The very best of the week ahead
Today McDonald & Dodds ITV, 8.00PM
The pizzicato strings and xylophone that introduce this feature-length whodunit – the first of two – suggest that it’s not to be taken entirely seriously; a suspicion confirmed when Robert Lindsay arrives in full ham as industrialist Max Crockett. On discovering a corpse in his palatial Bath pile, Crockett’s response is to make it look like a break-in.
As it becomes clear that he intends to leave his fortune to just one of his three daughters, all sorts of secrets and resentments spill out. Enter DCI McDonald ( Cold Feet’s
Tala Gouveia) and DS Dodds (Bafta winner Jason Watkins), the former a brisk, ambitious copper with no great intellectual hinterland, the latter a V-neck-jumpered, bespectacled ornithologist used to being patronised and underestimated. As you might expect, they clash instantly, only for their different but complementary strengths to lead to a cracked case and burgeoning partnership. Tonally rather closer to Midsomer Murders than Endeavour in ITV’s roster of two-hour policiers, McDonald & Dodds is still an enjoyable diversion thanks to a game cast (Lindsay has a ball as a misogynist monster) and a starring role for the picturesque host city. Gabriel Tate
Top Gear BBC TWO, 8.00PM
Before making the leap to BBC One next year, Paddy McGuinness, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris test the relative speeds of fire engines, police cars and ambulances. Plus, , comedian Tom Allen guests s and there’s a tribute to rally car champion pion Colin McRae. GT
Monday y Liar ITV, 9.00PM
The nail-biting first rst series – following teacher her Laura’s (Joanne Froggatt) appalling ng trials at the hand of serial-rapist Andrew Earlham m (Ioan Gruffudd)
– was one of 2017’s 7’s most talked about ut TV dramas. Two and a half years later, we’re finally back in the eerily brain-like mud formations of Essex’s Tollesbury Wick marshes – one of the series’ most memorable images – with Earlham’s body sprawled out dead in the shallows. How he got there was the cliffhanger we were left with last time, and it provides the starting point for this six-part sequel which flashes back and forth in time (with both Froggatt and Gruffudd still prominent) while newcomer DI Karen Renton (Katherine Kelly) swaggers onto the scene to stir things up among Earlham’s many victims vic and smoke out his killer. Gerard Gera O’Donovan
Age of the Image Im BBC FOUR, 9.00PM
Over the la last century or so our rela relationship with what we s see has been fundame fundamentally altered by paintings paintings, photographs, films and digital media. In this new n series, James Fox anal analyses why we now live our lives surroun surrounded by screens and pho phones; and how art and science came togethe together – from surrealists to selfie selfies, microscopes to the spectacular images captured by space probes – to transform how we see the world. GO
Tuesday Britain Underwater: Fighting the Floods ITV, 9.00PM
The recent double whammy of Storm Ciara followed by Storm Dennis has wreaked havoc across the UK, but few places were hit as badly as Yorkshire’s Calder Valley. The area’s Conservative MP, Craig Whittaker, has been particularly critical of the government’s slow response, arguing that the area had to wait for too long for emergency funding. This documentary heads behind the headlines to look at why the area was so badly hit. Featuring interviews with local residents and footage of evacuations from the region alongside analysis of what should have been done and what needs to be in place for the future, the film also follows Environmental Agency staff as they attempt to get to grips with the crisis, amid rising tempers and increasingly fraught meetings with devastated villagers. Sarah Hughes
The Trip to Greece SKY ONE/NOW TV, 10.00PM AND 10.30PM
They might have been making them for almost a decade (“nearly as long as the Odyssey”) but Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan’s travelogues still feel remarkably fresh, though this, they say, is their final outing. They’re in Greece, although starting in Turkey in order to retrace Odysseus’s journey, which began in Troy. You know what to expect: impressions, gentle mockery and a surprisingly sweet friendship beneath the mucking around. SH
