The best on the box
Top television picks for the week ahead.
James Croot’s Ordinary Lies. 8.30pm, Friday, TVNZ1
The second series of this British drama focuses on Coopers Outdoors, a sports goods company based in Cardiff. As with Warrington’s J S Motors, it also has a number of workers who each hold a dark secret. ‘‘While Ordinary Lies lacks the vim and vigour of its antecedent Clocking Off, there was enough narrative tension for it to remain compelling,’’ wrote The Telegraph’s Rachel Ward.
Bellevue, 7.30pm, Saturday, Sky Box Sets
New Zealand’s Anna Paquin (X-men: Days of Future Past, The Good Dinosaur) plays Detective Annie Ryder in this eight-part Canadian drama about the disappearance of a transgender teenager from a small mining town. ‘‘Paquin is gloriously good as the pragmatic but messed-up Annie, a woman determined to rise above the misery in her life no matter how haunted she feels at times. She plays Annie with a fierce purpose that sometimes keeps the overheated engine of the convoluted drama on track,’’ wrote The Globe and Mail’s John Doyle.
Maigret, 8.30pm, Sunday, TVNZ1
Rowan Atkinson’s latest adventure as the famed French detective – Night at the Crossroads – is set in 1950s Paris. Despite his best efforts, Maigret can’t get murder suspect Carl Andersen to deviate from his plea of innocence. But why was the body of a diamond dealer found on his property, in his car, killed with his gun? And why did he and his mysterious sister, Else, try to run away? ‘‘A crime drama that’s cleverly plotted,’’ wrote The Guardian’s Jonathan Wright.
Ray Donovan, 8.30pm, Tuesday, Soho
Liev Schreiber returns for another year as the La-based professional fixer of the title. For the fifth season, Susan Sarandon joins the cast as media mogul Samantha Winslow who taps the services of Ray and sets him against her own fixers, fearing they may know too much.
Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach, 8.30pm, Thursday, Rialto
This 2016 documentary is on the life and times of the much-loved British director. ‘‘The talking head interviews are thoughtful and insightful; the revelations about Loach’s life, are unexpectedly moving. This is a fitting tribute to a director who has made a career out of telling the stories that most urgently need to be told,’’ wrote The Guardian’s Wendy Ide.