The very best of the week ahead
Sunday Our Changing Planet BBC One, 7pm
A two-part documentary marks the launch of an ambitious seven-year BBC project, in which half a dozen wellknown presenters monitor six of the planet’s most endangered ecosystems and meet local people attempting to reset the balance. Among them we find Steve Backshall having a rather lovely time swimming with giant manta rays in the crystal-clear waters that surround the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. It looks like paradise, but of course there’s trouble there, too, as the coral reefs that surround and protect the islands, and provide home to an extraordinary wealth of marine life, are among the ecosystems most under threat from global warming. Also on the subject of warming, Chris Packham heads to the not-so-frozen north to give viewers a sense of the shocking rate at which Iceland’s glaciers are currently melting. Gerard O’Donovan
Grace ITV, 8pm
Following on from last year’s short series, John Simm returns in four more two-hour adaptations of Peter James’s bestselling crime novels featuring Brighton-based detective Roy Grace. This opener gets things off to another grisly start as Grace comes to believe that two not-obviously connected deaths are the work of the same sadistic serial killer. GO
Monday Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist
Channel 4, 10pm
When Los Angeles police investigated a series of burglaries at celebrities’ homes in 2008 and 2009 they thought they were seeking professional criminals. Instead d they found those responsible were a group of middle-class suburban burban teenagers. The group oup of high-schoolers targeted rgeted celebrities including ing Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom and Paris Hilton, whose house they entered several times as the pickings were so rich (“It was like they went shopping in my closet”). They planned their heists sts by using information ion on paparazzi websites sites and the stars’ social media accounts, but they were hardly criminal masterminds – Hilton, for instance, frequently left her door unlocked. The story was made into a satirical film by Sofia Coppola in 2013, but this fascinating three-part documentary looks anew at the crimes using police reports, court records and (sometimes contradictory) first-hand accounts from gang members, their parents and friends, as well as reconstructions. Veronica Lee
Imagine: Imagine Miriam Margolyes Margoly – Up for Grabs BBC One One, 10.40pm; NI, 11.45pm; 11.45pm Scot/Wales, 11.40pm 11.40p
Alan Yentob profiles “on one of Britain’s most provocative pro act actresses”, whose au autobiography is a rol rollicking read. Her res responses to Ye Yentob’s questions ce certainly live up to Graham Gra Norton’s cann canny contribution that Margolyes M “loves shocking shoc people”. VL Tuesday
BBC Noughts One, + 10.40pm; Crosses NI, 11.10pm This dramatic adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s seminal piece of Young Adult fiction returns for a second series. It differs from the popular books in that it has not yet doomed its central star-crossed couple, Sephy and Callum (Masali Baduza and Jack Rowan). As the new run opens, they are on the lam in an apartheid Albion in which relationships between the ruling black class and the white underclass are proscribed. Compounding the problem for Sephy’s father, prime minister Kamal Hadley (Paterson Joseph), is that she is pregnant, too, and it all comes at a time when he’s facing civil and internal unrest over his government’s cruel treatment of whites. Alas, the main problem from season one remains – the audience just isn’t that invested in the two young lovers. The older characters, such as Joseph’s rigid patriarch and Helen Baxendale’s resilient Meggie, are more compelling. Still, Blackman’s race-reversal narrative is a conceit that gives us much to ponder as it deals with historical issues of race relations – it feels particularly topical as well. This opener is also on BBC Three tomorrow at 9pm and the boxset is available on iPlayer. Vicki Power
Life After Life BBC Two, 9pm
Teenage Ursula Todd (Thomasin McKenzie) gets help from a psychiatrist for her disturbing dreams about death as this evocative adaptation of Kate Atkinson’s novel continues. But Ursula’s world is upended by a shocking encounter and the entrance of Aunt Izzy (Jessica Brown Findlay), a glamourous flapper living large in London. The boxset is on iPlayer but this is one to be savoured. VP
Wednesday Searching for Michael Jackson’s Zoo with Ross Kemp
ITV, 9pm
Fresh from terrifying daytime TV quizzers in Bridge of Lies and still diving for wrecks over on Sky, Ross Kemp is startlingly busy at the moment. His latest documentary is a bleak and distressing dissection of yet another dark aspect of the tarnished legacy of Michael Jackson. Could the erstwhile King of Pop have been, to all intents and purposes, another Tiger King? Deploying his Jeremy Clarkson-esque delivery at a number of unsuspecting Americans, Kemp goes in search of the truth behind rumours of animal abuse at Jackson’s Neverland ranch, attempting to track down the surviving animals and those who trained them. He uncovers a cavalier attitude towards the procurement, treatment and disposal of the elephants, chimps and giraffes that were among Jackson’s menagerie, and discovers yet more evidence of revolting exploitation among owners of exotic animals. Gabriel Tate
Tan France: Beauty and the Bleach BBC Two, 9pm
Always an articulate critic of colourism, Queer Eye’s Tan France here explores the issue of skin-lightening in black, Asian and Middle Eastern communities, having always regretted his own childhood experimentation. In a frank and occasionally upsetting film, he takes on social-media figures and advertising. GT
Thursday Ten Percent Amazon Prime Video
The bar is set very high for this British remake of the French comedy-drama Call My Agent!, which amusingly depicted the cutthroat world of actors’ agents. Given it’s still available to watch on Netflix, it’s difficult to grasp exactly why Prime Video ordered this British remake: it’s very similar to the original while lacking its Gallic je ne sais quoi. People Like Us and W1A creator John Morton has transplanted the whole thing to London but kept the plots, so it opens with an agent dodging his client – Kelly Macdonald as herself – rather than tell her she’s been dropped from a major Hollywood role due to her age. Lydia Leonard plays the steely central agent, Rebecca Fox, and Jack Davenport the old-school agent, Jonathan Nightingale, with the marvellous Jim Broadbent as his father and the agency’s founder. The performances are accomplished, but the characters’ British reserve makes them less fiery than their French counterparts. VP
Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer and Me
ITV, 9pm
Julia Bradbury’s emotional video diary follows her mastectomy for breast cancer last year. Her fear and sadness are palpable as she confronts her mortality and surveys her reconstructed breast in the mirror. Bradbury’s parents, sister Gina and her children also feature in what is an intimate portrait that will help many on the same difficult journey. VP
Friday Here We Go BBC One, 8.30pm
Tom Basden’s gentle comedy series started life as a pilot (then called Pandemonium) which aired in 2020 and followed the Jessop family’s futile attempt to have a holiday during the pandemic. The excellent Katherine Parkinson stars as Rachel, keeping the family together financially as husband Paul (Jim Howick) is unemployed, still living off past glories as a member of Team GB’s archery squad. Alison Steadman, who adds value to anything she’s in, is Paul’s mother, Sue, who has her foot permanently in her mouth, while Basden plays Rachel’s sappy brother Robin and Freya Parks is teenage daughter Amy. Son Sam (Jude Collie), meanwhile, videos everything on his camcorder. The first episode neatly sets up who’s who and we follow the Jessops as they make a mad dash to use a theme-park gift voucher that’s about to expire. VL
Richard Hammond’s Crazy Contraptions
Channel 4, 8pm
Yet another vehicle for Richard Hammond as he hosts a Robot Warsstyle competition in which teams of engineers compete to perform chores – such as making a bed – with machines. Zach Umperovitch is the judge, while engineer Dr Shini Somara explains the science. VL