The very best of the week ahead
Today The British Academy Film Awards BBC ONE, 7PM
Awards bashes just aren’t the same in the Covid era, with stars accepting gongs over Zoom. That said, the film Baftas are the UK’s biggest celebration of movies and serve as a barometer for the Oscars. And Bafta is expecting to reap the rewards of its soul-searching over the past year. After even its President, the Duke of Cambridge, commented on the lack of diversity among its nominees last year, Bafta’s overhaul of its voting system has resulted in the most diverse shortlist in its history. Of the 24 acting nominees, 16 are from minority ethnic backgrounds, and women make up four of the six Best Director nominees. The Mauritanian, Nomadland and Promising Young Woman are all up for Best Film. Dermot O’Leary and Edith Bowman host. Vicki Power
Line of Duty BBC ONE, 9PM
The acronym-spewing officers of AC-12 make major progress in their investigation, as Jed Mercurio’s breathless cop thriller continues. Suspect numero uno DCI Joanne Davidson (Kelly Macdonald) has reason to worry as the walls begin to close in and there’s gripping scenes as the team’s attempt to interview a witness is spectacularly upended.
The Real Prince Philip CHANNEL 4, 9PM
This warm autobiographical documentary examines the life of the late Duke of Edinburgh. It draws upon a rare interview with the Duke on his wartime experiences, archive film from around the world and interviews with historians and royal experts. VP
Monday Too Close ITV, 9PM
This dark and stormy y psychological drama begins, appropriately, on a dark ark and stormy night: Connie e Mortensen (Denise Gough) drives her car r off a bridge with two young ung girls – one of them her er own daughter – inside. Some me time later, forensic psychiatrist Emma Robertson (Emily Watson) atson) is assigned to work with “the yummy mummy monster” to assess her state of mind on the night of the offence. A game of cat and mouse ensues, as Connie picks away with unerring accuracy at the cracks in Emma’s life – the suppressed grief, the professional frustration, the unsatisfactory sex – while the latter tries in vain to keep their sessions on track. As is customary these days, flashbacks fill in the gaps and bring the critical relationship between Connie and her neighbour Ness (Thalissa Teixeira) into focus. Adapted by Clara Salaman from her own novel, it is a tumultuous, tense exploration of grie grief and obsession whose main se selling point is the opportunity to watch two fine actors circling each other in head-to-head head-to-heads tightly directed by Sue Tull Tully. Continues tomorrow and concludes Wednesd Wednesday. Gabriel Tate
Greta Thunberg: T A Year to Change Ch the World BBC ONE, 9PM
Something So of a riposte to the personality-focused fo approach of 2020’s 20 I Am Greta, this thi three-part documentary doc follows the wishes of its protagonist when she says at the outset, “I want you to listen to the science”. It’s an examination of the effects of climate change from the Arctic through the Rockies and California, before Thunberg sails across the Atlantic to address the COP climate conference. There are also personal insights into this curious young woman. GT
Tuesday All That Glitters: Britain’s Next Jewellery Star BBC TWO, 8PM; NOT NI
We’ve already had baking, doggrooming, dressmaking, pottery and (on Netflix) glassblowing, so jewellery is the natural choice for a new craftbased challenge series. Presented by comedian Katherine Ryan, it features eight professional and semiprofessional jewellery makers hoping to make a mark as some of the UK’s best new designers. The show’s format is cut from a well-worn template: a first-round challenge to create an original design with popular appeal, and a more intensive second round answering an individual brief for a bespoke one-off piece for a special occasion. Guarding the path to progress are award-winning designers Shaun Leane and Solange Azagury-Partridge, who make a suitably steely judging duo. Gerard O’Donovan
Stacey Dooley: Back on the Psych Ward
BBC TWO, 9PM; NI, 11.30PM
Stacey Dooley returns to Springfield University Hospital in southwest London to find out how lockdown is impacting patients in crisis, meeting young people whose issues with psychosis, depression, alcohol abuse, OCD and unstable personality disorder have all been exacerbated by the withdrawal of social support. GO
Wednesday Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty
BBC TWO, 9PM
Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio needed to look no further than Scotland Yard when creating his hit TV drama. In 1971 the anti-corruption unit A10 was formed in response to newspapers breaking disturbing stories of bent coppers extorting criminals for kickbacks. This three-part docuseries delves into the biggest Met scandals of the past 50 years and the force’s attempts to deal with them. It gets off to a slow start with lengthy scene-setting segments detailing a Sixties Met culture of racism and the framing of easy targets. It progresses to the first big Met corruption case: the 1969 extortion of a petty criminal by a detective that was revealed by The Times. When the Met’s attempts to investigate its own was hindered by corrupt officers, it was clear the rot went deep. The story is propelled by investigative journalists and former officers and features footage that whisks you back to the era. As Line of Duty continues, this series reminds us that it’s very much based in truth. VP
The Great British Sewing Bee BBC ONE, 9PM
A dozen amateurs wind their bobbins up for another round of the sewing competition in a new Thames-side location. Impressive shows of stitching, jokes from host Joe Lycett and a burst of hysterics from judge Patrick Grant in the transformation challenge are a pattern for TV perfection. VP
Thursday Frank of Ireland CHANNEL 4, 10PM
A glorious sense of silliness dominates this splendid new sitcom from Sharon Horgan’s production company Merman and co-written by brothers Domhnall and Brian Gleeson. Brian is the eponymous anti-hero, a failed singer-songwriter still living with his mother (Pom Boyd) and smarting from a split with his girlfriend Aine (Sarah Greene) six years earlier. His wounded ego and massive self-regard are tended to by factotum and fellow loser Doofus (Domhnall, revealing a magnificent facility for slapstick). For all the idiocy, it doubles as a light-touch film pastiche, with each episode loosely referencing a film; later half-hours take on Home Alone and Misery, but the opener is all about Taxi Driver, as Frank learns how to handle himself in order to take on a love rival who is superior in every sense. The full series will be available on All4. GT
Pandemic 2020 BBC TWO, 9PM
James Bluemel’s magisterial series concludes on the last day of 2020, where we find Amie, the doctor from the first episode, laid low with Covid. Elsewhere, an Indian wedding singer, a Louisiana pastor and a London-based Bangladeshi charity worker consider their responses to Covid denial and the clash of faith and science, while a member of an indigenous Amazonian community prepares for the virus. Gripping viewing. GT
Friday Leonardo AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
Poldark star Aidan Turner brings a cartload of hairy-chested period charisma to the lead role in this energetic and sumptuously produced new drama series reimagining the life and legend of the great artist, polymath and all-round Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci. That it’s mostly a wildly romantic fiction hung on a loosely woven framework of facts is flagged up by the slightly worrying opening lines: “Leonardo da Vinci’s greatest masterpiece has never been found… until now,” and an opening scene in which an ageing Leonardo is banged up for murder. But that hardly matters because, once the titles roll, Turner switches on the charm, now playing Leonardo as a remarkably fresh-faced, anxiously obsessive pupil to the Florentine master Verrocchio (Giancarlo Giannini) and taking a misunderstood interest in the voluptuous model Caterina da Cremona (Matilda de Angelis, most recently seen in The Undoing). These are the roots of a conspiracy played out across eight unlikely but highly entertaining episodes. GO
Have I Got News for You BBC ONE, 9PM
Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar brings some Supt Ted Hastings-style rigour to the role of host tonight, as comedian Katherine Ryan and journalist Tim Shipman help Ian Hislop and Paul Merton cast a satirical eye over the past week’s headlines. GO