The very best of the week ahead
Sunday Van Der Valk
ITV, 8pm
The first series of this reboot of the 1970s Amsterdam-set drama was described by The Telegraph’s critic as “a work in progress” – and Trojan the dog often stole the show – but it’s fair to say that Marc Warren grew into the role of maverick detective Commisaris Piet Van Der Valk. Now, after a Covid delay, the police drama based on novels by Nicolas Freeling (adapted by Chris Murray) is back for three more feature length episodes. The old team return with it, including Maimie McCoy as Van Der Valk’s police partner Lucienne Hassell and Emma Fielding as their boss, Julia Dahlman – and in tonight’s opener, titled Plague
in Amsterdam, Van Der Valk (as moody-looking as ever) investigates a gruesome murder. Solicitor Susie de Windt’s mutilated body has been discovered strung up on a windfarm, as if crucified, with an “X” carved into her stomach and a cryptic note in her pocket. Veronica Lee
The Real Windsors: Queen of Steel
Channel 4, 8pm
This three-part series examines what the future holds for the British monarchy after the Queen’s reign ends, featuring interviews with several people who have worked with the Firm over the years. The first instalment is about the Queen, then the focus turns to Princes Charles and William. VL
Monday Good Grief with Reverend Richard Coles
Channel 4, 10pm
Reverend Richard Coles has already published a memoir, The Madness of
Grief, about the devastating immediate aftermath of the death of his husband and partner of 12 years, David, who died in 2019 at the age of 43 from liver disease. Here he tentatively sets out to address one of the things that most bereaved people find hardest to contemplate: the possibility of moving forward. The idea is to experiment with some of the many forms of bereavement therapy available – from laughter yoga and boxing (to release “the pool of fury”), via surfing and alpaca therapy (not at the same time), to a week’s retreat on the Isle of Bute and a full-on, very
American “grief cruise” in the Caribbean. Along the way he has some thoughtful fun and, most importantly, meets many lovely, grieving people, each mourning loss in their own way. By the end of his “adventures in widow-craft” there’s a sense that he has moved on a little and learnt a lot more. Gerard O’Donovan
Commonwealth Games 2022: Closing Ceremony
BBC One, 8pm
After a final day of sport (deciding the badminton, diving, table tennis squash and hockey medals), time for a spectacular celebration as Birmingham hands over to the hosts of the 2026 Commonwealth Games – Victoria in Australia. GO
Tuesday Tom Daley: Illegal to Be Me
BBC One, 9pm
At the t London 2012 20 Olympics, there th were more athletes called James than there were out gay athletes. While the global picture has improved since then, the Commonwealth Games is an unfortunate emblem of how far the sporting world still has to go – it is illegal to be gay in 35 of the 56 Commonwealth nations. Gold medallist and diving star Tom Daley here pieces together a manifesto to present to the Commonwealth Games Federation, with proposals of action to sit alongside the statements and symbols that Daley fears may amount to mere “rainbowwashing”. Before that, he recounts the trolling he received after coming out, and meets athletes from some of the nations where being gay is a crime: the stories of persecution, intimidation and worse are alarming, desperate and distressing. Gabriel Tate
Channel 5, 7pm
Cherry Healey introduces this nightly magazine show, tackling aspects of women’s health too often underserved on television. While Kate Thornton discusses the perimenopause, Healey begins with the impacts of heavy periods, uterine fibroids and endometriosis; the latter can take up to eight years to diagnose. GT
Wednesday
BBC One, 9pm
Relish your final jaunt to the northerly isles in the company of Douglas Henshall in this Scots-noir murder mystery. Henshall will quit the role of DI Jimmy Perez after this seventh outing, bringing closure, one hopes, to a fraught period in Perez’s life. As the new series opens, the grizzled cop is still suspended pending an investigation into the suicide of Donna Killick (Fiona Bell); it’s worse news for his best friend Duncan Hunter (Mark Bonnar), who’s now in prison after she framed him for murder. But it wouldn’t do to emasculate Perez in his final outing, so he’s soon cleared and, with sidekick Tosh (Alison O’Donnell), now a new mother, he gets stuck into investigating the disappearance of a vulnerable young man. Grasping this new start, he also sets about wooing Meg Pattison (Lucianne McEvoy). Henshall gives a performance of quiet power as the compassionate detective wearied by the constant wrangling with immorality, although even he is frequently overshadowed by the glorious backdrop of the Shetlands, whose velvety moors and lowering skies steal all their scenes. Shetland remains a dependable crime drama exploring evil deeds in a singularly stunning location. Vicki Power
The Fringe, Fame and Me
BBC Two, 9pm
Making a splash at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has been a rite of passage for rising actors and comedians for decades. This 75th birthday documentary celebrating the summer institution welcomes Eddie Izzard, Michael Palin and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, among others, to recall their jaunts to Edinburgh as fledgling performers. VP
Thursday Football Dreams: The Academy
Channel 4, 9pm
This instantly engaging six-part series follows members of different year groups in Crystal Palace’s football academy as they attempt to play their way into contracts and, they hope, long and lucrative careers. We begin with the Under-12s, where best friends Kairo, Kayden and Bola hope to earn two-year contracts. Kayden is an attacking midfielder, quick and tricky but all too aware that his small stature could hold him back; defender Bola’s progress has stalled and his young body is proving worryingly injury prone; and Kairo is an athletic, gifted winger whose abundant self-belief – “I’m gonna go from employee to CEO,” he says, Apprentice- style – could prove his downfall should it curdle into arrogance. The secret here is in the casting and all three boys, like their switched-on coaches, are charming. But the stakes here are sky-high and the pressure intense, however hard their mentors and parents try to shield them. Is the prospect of success, infinitesimally slim as it is, worth all the sacrifice for the many who don’t make it through institutions that even Palace chairman Steve Parish concedes are “pretty Darwinian”? It will be fascinating to find out. GT
Ambulance
BBC One, 9pm
The ninth series of this deservedly Bafta-winning documentary series heads to the northeast for the first time, where a refugee is treated for chest pains and relates a story that brings one member of the response team to tears. Two road accidents and a spinal injury bring further emergencies on the night, while one miner-turneddispatcher considers the turn his career has taken. GT
Friday Five Days at Memorial
Apple TV+
Of all the heart-rending stories of loss and destruction to come out of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, none is as disturbing as the one told in this engrossing eight-part drama series by John Ridley and Carlton Cuse. It’s based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning article in The New York Times by Sheri Fink, which she later expanded into a bestselling book, and describes the shocking events that took place at Memorial Medical Centre in New Orleans and the subsequent criminal investigation. Over five days, thousands of people were trapped inside the hospital without power and it was later alleged that some medics euthanised 45 critically ill patients in its “long-term acute care” facility before the hospital was eventually evacuated on the fifth day of the crisis. Vera Farmiga stars as Anna Pou, one of the doctors faced with the impossible dilemma of how to ration what help they could give, and Cherry Jones as Susan Mulderick, the hospital medical director; but this is essentially an ensemble piece, casting a critical eye at the decisions made by exhausted caregivers as the floodwaters rose, power failed and heat soared. VL
Yuja Wang Plays Liszt at the Proms
BBC Four, 8pm
Prom 35 sees Klaus Makela conduct the Oslo Philharmonic (making their Proms debut) in Sibelius’s Tapiola and Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. Chinese pianist Yuja Wang joins them for Liszt’s Piano Concerto No 1. VL