The very best of the week ahead
Today Janet Baker: In Her Own Words BBC FOUR, 9.00PM
Janet Baker epitomised “quitting while you’re ahead”. The revered opera singer retired from the stage in 1982 at the height of her career. Many felt that the mezzo-soprano left too soon, but her decision exemplifies what this moving documentary by John Bridcut makes clear: Baker had a deep self-knowledge and an attunement to her craft that marked her out as one of the greatest singers Britain has seen. A poised Baker takes centre stage once more here, as she roams over her past, taking us from a childhood blighted by life-defining tragedy to the rich variety of roles that made her name, and into the quieter pleasures of later life. Along with excerpts of her work, her friends and colleagues, including soprano Joyce DiDonato, explain Baker’s supremacy. Toby Dantzic
Line of Duty BBC ONE, 9.00PM
Every bit as compelling and confounding as we’ve come to expect, the fifth series of Jed Mercurio’s crime drama continues with aplomb. In the third instalment, there’s more pressure on Lisa (Rochenda Sandall) to exploit her links with corrupt police officers. Corbett (Stephen Graham), meanwhile, hatches his most daring plan yet. TD
Monday Game of Thrones SKY ATLANTIC, 2.00AM AND 9.00PM
Winter is here, along with one of the most eagerly awaited final seasons in TV history. From its humble beginnings, Game of Thrones has come to dominate the pop culture landscape pe and spawn a whole new generation on of screen stars, from Kit Harington gton and Emilia Clarke to Richard hard Madden and Sophie Turner.
Over the next 13 episodes, odes, expect family reunions, ns, dragons, death, and a social-media meltdown wn when it all comes to an end. Night owls will want to watch the premiere screening early on Monday morning (2am). The rest of us will doubtless choose to catch the prime-time repeat at 9pm. Straight afterwards, Sue Perkins and Jamie East will be dissecting the action in Thronecast with celebrity fans of the show. Savour it while it lasts – we may not see anything like of Game of Thrones again. Gabriel Tate
Ghosts BBC ONE, 9.30PM; NI, 11.35PM; NOT SCOTLAND
The latest comedy from the Horrible Histories team blends fantasy, silliness and knowing humour in the manner of their last collaboration, Yonderland. This time, Charlotte Charlott Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe are bequeathed b a country estate haunted h by its
former inhabitants. inhabi GT
Tuesday Tuesd Trust Me BBC ONE, 9.0 9.00PM
It’s nearly n two years since sinc the first series aired, air with Doctor Who star sta Jodie Whittaker as a whistle-blowing nurse nu who then stole the th identity of a doctor. Presumably that’s because doctor-turned-scriptwriter Dan Sefton was busy crafting another series of his (even more popular) The Good Karma Hospital for ITV. But whereas that drama focuses on lighter medical matters, this one takes us into more sinister territory. The focus is on paraplegic Afghanistan veteran Jamie (Alfred Enoch), who’s flat on his back in a spinal injury unit; his inability to move takes on a darker aspect when a fellow patient, Danny (Elliot Cooper), warns him that someone is killing off people on the ward. This opening episode is a slow burn, but Sefton does a great job of building interest through an intriguing group of characters, from the kind junior doctor with a drug habit (Katie Clarkson-Hill) to the senior consultant (John Hannah), who’s having an affair with the ward physiotherapist (Ashley Jensen). Each one gives off enough hints to invite suspicion. Gerard O’Donovan
The Great British School Swap CHANNEL 4, 9.00PM
This is a three-part experiment in which children from an almost entirely white school in Tamworth join others from a mainly British-Asian one in Birmingham in an effort to promote integration. To begin with, the depth of cultural ignorance on both sides is surprising; but, being young, mutual understanding quickly breaks out. GO
Wednesday Chimerica CHANNEL 4, 9.00PM
When it was first staged at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2013, Lucy Kirkwood’s play Chimerica gave us a fascinating look at the relationship between China and America. This new four-part adaptation builds on the original, and creates something that’s both similar and intriguingly different. The action updated to 2016, the year of Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign, and the drama follows jaded US photojournalist Lee Berger (Alessandro Nivola), who made his name with the photograph of the Tank Man of Tiananmen Square in 1989. When Berger is accused of spreading fake news, he sets out to restore his credibility by tracking down the subject of his famous picture. But when Berger hears rumours about the fate of the man in his picture, his life becomes slowly intertwined with his old friend Zhang Lin’s (Terry Chen) in China once again. Kirkwood’s clever script lands solid punches about changing attitudes towards news, while a supporting cast of Sophie Okonedo, Cherry Jones, F Murray Abraham and Naomi Yang make this a drama not to be missed. Sarah Hughes
Earth from Space BBC ONE, 9.00PM; SCOTLAND, 11.05PM
It might seem impossible to give a fresh twist to nature programmes, but this new four-part series manages it, thanks to its much-vaunted images from space which genuinely do provide us with a new perspective. The first episode moves from Antarctic ice to African rivers. SH
Thursday Climate Change: The Facts BBC ONE, 9.00PM
In spite of a move to streaming service Netflix to present Our Planet, David Attenborough hasn’t forsaken the broadcaster where he made his name. He presents and narrates this sobering hour-long documentary, the first half of which is devoted to a careful, evidential explanation of climate change and the damage that it’s doing to our planet, debunking familiar lazy objections by demonstrating that climate and weather are very different things. Examples of its impact on flora and fauna enhance the point, before the second half looks to the future and the potentially calamitous results of ongoing global warming, deforestation and our reliance on fossil fuels. There is a call to action to lobby industries and politicians to promote renewable energies and encourage reforestation, and it’s suggested that we can make changes ourselves, whether insulating our houses or buying responsibly and locally. The actions of children, too, prompt optimism, but the theme is urgency: the world is getting warmer more quickly. We owe it to ourselves, and those who will inherit our planet, to act now. Gabriel Tate
Martin Clunes: My Travels and other Animals
ITV, 8.30PM
This is 12 episodes of the purest filler, but against glorious backdrops and featuring extraordinary animals (as well as Martin Clunes). The Doc Martin star introduces highlights of his ITV jollies around the globe, beginning in this episode with his encounters with wolves, dingoes and horses. GT
Good Friday Woody Guthrie: Three Chords and the Truth
BBC FOUR, 9.00PM
For a man cited as an influence by so many musicians, Woody Guthrie’s music is little-known in Britain bar recordings by other musicians. This new profile serves as an excellent primer to Guthrie’s life and work, acknowledging that his reputation as the “godfather of protest songwriters” was earned more through his ability to inspire other musicians than by any great success in his own career. Guthrie was largely ignored outside Left-wing circles in Los Angeles and New York. And he emerges here as something of an enigma, radicalised by the discrimination against hobos and dispossessed Dust Bowl farmers in Thirties California, and the Second World War. A host of musicians and other admirers – Billy Bragg among them – tell Guthrie’s story through some wonderful moments, from a home recording of angry songs he wrote in the Forties about his landlord – one Fred Trump, father of Donald, to the moving tribute paid to Guthrie at President Obama’s inauguration. GO
British Made with John Prescott CHANNEL 5, 8.00PM
John Prescott, 80, lets loose his inner Gregg Wallace in this new series, crossing Britain to visit factories that make the UK’s most-loved food and drink. The first stop is the home of Lea & Perrins in the West Midlands. GO