BOX SETS AND ON DEMAND
Evil by Design: Exposing Peter Nygard (StarzPlay, from Fri)
For decades, FinnishCanadian executive Peter Nygard was well known within the fashion industry for founding Nygard International, a Winnipeg-based company which made women’s clothing.
He seemed to live a charmed life, but it all came crashing down in February 2020 when the firm’s headquarters was raided as part of a sex trafficking investigation led by the FBI.
A month later the company filed for bankruptcy, but it was the story of Nygard himself that created the most headlines.
He allegedly spent more than 40 years preying on women in the US, Canada and the Bahamas, with a list of suspected survivors running into the thousands. In a disturbing but fascinating three-part documentary which explores how the authorities built a case against him.
Five Days at Memorial (Apple TV+, from Fri)
In 2013, Pulitzer Prize-winning US journalist Sheri Fink published Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, which details what went on at a New Orleans hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The tome has originally set to be adapted for the small screen as part of the American Crime Story series, but instead has been turned into an eight-part drama by Apple TV+.
The script, written by Carlton Cruse, who’s perhaps best known for his work on Lost, and Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley, focuses on how exhausted medics reacted after the floodwaters rose, the power failed and the heat soared, forcing the staff to make decisions that would end up haunting them.
A League of Their Own (Amazon, from Fri)
Before fans of Romesh Ranganathan, Jamie Redknapp and Micah Richards get excited, the longrunning sports-based TV quiz isn’t returning for a new series via the streaming giant. Instead, this programme is a period comedy drama inspired by the 1992 film of the same name.
Unfortunately, the likes of Geena Davis, Madonna and Tom Hanks are not reprising their roles (although Rosie O’Donnell is set to make a guest appearance), but the plot does focus on the fortunes of a female baseball team following the formation of a women’s league in 1943.
Each character faces a variety of problems and issues, including injuries, sexual awakenings and tricky road trips throughout the war years. Nick Offerman, Abbi Jacobson and Chante Adams are among the cast.
13: The Musical (Netflix, from Fri)
In the autumn of 2008, Jason Robert Brown, Dan Elish and Robert Horn’s musical 13 opened on Broadway and ran for 105 performances, eventually closing in January 2009.
Now the tale has been adapted for the screen by Horn, while Tamra Davis, whose previous work includes episodes of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, directs.
Eli Golden heads the cast as 12-year-old Evan Goldman, whose life is turned on its head when his mother decides they should swap their small-town Indiana home for New York following the collapse of her marriage to his father.
Evan is devastated, but soon hits on a way to make new friends - by making his forthcoming bar mitzvah into the coolest party around.