PICKOFPAYTV AND MOVIES

NETFLIX NEW!

VIKINGS: VALHALLA (Season 1) ★★★★ This Vikings sequel is all about the revenge of the Danes on England’s Saxons for the St Brice’s Day massacre of 1002. Future English ruler Harald Hardrada is among those sailing for war in a show with scale, pace and lots of violence. From Friday.

CAT BURGLAR (Season 1) ★★★ Netflix is moving towards producing games, and Charlie Brooker’s new series is an intriguing window into what that might look like. It’s an interactive cartoon in which viewers answer questions to help a cat trying to burgle a museum. From Tuesday.

NEW! MOVIE A MADEA HOMECOMING

(2022) 15 ◆ ★★★

The male actor Tyler

Perry has been playing the formidable Africanamerican matriarch

Madea Simmons on film since 2005. For this latest anarchic comedy outing, he’s joined by Brendan O’carroll in his Mrs Brown guise (above). From Friday.

RESTLESS (2022) 15 ◆ ★★★ Franck Gastambide looks like a French Jason Statham in this bruising subtitled police corruption thriller. From Friday.

MOVIE PRIME VIDEO

NEW! WOLF LIKE ME (All six episodes) ★★★★ Josh Gad and Isla Fisher star as lost souls finding each other in what looks like a romcom at times – and something else entirely at others. After you’ve seen episode two, watching episode one again is a very different experience. From Friday.

NEW! THIS IS US (Season 6, Episode 5) ★★★ The generation-hopping US family drama resumes its final season on Prime and Disney+. Weekly, from Thursday.

NEW! THE MARVELOUS MRS MAISEL

(Season 4, Episodes 3 & 4) ★★★★ Stand-up comic Midge is very much following her own path in this new season, and that’s given the whole show a fresh sense of excitement. Weekly, on Fridays.

DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY (2004) 12 ◆ ★★★ Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn play grown men taking a silly game seriously in this highly amusing sports movie spoof. From today.

MOVIE

THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY (2005) 12 ◆ ★★★ The big-screen version in which Martin Freeman made a rather good Arthur Dent. The 1981 TV series is on Britbox. From Monday.

MOVIE DISNEY+ NEW!

THE WALKING DEAD (Season 11, Episode 9) ★★★ The final season of the zombie drama resumes its steady march to the finish line, and it will be intriguing to see how the sinister haven of the Commonwealth fits into it all by the end. Things are clearly not quite as they appear… Weekly, from Monday.

MOVIE NO EXIT (2022) 15

◆

★★★ ‘Make yourself comfortable. We are here ’til the storm clears.’ Claustrophobic US thriller set at a mountain rest stop, where one of those waiting is a kidnapper. From Friday.

SKY / NOW DRAMA

ESCAPE AT DANNEMORA (All eight parts) ★★★★ Before Severance (Fridays, Apple TV+), Ben Stiller expertly directed this real-life story of prison escape, which stars an Emmy Award-nominated Patricia Arquette (also of Severance) as the supervisor who helps the breakout.

A TOUCH OF CLOTH (All six episodes) ★★★ Suranne Jones and

John Hannah are the detective duo for the first four episodes of Sky’s fun, Naked Gun-style crime drama spoof. Karen Gillan joins the team for the final two parts.

COMEDY BEST OF THE REST

NEW! KIN (Sundance Now via Prime Video) ★★★★ There’s a steady, confident pulse to this Dublin-set drama about gangland family the Kinsellas. It has a great cast, including Ciaran Hinds and Aidan Gillen, plus Charlie Cox (left) as Michael, a Kinsella freshly released from prison. From Thursday.

NEW! BELOW DECK SAILING YACHT

(hayu) ★★★ Spain is the destination for a new, third season of the sunny reality show spin-off about the fortunes of the crew on luxury yachts. Weekly, from Tuesday.

PAY MOVIES

BELFAST (2021) 12 ◆ (BT Film Store, Sky Store, Virgin) ★★★★ Kenneth Branagh’s very personal drama about growing up in Belfast amid the Troubles, filmed in blackand-white and told through the eyes of a nine-year-old (splendid newcomer Jude Hill). It’s a lovely film and a likely awards magnet, with seven Oscar nominations.

CRY MACHO (2021) 12 ◆ (BT Film Store, Sky Store, Virgin) ★★★ Modern western directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, in which he plays a grizzled substitute father to a wayward child. Both from Monday.