It’s true... Detective Ali is the greatest

▼ TRUE DETECTIVE (SKY ATLANTIC)

After the sublime first series relaunched Matthew Mcconaughey’s career, the makers of True Detective tried to repeat the trick in the second season with another unlikely choice.

Vince Vaughn, a man with a history of propping up umpteen mediocre comedies by playing the same infinitely infuriating sidekick again and again, was given the role of a hard-nosed mob boss. Sadly, it proved to be a remarkable bit of miscasting. Think John Wayne as Ghengis Khan bad.

Who on earth would they pick as the world-weary detective for the third series? Shane Ritchie? Alan Carr? The programme makers instead shipped in Oscarwinning actor Mahershala Ali for the latest season of the anthology crime show.

On this evidence Mahershala is probably the best actor around at the moment.

As Detective Wayne Hays, he manages to look simultaneously terrifying and terrified while on the hunt for a missing child in rural Arkansas. The deliberately confusing plot – which jumps between 1980, 1990 and 2015 – sees Hays grappling to solve a lingering case.

Worryingly, given his character’s dementia in the final time frame, perhaps he already has.

▼ SAS: who DARES WINS (CHANNEL 4)

The special forces lads are bullying women as well as men this year.

But having girls in the club doesn’t appear to have lightened their mood. Gimlet-eyed instructor Ant Middleton recently declared himself looking forward to the chaos of a No-deal Brexit as it would force us to suffer, which he says would be good for us. We’re already suffering at preening Ant’s meat-headed wisdom, thanks.