A TOUCH OF CLASS
Fed up with trashy reality shows? Don’t despair! TV’s about to get ...
Abi Morgan, making her BBC1 debut after the success of The Hour, the BBC2 drama about the making of a Fifties current affairs show.
LONDON SPY
(BBC2, October) WOLF Hall actor Edward Holcroft — rumoured to be the new boyfriend of Prince Harry’s ex Cressida Bonas — plays Alex, an anti- social MI5 agent with an analytical mind, in this drama about a gay secret service agent and his partyloving boyfriend.
Alex becomes entangled with a club-loving hedonist called Danny, played by Ben Whishaw, better known as the latest incarnation of Q in the James Bond movies. When Alex is found dead, Danny is dragged into his world as he tries to discover who killed his friend. Charlotte Rampling and Jim Broadbent co-star in the fivepart series.
THE MUPPETS
(Sky One, October) THERE’s room in the schdules for laughs, too. In the celebrity split of the year, Kermit and Miss Piggy (left) have broken up and he’s going out with another pig while she’s dating spider-Man star Topher Grace. How will they cope when they have to make a show together?
That’s the back story behind the Muppets’ first primetime appearance in decades, set behind the scenes of Miss Piggy’s late-night chat show Up late With Miss Piggy. Expect cameo guest appearances from A-list stars such as Reese Witherspoon.
‘What we’re trying to do is honour the Muppet show thing but at the same time do something contemporary,’ says creator Bill Prady. ‘When I started thinking about putting the Muppets back on TV a decade ago I looked at the shows that were on the air like The office and I thought, “This is what Jim Henson would want to make fun of.” It’s taken ten years to convince the studio to do it.’
The satellite channel also has a star-packed comedy-drama called You, Me And The Apocalypse about the final days on Earth before a comet is due to plough into the planet. Rob lowe, Pauline Quirke and Mathew Baynton are among the cast.
PICK OF THE REST
CHANNEL 4 is bringing back three of its most popular dramas, though only one is British-made — Indian
Summers (2016) the end- of-Raj blockbuster starring Julie Walters as a manipulative madam in a hill station at the foot of the Himalayas.
The Returned is also back this autumn, a zombie drama with a stylish Gallic twist. This French ghost story imagines the dead of an Alpine town coming back to life and returning to their families.
one of the most highly praised thrillers in years, Homeland, begins its fifth season in the U.s. on october 4, with a British broadcast expected to follow very soon after.
The storyline had fallen apart by the end of the third series, when double agent nicholas Brody (Damian lewis) was killed off, but got back on track by reinventing the character of CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) in last year’s fourth season.
In the new episodes Carrie, burned out by her experiences in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will no longer be a secret service agent but instead a private security specialist in Berlin. other returning hits include Top Of
The Lake (BBC2), though director Jane Campion is not expected to begin filming before December. Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss has agreed to come back as Detective Robin Griffin. This time, the eerie drama is set in sydney and Hong Kong.
Happy Valley (BBC1, 2016) won plaudits all round, despite its dark themes of rape and family disintegration, and graphic violence.
sarah lancashire will return as police sergeant sarah lancashire and the writer is once again sally Wainwright, creator of Happy Valley and last Tango In Halifax, which also stars lancashire.
The Freeview channels have treats for fans of classic TV, with the 20th anniversary of Pride And Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle on the Drama channel. And Gold is paying tribute to Fawlty Towers At 40.
Crackanory returns on Dave, the adult version of the traditional children’s story- telling format Jackanory. Presenters include Harry Enfield, Rebecca Front and Warwick Davies. It’s a pity the quality of the writing rarely matches the brilliance of the telling.