iPLAYER, ALL 4
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Celebrities discover their colourful families
With no new run of the show on the horizon yet, the BBC is dusting down the most recent six series for our perusal. Among the highlights are Julie Walters learning more about her Irish great-grandfather and Brian Blessed discovering his ancestor, Jabez Blessed, was a real-life Oliver Twist. Others uncovering family facts include Billy Connolly, Ian McKellen, Daniel Radcliffe and Olivia Colman. However, the best of the lot has to be EastEnder Danny Dyer, whose hilarious reaction to finding he has a royal lineage is one of the high points of the show’s 15-year stint on our screens. BBC iPlayer, available now
FIRST NIGHT OF THE PROMS Virtual batons at the ready: it’s curtain up!
Two nights ago, the world’s greatest classical musical event kicked off its 125th season with a performance that came courtesy of the BBC Grand Virtual Orchestra, made up of 300 musicians from the Beeb’s orchestras and choirs. For the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, they performed a unique reworking of all nine of the German maestro’s symphonies, individually recorded from the musicians’ homes. And thanks to BBC iPlayer you can enjoy the whole thing again from a virtual front-row seat. The only thing missing from the Proms experience is the rush to the bar at the interval… BBC iPlayer, available now
W1A Savage parody of the Beeb
Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville, right), the former head of London Olympic Deliverance (as seen in the comedy series Twenty Twelve), joins the BBC as Head of Values. On his first day he has to take part in a Senior Team Damage Limitation meeting with the Director of Strategic Governance, once he gets a digital handshake session with the Senior Technical Services Choreographer out of the way. The internal workings of the
BBC are lampooned over the course of three short series in this mockumentary about the wellmeaning but largely inept and jargon-bound Corporation. BBC iPlayer, available now
GEORGE CLARKE’S AMAZING SPACES Dream projects
Charismatic architect Clarke (right) explores the extraordinary world of small builds in the popular series in which people turn tiny spaces into the most incredible places to live, work and play. If you haven’t seen it before, it is essentially Grand Designs without the schadenfreude. People undertake ambitious projects, then complete them without defaulting on their mortgage payments or getting divorced. One memorable episode shows a man and his dad building a Hobbit house for £479 from old logs, featuring a tree at its heart and a blackboard that turns into a bed. All episodes of series nine are now available to watch. All4, available now
STAGED Tennant and Sheen are luvvies in lockdown
David Tennant and Michael Sheen star in a supremely witty series in which they play versions of themselves, stuck in lockdown and attempting to rehearse for a postponed West End show. However, the competitive actors, who co-starred in Good Omens, actually spend much of the time bickering. The series, which is in six 15-minute episodes, also stars Tennant’s wife Georgia and Sheen’s girlfriend Anna Lundberg. Look out for brilliant cameos from Judi Dench and Samuel L. Jackson. BBC iPlayer, box set available now
THE LONG SONG Timely drama set in colonial Jamaica
A reshowing of the 2018 adaptation of Andrea Levy’s acclaimed novel. Told over three parts with a script by Sarah Williams, it’s set in 18th Century colonial Jamaica during the final years of slavery and focuses on the stories of plantation worker July (Tamara Lawrance) and her vile owner Caroline Mortimer (Hayley Atwell). The impressive supporting cast includes Lenny Henry, Leo Bill and Sharon Duncan-Brewster. BBC iPlayer, available now