Television
The Best of the Week
SATURDAY MAY 19
Counterpart Marathon (SoHo, Sky 010, 11.20am). Load up the PVR with this terrific spy thriller that doubles as a Cold War allegory and a nature-versus-nurture investigation. There are two Earths in Counterpart, but since the second Earth appeared, 30 years of separate development have elapsed. The story involves a terrorist attack in retaliation for a flu epidemic that wiped out 7% of one side. The linchpin is the brilliant JK Simmons, who does double duty as an intelligence operative on each side. The terrorists insert themselves into life on the other side, sometimes murdering their own counterparts – a neat way of saying, what if your enemy is yourself?
SUNDAY MAY 20
Witness (BBC World News,
Sky 089, 9.30am and 3.30pm). Royals, royals, royals: you can’t get away from them this week, so don’t even try. Apart from the epic coverage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, here’s a BBC Witness special that meets people who were witness to important royal moments. They include the demining expert who accompanied Princess Diana on her walk across an Angolan minefield; the cameraman who captured the tradition-breaking wedding of Japan’s Crown Prince Akihito to a non-royal bride; and the last King of Bulgaria, who became Prime Minister.
Round Planet (Prime, 6.30pm). Tonight, the Serengeti, where “shedloads of wildebeest” embark on an epic migration every year. “A circle of life,” says narrator Armstrong Wedgewood (Matt Lucas). “That’s not a metaphor, it’s an actual circle.” Spoof series Round Planet, we like you a lot.
MONDAY MAY 21
Mary Berry’s Country House Secrets (Food TV, Sky 018, 8.30pm). Mary Berry seems to be something of a British national treasure, or at