TV & Radio
Highlights and listings
A Very English Scandal
Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw, who last collaborated on Paddington 2, star in this fascinating series about the scandal surrounding former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe, who stood trial in 1979 for the attempted murder of a young stable hand Norman Scott, with whom he had an affair in the 1960s when homosexuality was illegal.
Written by Russell T Davies, based on the book by John Preston, and directed by Stephen Frears, Grant plays the ambitious and popular politician who had wanted to become prime minister since his days at Eton, while Whishaw plays Scott, a part time model who was infamously described by the judge at the trial as “a crook, a fraud and a sponger.” Tomorrow, BBC1, 9pm
The Handmaid’s Tale
The brilliant performance of Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne, aka Offred, in the dystopian horror based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel helped make this timely exploration of gender oppression and fundamentalism the hit of 2017.
Now it’s back for a new 13-episode run and with the source material exhausted, the writers can strike out on their own. The series opens with the Handmaids who refused to stone to death Janine (Madeline Brewer) at the end of last season lined up and muzzled at Boston baseball stadium Fenway Park, which has been converted into a place of execution.
A parallel plot will follow the fortunes of Alexis Bledel’s character Ofglen, who has been exiled to the dreaded colonies after killing a guard.
Bradley Whitford, star of Get Out and The West Wing joins the cast as Commander Joseph Lawrence, the architect of Gilead’s economy. Tomorrow, Channel 4, 9pm
Big Skies, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made In The USA
The golden age of American art – when American art became indisputably American and indisputably great – was the result of various circumstances.
In three films, Waldemar Januszczak will investigate where and how American art found itself at last. His ambitious artistic road trip culminates in the achievements of Abstract Expressionism and the work of Jackson Pollock, but also features scores of artists who have been overlooked and undervalued. The first episode begins in the Wild West and the striking art of the Hudson River School, whose 19th century evocations of the vastness of America did so much to fuel the myth of The Promised Land. Wednesday, BBC4, 9pm
Mo Salah: A Football Fairy Tale
Mo Salah’s extraordinary exploits have been one of the stories of this season’s Premier League. Sold by Chelsea in 2015 after an unsuccessful stint at the club, the Egyptian was signed from Roma by Liverpool last summer. Since joining the Reds, he hasn’t been able to stop scoring and has won every gong going at the end-of-season awards. His story and hero status on Merseyside and beyond is the subject of this Channel 4 film.
A&E Live
In this live documentary event to celebrate 70 years of the NHS, Davina Mccall will be embedded with the staff of Leeds General Infirmary across the week to see events unfold through the eyes of the doctors, nurses and paramedics on the frontline.
The series, shown on three consecutive nights, will tell the story of emergency medicine across the city, from the 999 call to the ambulance right through to treatment in A&E, from easily fixed minor ailments to life-threatening major trauma. ■ Tuesday to Thursday, STV, 9pm