The very best of the week ahead
Today Grace ITV, 8PM
It’s impossible to watch the beginning of Grace without thinking of myriad detective shows. Troubled cop with difficult past and a dogged refusal to let a case drop? Check. Played by reliable British character actor (in this case John Simm)? Check. With an irascible boss and a loyal sidekick? Check and check. That said there is a reason why Peter James’s novels have sold all over the world and one of the main ones is that, for all the clichés, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace (Simm) is a well-written and believable character. Haunted by the wife who walked out on him, he finds solace in the occult, or rather in one particular oddball medium, and it is this willingness to accept that events might not always be straightforward that risks making him a laughing stock. The opening story which revolves around what appears to be a stag-night prank gone very wrong is a bit baroque, with crosses, double crosses and high financial stakes thrown into an already crowded mix. But Simm makes for a likeable lead and the atmospheric Brighton setting is well used. Sarah Hughes
Bloodlands
BBC ONE, 9PM
One of the things I’ve most enjoyed about this noir thriller is the way in which it has confounded expectations, presenting viewers with a world in which terrible actions have been suppressed in the name of justice. That notion is driven home in a tense final episode which sees detective Tom Brannick (James Nesbitt) under increased scrutiny as the truth about the assassin nicknamed “Goliath” bubbles up to the surface. SH
Monday
Dark Secrets of a Trillion Dollar Island: land: Garenne: Storyville lle BBC FOUR, 10PM
Camilla Hall’s film exposes the unsavoury blend of cock-up and conspiracy surrounding the abusive regime underpinning Jersey’s Haut de la Garenne children’s home. With much of the island establishment closing ranks to protect Jersey’s reputation and lifeblood as offshore tax haven, it was left to a few mavericks to ask questions which could not be ignored. Amid media interest, mistakes were made in the police investigation (items reported as human bone turned out to be coconut shells) and the island’s unelected nabobs appeared at best aloof and at worst in denial about the situation. How else to explain Jersey bailiff Sir Philip Bailhache’s public pronouncement that, “All child abuse, wherever it happen happens, is scandalous, but it is the remorse remorseless and unjustified denigration denigrat of Jersey and her people that tha is the real scandal”? But amid the disgrac disgrace of establishment linchp linchpins and the humi humiliation of some of the p police, the real suffe suffering at the heart of th the story is never forgot forgotten. Gabriel Tate
Great Canal Ca Journeys MORE4, 9PM
This Th two-part excursion ex around Staffordshire St begins with Gyles Brandreth and Sheila Hancock negotiating the waterways with engaging incompetence. While they check in on potteries, flint mills and the home of author Arnold Bennett, their charm and rapport is a winning combination. GT
Tuesday 2020: The Story of Us ITV, 9PM
Oscar-winning film-maker Kevin Macdonald uses the experiences of seven individuals – four health professionals and three Covid patients – as a lens through which to view the pandemic’s brutal course in 2020, from its onset through to the brink of the second wave. At the heart of the story are two men – children’s author Michael Rosen who spent 47 days in intensive care and Prof Hugh Montgomery, one of the A&E consultants who, learning on the job how to deal with the new disease, was responsible for saving his life. Their bond, and the sadness they come to share, forms a strong emotional spine to the film. But it is the thoughts of everyone else (patients Matthew Richards and David Leahy, medic Shondipon Laha, and nurses Emma Jones and Rowena Brown), often confided to cameraphones in latenight car parks and bedrooms, that combine to make this an affecting portrait of the year gone by. Covid-19
Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan
BBC FOUR, 10PM
As a portrait of pure punk spirit, Julien Temple’s traipse through the murky Celtic imagination of the former Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan takes some beating. GO
Wednesday
Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death
CHANNEL 4, 9PM
Made with the full cooperation of Caroline Flack’s family, Charlie Russell’s desperately sad documentary about the late Love Island and X Factor presenter is as layered and complex as its subject. The pressures of tabloid scrutiny and social media abuse are in part deemed responsible for Flack’s decision to take her own life in February 2020 aged 40 – both were intensified to an unimaginable degree by a prosecution for assault of her ex-boyfriend that even he did not support. But her intimates interviewed attest to a personality ill-equipped to handle the level of fame her ambition and talent brought her. Her twin, Jody, recalls her difficult but lovable sister, her succession of unsuitable boyfriends, wild fluctuations in mood and struggles to manage heartbreak, as well as a fascination with suicide. She became, in Dermot O’Leary’s words, “addicted to affirmation” that proved increasingly hard to come by. The moments where Jody and mother Christine look through old photos are almost unbearable, but this is a deft and sensitive blend of celebration, eulogy and lament. Here’s hoping it generates more change. GT
Bill Bailey: Limboland
BBC ONE, 9PM
This 2015 set from the Hammersmith Apollo captures the newest Strictly champion at his peak as a storyteller, musician and gagsmith, with cherishable stories including an excruciating encounter with Paul McCartney, a sleigh ride-turned-“hell ride” and a treatise on tongues. GT
Thursday Billy Monger’s Big Red Nose Day Challenge
BBC ONE, 9PM
The BBC’s charity appeal brings out the best in most people and the truly extraordinary in a few. One of the latter is the 21-year-old racing driver Billy Monger, who this film follows as he undertakes a personal challenge. Monger, better known to some by his nickname Billy Whizz, was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award in 2018 for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity, after making a successful return to motor racing within a year of losing both his legs in a horrific crash at Donington Park in 2017. Here he shows similar determination to push himself to the limit by taking on the challenge of walking, kayaking and cycling from the Millennium Bridge in Newcastle to Brands Hatch in Kent. GO
The Martin Lewis Money Show: Live ITV, 8.30PM
Depending on who you ask, Bitcoin is either the most exciting investment ever or the dodgiest financial delusion since the South Sea Bubble. So why have so many people bought into it? Martin Lewis lays out the facts and whether it’s a safe investment or a wildly optimistic bet at best. GO
Friday
Comic Relief 2021
BBC ONE, FROM 7PM
Lenny Henry is joined by Davina McCall, Paddy McGuinness, Alesha Dixon and David Tennant for sketches, live performances and updates on the charity’s fundraising. Among the highlights are Keira Knightley, Anna Friel and Michael Sheen’s disaster movie sketch, a turn from Dawn French as the Vicar of Dibley alongside vicar Kate Bottley, and a mash-up between the stars of Normal People and Fleabag. There are performances from Gabrielle, The Proclaimers and the cast of Back to the Future: the Musical. On BBC Two at 10pm, Later: with Jools Holland sees the presenter talk to Lenny Henry, and in The Great Comic Relief Prizeathon at 10.45pm, Jason Manford and Amanda Holden give viewers the chance to win big. SH
The Flight Attendant
SKY ONE, 9PM
This hugely fun adaptation of Chris Bohjalian’s 2018 novel looks at the fallout after flight attendant Cassie (an excellent Kaley Cuoco) wakes up after a bender with a dashing first class passenger (Michiel Huisman) only to find he’s come to a bloody end. SH