FASCINATING WATCH

TOP The Hunt for Bible TV PREVIEWS PICK John – Monday, BBC One, 9pm

The notorious serial killer known as Bible John murdered at least three women in late 1960s Glasgow. To this day his identity remains a mystery. It’s a horrifying case, but this two-part series doesn’t wallow in the grisly details. It’s a sensitive and responsible piece of work that places the murders in vivid sociohistorical context. It unfolds in a dismal postwar era blighted by extreme poverty and violence, where working-class kids lived for the freedom of dancing at the weekend. Dancehalls such as the Barrowlands were where Bible John found his victims. The series also provides fascinating insight into the methods of 1960s crime reporters and the

terminology they used.

The Princes and the Press – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

Princes William and Harry have, to say the least, weathered a difficult relationship with the media. Whatever your opinion of the royal family, I think most

reasonable people agree – on an instinctively empathetic level – that they’ve been treated unfairly at times. It’s all relative, but you know what I mean. In this two-part series, the BBC’s media editor Amol Rajan apparently highlights some of the illegal activities used by certain portions of the press during their ongoing race to present exclusives. I haven’t seen the programme, it wasn’t available at the time of writing, and I have very mixed feelings about this particular subject. But I’m flagging it up because it sounds quite interesting.

Along for the Ride with David O’Doherty – Monday, Channel 4, 10pm

The whimsical Irish comedian David O’Doherty

is a keen cyclist. This new – if you will – vehicle follows him as he enjoys a series of scenic bicycle rides with various celebrity chums. His first guest is comedian

Richard Ayoade, a naturally funny man with, as it turns out, a pair of surprisingly sturdy thighs. He and O’Doherty cycle through an area of rural Sussex while shooting the gentle breeze. Occasionally they park their bikes to visit tearooms or toast marshmallows around the fire. You get the pretty picture. It’s blatantly

indebted to the likes of Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and Mortimer & Whitehouse Gone Fishing, but that’s fine. It’s a genial

time-passer.

The Outlaws – Monday, BBC One, 10.35pm

In the penultimate episode of this enjoyable comedydrama, troubled influencer Lady Gabby (Eleanor Tomlinson) takes lawyer Greg (writer/director Stephen Merchant) to meet her formidable aristocratic father, played by guest star Richard E Grant on reliably ice-veined form. Meanwhile, we learn a bit more about endearingly desperate and

officious community service supervisor Diana (Jessica Gunning, an excellent yet

underrated comic actor). It’s a pleasure spending time with these characters, all of whom are lost and looking for acceptance. Merchant clearly likes them, he’s not in the business of belittling people. Watch all six episodes on iPlayer. And it’ll be back next year for another series.

MYSTERY: The notorious serial killer known as Bible John murdered at least three women in Glasgow in the late 1960s but was never identified.