunshield was attempted. Vicki Power
The Undeclared War Channel 4, 9pm
The action in this thriller – focused on keyboard warriors and suffering from glacial pacing – shifts to Moscow tonight. Saara’s (Hannah KhaliqueBrown) ex-classmate, Vadim (German Segal), is recalled to Russia for a job trolling Brits on Twitter and launching Russia’s cyber-attack on the UK. But his conscience is pricked by skulduggery, and so he takes a risk. VP
Friday First Night of the Proms BBC Two, 7.15pm
It’s a welcome return to PICK normalcy for a packed OF THE Royal Albert Hall after two WEEK years of pandemic performances to limited audiences. And entirely appropriate, for a nation still learning the best way to mourn those who we have lost, that we should start off this Proms season with an unusual single billing – Verdi’s Requiem. This is a staggering choral setting of the Catholic funeral mass, performed here in full by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and the Crouch End Festival Chorus. While it’s generally considered too operatic for religious use, it’s a wonderful choice for this event, balanced finely between bombastic peaks of high drama and relative lulls for more measured reflection. Sakari Oramo conducts; the four solos are a gifted line-up: soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston, tenor Freddie De Tommaso and bass-baritone Kihwan Sim. The broadcast will be presented by Clive Myrie and Katie Derham, while the performance is slated to kick off at 7.30pm – lasting for 84 minutes without an interval. Daniel Brooks
James May: Our Man in Italy Amazon Prime Video
Season two of James May’s travel show sees the perpetually bothered man decamp from Japan to Italy in search of la dolce vita. In this packed opener, he bumbles across Sicily: sneaking a selfiestick into a 12th-century church, fishing in the sea and buying a house for €1. DB