Wednesday The Trouble with Maggie Cole ITV, 9.00PM
The opening episode of this six-part comedy-drama is one of two halves. The first is a mildly diverting roll call of the residents of a Cornish coastal town, among them Julie Hesmondhalgh’s deputy head, Kerry Howard’s struggling hairdresser and Patrick Robinson’s novelist. And presiding over them all is Maggie Cole (Dawn French), married to the local headmaster (Mark Heap), curator at the town’s historic keep and sponge for all gossip. When she’s invited onto local radio to talk about the town’s medieval past, the reporter plies her with alcohol and stumbles upon a much bigger story. Unable to remember the extent of her boozy rumour-mongering, Maggie organises a party for the broadcast and whiteknuckle horror ensues as each of her friends and acquaintances is publicly subjected to a cavalcade of tittle-tattle and hearsay about their lives. It’s a long set-up and the performances tend to the broad, but the pay-off is worth it. A cast of this quality and with this much chemistry could have some fun over the next five weeks. GT
Tigers: Hunting the Traffickers BBC TWO, 9.00PM
Alarming reportage from adventurer and former Royal Marine Aldo Kane, who highlights the plight of tigers in southeast Asia, where fewer than 4,000 are left in the wild and 8,000 are held in captivity to provide illegal ingredients for quack remedies. A bleak picture is brightened by the diligence of anti-poaching units. GT
Thursday Noughts + Crosses BBC ONE, 9.00PM PICK OF THE WEEK
It is wonderful to see such a fully realised adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s brilliant young adult novel exploring prejudice in many forms, but racism in particular. Through the deceptively simple device of turning the world on its head, we find ourselves in a fictional landscape where a black African empire has governed the western world – and world history – for centuries and racism is flipped. The white Noughts are the second-class citizens, and the black Crosses are the dominant and self-perceived superior race. Against a background of increasing racial tension, Blackman sets a timeless and moving story of love across the barricades, between Callum (Jack Rowan), a young man whose loyalties are torn between defending his own kind and his desire to affect change by joining the army, and Sephy (Masali Baduza), his childhood friend and daughter to Kamal Hadley (Paterson Joseph), one of the Nought government’s most powerful and seemingly ruthless ministers. The opening episode (of six) sets the scene, perfectly exploring its themes with wit, charm and incisiveness, while never being afraid to tackle brutal truths head on. GO
Female Filmmakers: BBC Introducing Arts BBC FOUR, 11.00PM
Some wonderful shorts from new women directors, including Sophie Gresswell’s punchy Where Are You From?, Margo Roe’s powerful Searching for Cowardice, Amber Akaunu’s wistful Afro Hair Rituals,
and Leann Judge’s Justin, What Have You Done to Us? GO
Friday Wild Cuba: a Caribbean Journey BBC TWO, 8.30PM
Irish film-maker Colin Stafford-Johnson was responsible for one of the most beautiful documentaries in recent times, 2017’s Wild Ireland, so it’s no surprise that his new film is a similarly evocative mix of close-up photography and lyrical script. Stafford-Johnson has long been fascinated by Cuba, his interest piqued as a child by his grandfather’s book of stamps. There’s a real sense of wonder in his encounters with various birds and beasts, from the tiny bee hummingbird to the Cuban rock iguana. Stafford-Johnson doesn’t hold back on the mixed joy that mankind has brought or on the issues surrounding colonisation: “It’s amazing how some small group of people landing on some foreign shore can claim it for some far-off king or queen… the arrogance of man.” It’s statements such as these which set Wild Cuba apart, demonstrating that Stafford-Johnson is as much at home with history as he is with wildlife. The result is a lovely and unusual film. SH
Greg James’ Sports Relief Heroes BBC ONE, 10.35PM; N IRELAND, 11.05PM
Greg James prepares the way for next week’s charity extravaganza with a film looking back over some of the most memorable challenges, from Eddie Izzard’s quest to run 27 marathons in 27 days to Zoe Ball’s emotional cycle ride. SH