What to watch
Staged
BBC ONE, 9.45PM
One of the most successful of television’s attempts to produce workable fiction from lockdown, Staged returns with eight more episodes but the same old beefs between old friends and colleagues Michael Sheen and David Tennant – neither of whom, we can report, appears to have been to the barbers over the summer. With the first series bringing glorious cameos from Adrian Lester, Judi Dench and Samuel L Jackson, the pair’s bulging contacts books promise further stellar guest appearances although, in truth, the headline bromance offers entertainment enough, with long-suffering support from their real-life partners Georgia Tennant and Anna Lundberg, plus director Simon Evans and, this series, Ben Schwartz as the assistant to their American agent.
The series begins with disappointment and the sound of burst egos, as travel plans are thwarted by last-minute changes to the rules and they learn, all too publicly, that a muchadmired peer is not a fan of their work. Episode two, in which, much to their
chagrin, their former nemesis Evans finds success without them, airs tomorrow. It could be
smug and insufferable, but the charisma and self-mockery carries it through.