Your guide to the week’s best on Sky and free-to-air TV
Attenborough’s Dynasties
Sir David Attenborough is back for a second season of this ground-breaking series which delves into the lives of charismatic, captivating animals, as they fight, against the odds, for their families.
This time around the creatures featured include meerkats, elephants, cheetahs, puma, hyena and macaques, with the locations varying from Kenya and Zambia to Morocco and Patagonia.
“The storytelling was slick and accomplished and seldom felt forced, the anthropomorphism given a respectable gloss by the avoidance of cliche in Attenborough’s wise voiceover,” wrote The Telegraph’s Gabriel Tate.
Buoyancy
Australian Rodd Rathjen’s 2019 feature debut is an eye-opening, tear-inducing look at the child labour and human trafficking in South-east Asia.
For Chakra (a magnificent Sarm Heng), the lure of Thailand is too much to resist. Tired of long hours that barely make a difference to his family’s finances, the 14-year-old Cambodian hears tales of Thai factory work that promise more money and a new life. While Buoyancy is a Lion, Empire of the Sun-like story of hope, it’s also a tale of a teen’s descent into darkness.
The Graham Norton Show
It’s a star-studded couch on tonight’s season finale of the UK chat show.
Justin Timberlake provides the music, while former Hustle headliner Adrian Lester discusses his new Disney+ historical drama Renegade Nell, Dua Lipa talks about her upcoming third album, Cate Blanchett sheds light on her performance as a nun in Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy, and Kate Winslet opens up about playing the unhinged Chancellor Elena Vernham in The Regime.
Naked Education
Anna Richardson, Yinka Bokinni and Dr. Alex George join forces for this body-positive UK series which aims to normalise all types, champion people’s differences and break down stereotypes.
From body dysmorphia and disabilities, to mastectomy scars, penis size and skin conditions, no subject matter is off limits.
The Age of Adaline
Evoking memories of sci-fi-tinged romantic dramas like Forever Young, Somewhere in Time and The Time Traveler’s Wife, this entertaining 2015 tale follows the fortunes of a woman who hasn’t aged a day since 1938.
Immune to the ravages of time since a car crash-icy plunge-lightning strike combination, Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) has changed her name, residence and appearance every decade.
But as her daughter (Ellen Burstyn) begins to deteriorate, Adaline reassesses her choice to be alone, especially with philanthropist Ellis (Michiel Huisman) determined to win her affection.
Despite potentially off-putting thirdperson narration, Adaline will melt even the most cynical movie watcher’s heart.
Chicago
This Oscar-winning, 2002 movie was based on the 1970s’ Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb musical, which was itself taken from the 1926 Maurine Dallas Watkins play.
Inspired by Watkins’ time as a Chicago Tribune reporter during the “trial of the century” of accused murderess
Roxie Hart, Rob Marshall’s daring and inventive showstopper is the tale of two women – Roxie (Renee Zellweger) and Velma (Catherine Zeta-jones).
While embracing Chicago’s theatrical roots through elaborate set-pieces, stunning footwork, brassy singing and glittering costumes, Marshall also created something distinctly cinematic.
C’mon C’mon
Joaquin Phoenix headlines this 2021 drama about a radio journalist who, when his sister asks him to look after her son, embarks on a cross-country trip to show the boy life away from Los Angeles.
From writer-director Mike Mills, whose previous films have included Beginners and 20th Century Women.
“A film, heartfelt yet deeply considered, that in almost every scene is trying to make sense of that happy, sad, full, empty and always shifting life that we are in,” wrote The Times’ Kevin Maher.