The very best of the week ahead Today
Time BBC ONE 9.00PM
Sean Bean has given some of his best performances for Jimmy McGovern. Broken saw him plumb the depths of trauma and grief as a beloved but flawed community priest, while his episode of the anthology series Accused cast him as a transvestite teacher, opposite Stephen Graham as his tormented lover. Time brings the three of them back together again for another interrogation of resilience and justice. Bean is Mark Cobden, a decent man paying the price for a terrible mistake as he starts a four-year stretch; Graham is Eric McNally, the fair-minded prison guard compromised when an inmate learns some personal information. Cobden is given a rapid introduction to life inside: fellow prisoners facing complications ranging from addiction to suicidal thoughts; a disturbing array of institutional failings; the everpresent threat of violence. Bean is wonderful: a tightly wound mess of isolation, fear and confusion, way out of his depth. Graham is as good as we have come to expect, with Sue Johnston and Siobhan Finneran lending classy support in an hour of television – the first of three – as gripping as it is anxiety-inducing. Gabriel Tate
British Academy Television Awards BBC ONE, 7PM
Following a year when the nation has depended on television like never before, Richard Ayoade introduces a socially distanced celebration of how it rose to the occasion. With Small Axe (15 nominations), The Crown (10), I May Destroy You (eight) and Normal People (seven) leading ding the charge, it has been a vintage year – so strong, in fact, that the superb perb Quiz mustered just one nomination nation (for Michael Sheen). GT T
Monday day
Football’s Gambling Addiction
CHANNEL 4, 7.30PM PM
Former Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson proves an impressive journalist in this shocking report on rising rates of problem gambling. “We can’t
afford for the Government to be asleep at the wheel,” she says. Davidson makes her case with real conviction, beginning with a look at how gambling has infected football over the last few years – with clubs earning tens of millions of pounds from advertising and betting partnerships. So much so, that some clubs now reportedly earn upwards of 80 per cent of their commercial revenue via gambling. And her examples of young lives lost and careers ruined through gambling are upsetting enough, but her stories of how the industry’s insatiable quest for profit has led them t to target younger and younger consumers will be enough to send a chill down any parent’s spine. Gerard O’Donovan
Fred and Rose West: The Search for the Victims
CHANNEL 5, 9PM
This sinister two-par two-part documentary delves in into the criminal history of the Gloucester couple who, between th them, raped and murdered at least 12 w women – including their own daught daughter. Contributors include detec detectives,
journalists and lawyers for the Wests, and the film also follows recent renewed efforts to locate the remains of suspected victim Mary Bastholm, still missing 53 years after she was last seen. Continues tomorrow. GO
Tuesday Intelligence SKY ONE, 10PM
Along with the recent Friends reunion, this British sitcom reminds us of David Schwimmer’s comic skills, which have not been much in evidence since that US sitcom finished in 2004. Schwimmer has spent much of his post- Friends career directing TV and taking on supporting roles in leisurely fashion, so it’s a treat to have him back for a second run of this unlikely vehicle written by comedian and actor Nick Mohammed. The workplace comedy set at GCHQ follows Schwimmer’s Jerry Bernstein, a brash and egotistical US agent operating alongside a collection of eccentrics. In episode one the agents have half an hour to thwart a cyber strike on the Hinkley Nuclear Power Station that could destroy the West Country. Vicki Power
Hospital
BBC TWO, 9PM
This sobering docuseries follows the medics struggling to cope with a swamped post-Covid NHS. Tonight, doctors at University Hospital Coventry’s A&E explain that they’ve seen a 30 per cent rise in people with mental health problems, as they dedicate extra time to suicidal patients. VP
Wednesday Coventry Cathedral: Building for a New Britain
BBC FOUR, 9PM
Just like his Drama Out of a Crisis film on Play for Today, writer/director John Wyver here shows a more creative way forward for BBC Four as an archive channel. Linking the plentiful old footage with narrators past and present, Wyver documents the raising of Coventry Cathedral from the bombed-out ruins of the war to the realisation of Basil Spence’s vision of tradition and modernity, in harmony. It was not without controversy, with vocal opposition from councillors and major financial and logistical challenges en route to its 1962 consecration. The details, though, are fascinating, in particular regarding the artistry and ingenuity behind Graham Sutherland’s tapestry, Christ in Glory. At 7pm, Curtain Up on Coventry, observes the celebrations marking the launch of Coventry as UK City of Culture 2021. GT
In the Footsteps of Killers
CHANNEL 4, 10PM
This peculiar new series follows actress Emilia Fox as she attempts to crack three cold cases, just like Nikki Alexander, her character in Silent Witness. Prof David Wilson answers her queries and assists in interviewing witnesses and concerned parties, with everything framed like a procedural police drama. The opening case looks at the disappearance of two Birmingham boys – the first missing people shown on milk cartons – and their relatives at least seem relieved someone is taking an interest. GT
Thursday Statue Wars: One Summer in Bristol
BBC TWO, 9PM
Nowhere in Britain have the ongoing culture wars over the nation’s statuary been so publicly played out as on the streets of Bristol, which owes much of its rich Georgian heritage to money made from the city’s once pivotal and vastly profitable role in the transatlantic slave trade. This engrossing one-off documentary follows Bristol’s mayor, Marvin Rees, the UK’s first directly elected black mayor, as he negotiates the turbulent days and weeks following the toppling by protesters of a controversial statue of 18th-century slave trader and Bristol grandee Edward Colston, which made headlines globally last year. “There is something horrific about having a slave trader’s statue in the middle of your city, yet there are people who feel they’re losing a piece of themselves with the statue being hauled down,” say Rees, summing up a situation that split opinion – even among those who had long argued for the removal of the statue. GO
Liverpool Narcos SKY DOCUMENTARIES, 9PM
Episode two of this eye-opening documentary takes us to the early Nineties when Liverpool was experiencing a clubbing boom. With dozens of dance venues attracting people from all over the UK and Europe, synthetic drugs such as ecstasy provided a lucrative new trade for Merseyside drug dealers. But, away from the blissed-out clubbers, a gang war was breaking out for control of the market. GO
Friday Clarkson’s Farm
AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
For more than a decade Jeremy Clarkson let a farmer till the land on his 1,000-acre Cotswold farm. But when he retired, the Grand Tour presenter decided for reasons unknown – perhaps the carrot from this new TV series – to have a go himself, despite knowing less about farming than he does about, say, climate change. Filming on the eight-part series, which is all available to watch today, first started back in September 2019, when Clarkson wisely takes on mild
mannered consultant Charlie Ireland to tell him what he’ll need for growing crops and what needs doing by when. Of course, much like a typical petrolhead, he buys an enormous and unsuitable Lamborghini tractor, but after that folly what slowly emerges is a humbler Clarkson than we’re accustomed to on his bombastic motoring shows. Mercifully few scenes seem staged for comic effect and he is out of his depth in a way that feels authentic. Clarkson soon hires amiable young farmer Kaleb Cooper for hands-on instruction, and Cooper’s disdain for Clarkson’s efforts are priceless. Although torrential rains ruin much of Clarkson’s debut crops, he hits a genuine learning curve that could yield solid entertainment. VP
Crouchy’s Year Late Euros: Live BBC ONE, 10.55PM; WALES, 11.25PM
After last year’s debacle, Save Our Summer, Peter Crouch debuts the football-themed show he originally signed up for. He dives into irreverent skits, guest-star chat and visits to Britain’s national teams with sidekicks Maya Jama and Alex Horne. If all goes well, it could be 2021’s answer to Skinner and Baddiel. VP