THE HOT LIST
BEST OF TV AND STREAMING
VIDEO STARS PAM & TOMMY Star on Disney+
FROM Downton Abbey to Pamela Anderson is quite the journey for Lily James as she breaks out of the period dramas she’s best known for something a little more racy. Back in 1995, the internet was in its infancy and the phrase ‘going viral’ hadn’t even been coined yet but we got our first taste of things to come when Baywatch actor Anderson and her rock star husband Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe found that a video of the bedroom antics on their honeymoon was doing the rounds. With Sebastian Stan as the insufferable Lee and James giving Anderson some emotional heft, this is an entertaining comedy drama that shows us the way things were going with celebrity culture and online voyeurism a quarter of a century ago.
COLD COMFORT WINTER OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY
BBC One, Friday, February 4, 11.30am
WITH the world seemingly so full of tension and division, sport can be a great reminder that there’s plenty to celebrate and enjoy – and right on cue here are the Winter Olympics to provide 16 days of excellence on ice and snow. After a spectacular opening in Beijing, catch up with the highlights show with Clare Balding on BBC Two at 7pm. Coverage of the Games, which includes 109 events over 15 disciplines in seven sports, will be shown across BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online at the BBC website.
UNDER THE INFLUENCE CHLOE BBC One, Sunday, February 6
THE BBC’s new Sunday night drama comes from the pen of Alice Seabright (Sex Education) and features The Crown’s Erin Doherty in what promises to be a gripping six-part series. Doherty stars as Becky Green, a follower of high profile social media influencer Chloe Fairbourne (Poppy Gilbert) who seems to live a charmed life with a loving marriage and plenty of famous friends, in contrast to Becky who is a carer for her mother in a small flat near Bristol. When Chloe suddenly and unexpectedly dies, Becky takes on a new identity and inflitrates Chloe’s social circles to try to find out what happened to her.
HIGH LIFE THE ALPINIST Sky Documentaries
A GRIPPING documentary in more ways than one, this study of climber Marc-André Leclerc shows him to be an elusive but fascinating subject. The 23-year-old
Canadian has undertaken some of the most daring solo climbs in history with minimal fuss and attention but as Leclerc is publicity-shy and doesn’t want a camera crew following him, director Peter Mortimer struggles to track him down until he attempts a historic solo adventure in Patagonia. A dizzying, nail-biting documentary with some spectacular scenery.
TWISTS AND TURNS SUSPICION AppleTV+, from Friday, February 4
UMA Thurman stars in this hard-hitting remake of Israeli series False Flag which confronts us with some uncomfortable moral questions. Thurman plays Katherine Newman, the head of a powerful media corporation whose son is kidnapped. Five seemingly ordinary Brits are accused of the crime and desperately try to prove their innocence, but as tensions rise, is there more to the kidnapping than there initially seems? Compelling viewing with plenty of twists and turns along the way.