Satellite choice
TEEN HERO Alex Rider, Amazon Prime
AFTER some odd opening scenes, this adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s second Alex Rider book — Point Blanc — develops into something dark, pacey and exciting. Otto Farrant (pictured) is a strong choice as capable teenager Alex, who is brought in to work for MI6 by a shadowy bunch of grown-ups, including Mrs Jones (Line Of Duty’s Vicky McClure). Keep watching, and the oddness of those opening scenes will be explained, too.
KIDS’ FUN Blue Peter, 5.30pm, CBBC
DAVID WALLIAMS talks about his new book, Slime, and the team try to make some — always a good project for children at home, assuming you don’t mind the mess. Olivia Rodrigo, of the Disney+ show High School Musical: The Musical, also drops in, and it’s the last chance to enter the Supercar Of The Future contest.
CLASSIC SITCOM To The Manor Born, 6.05pm, Drama
COMEDIES don’t often start with funerals, but this class-clash sitcom carries it off, partly because Penelope Keith’s Audrey fforbes-Hamilton is quite the merry widow — at least until a tycoon (Peter Bowles) swans into her life in this first episode. More tomorrow.
URGENT RESEARCH Decoding COVID-19, 8.35pm, PBS America
WHILE it spends some time on individual patients — one case is particularly poignant — the focus of this new U.S. documentary is the scientific response to the coronavirus. It explores antibody testing, and the process of testing drugs at a high-end lab at Boston University.
NEW TO FREEVIEW Magnum P.I., 9pm, Pick
JAY HERNANDEZ (pictured) sports a goatee rather than a moustache in this Magnum reboot, which makes a splashy start — in space — and also recasts Higgins (Perdita Weeks) as female and ex-MI6. The show rolls along in fun style from there, and exists in the same TV universe as the Hawaii Five-0 reboot.
INTO THE PAST Outlander, 9pm, More4
YOU get a real sense of the danger and isolation on the American frontier this week as Claire (Caitriona Balfe) places herself in harm’s way in a confrontation with the locals. Jamie, meanwhile, runs into both an old friend and a political uprising as he tries to attract tenants to pay the taxes at their 10,000-acre property.
FILM CHILLER The Black String, 9.45pm, Sky Premiere
FORMER Malcolm In The Middle star Frankie Muniz is the man being tormented by sinister forces in this psychological horror, after an encounter with a beautiful woman.
LEGAL EAGLE How To Get Away With Murder, 10pm, Sky Witness
ANNALISE is on unusually vulnerable form as this U.S. drama about an ethically flexible law professor returns for its sixth and final season. As it begins, a haunted and depressed Annalise (an Emmy Award-winning Viola Davis) checks into rehab, and makes a confession.
FREEVIEW MOVIE Professor Marston And The Wonder Women, 11.10pm, Film4
LUKE EVANS stars as William Moulton Marston, the college professor who invented Wonder Woman. It’s a fascinating story, as Marston, his academic wife (Rebecca Hall, pictured with Evans) and a former student (Bella Heathcote) get tied up together in female empowerment.