The very best of the week ahead
Sunday
Marriage BBC One, 9pm
This four-part drama PICK comes with a pedigree.
OF THE Written by Bafta-winning WEEK Stefan Golaszewski, the
creator of the superlative comedy drama Mum starring Lesley Manville, it’s led by the starry pair of Sean Bean and Nicola Walker. They play long-marrieds Ian and Emma, who have a solid relationship that at times descends into squabbling. The tone is recognisable from Mum – it mines drama from lingering on the pedestrian exchanges of everyday life in which so much is left unsaid, but is also suitably full of cringe-worthy, Partridge-esque moments. Golaszewski doles out tantalising details of the couple’s shared history in bite-sized chunks: we learn there’s sadness in their past and that Emma’s difficult father (James Bolam) can be cruel. The plot also follows Ian and Emma’s adopted daughter, Jessica (Chantelle Alle), who’s entangled with a controlling boyfriend, Adam (Jack Holden). It all comes together into a rounded, tragi-comic piece about the relationship of an ordinary couple full of deep and contradictory feelings. One devastating scene on a park bench captures Emma and Ian grieving a loss physically together but with an acute separation. Another unique piece from Golaszewski, with all four episodes on iPlayer from today. Vicki Power
Van Der Valk ITV, 8pm
Back to Amsterdam for another instalment of crime and canals. Tonight’s investigation into the murder of a diamond factory employee leads cops to the dysfunctional family that owns it. It’s a serviceable detective series elevated by great locations and the yin and yang of the unsmiling Van Der Valk (Mark Warren) and his bright partner, Lucienne (Maimie McCoy). VP
Monday
Why Is My Car So
Expensive?: Dispatches ches Channel 4, 8pm
As the UK’s cost-of-living ving crisis really begins to o bear down, Dispatches investigates the soaring ing cost of cars. Even after fuel prices hit a record high, Vehicle Excise Duty was hiked ed in April and insurance ce costs crept up, it is the he rise in the price of the e cars themselves that inflicts cts the
most pain in a market that has seen used car prices up by an average of 30 per cent over the last 12 months alone, with used electric runabouts listed for as much as £60k and old bangers at unheard-of prices.Motoring journalist Ginny Buckley finds out what has caused the surge in prices. Can it be put down entirely to global factors: the war in Ukraine, Covid, semi-conductor shortages and other supply chain problems? Or have unscrupulous, opportunistic types in the British car industry set out to keep prices artificially y inflated? Buckley also looks into knock-on effects effec such as the rapid rise in car-theft, th and she has tips on how to avoid avo getting ripped off if you have no choice but to buy or replace a car c just now. Gerard O’Donovan O’Donov
Red Rose
BBC BB Three, 10pm T This chilling e eight-part horror (box set on iPlayer) taps into fears over the toxic influence of social media. After a jump start in Manchester the
action swiftly moves to Bolton and a gang of teenagers led by Rochelle (Isis Hainsworth) and Wren (Amelia Clarkson). Having just finished their GCSEs, they’re anticipating a summer of fun until Rochelle downloads a sinister new app called Red Rose. GO
Tuesday
The Billion-Pound Savings Scandal
BBC One, 9pm
There aren’t many more contemptible ways to get rich than draining the life-savings of ordinary folk. But that, claims this edition of Panorama, didn’t prevent Blackmore Bonds investment fund. This investigation examines tactics employed by glossily marketed investment schemes who promised investors marvellous returns before, it claims, making off with their pensions. The huge total estimated to have been taken is upwards of £1billion – though Blackmore denies any wrongdoing.
The film follows the plight of those it says were stung by Blackmore in their search for justice, such as John Robbins who says he lost his entire RAF military pension. We also meet finance expert Paul Carlier, who shared office space with a marketing
firm employed by Blackmore and who witnessed the “aggressive” cold-call tactics he says that they used to sell the risky “mini bond” – which the Financial Conduct Authority insists should only be sold to “sophisticated” investors. When Carlier raised this with the FCA, they apparently took no action. It’s an urgent watch about a widespread problem. Jack Taylor
Better Call Saul
Netflix
It’s the end of the line for Bob Odenkirk’s shabby attorney Saul Goodman in this series finale. The quirky crime drama has been a success since spinning-off from Breaking Bad in 2015, but will Goodman meet the same fate as Walter White? JT
Wednesday
Britain’s Secret War Babies Channel 4, 9pm
This documentary follows a similar format to Long Lost Family, with the added twist that it concerns two British GI babies whose fathers were black. Mary and John, both 77, were born to white British mothers out of relationships with black American soldiers stationed in Britain during the Second World War. Both tell of racial abuse and isolation as the only children of colour in their communities; Mary was sent to live with her grandparents. With their attempts to find out more about their fathers coming to nought, Good Morning Britain reporter Sean Fletcher takes up their case. He interviews Mary and John with tact as they show how deeply this gap in their lives has affected them. Fletcher digs up shameful wartime documents outlining the British government’s fears about black men fraternising with white British women. Eventually, Mary and John gain closure. There’s plenty of high emotion in a film that sheds light on the estimated 2,000 mixed-race British children who were born to black American GIs. VP
Yellowstone Paramount+
The fourth season of this neo-Western saga picks up from the series three cliffhanger, an attack on the Dutton clan that left patriarch John (Costner) and other ranch-dwellers for dead. This remains a gripping show about a family power struggle, like Succession only with more horses and guns. VP
Thursday
A Farm Through Time
Channel 5, 9pm
Where would Britain be without its farms? We join farming brothers Rob and Dave Nicholson, guided by the eccentric historian Ruth Goodman, as they discover what farming was like at crucial points in British history, starting with the Second World War. The brothers visit a living history museum at Tatton Park, where they learn that Britain imported most of its food via merchant ships – which the Nazis had a habit of blowing up. Farms such as the one at Tatton Park turned into agricultural powerhouses with the capacity to feed the nation, driven by the switch from horse to tractor power. Rob and Dave are introduced to the plucky Fordson tractor, a true hero of wartime Britain, which increased productivity. The pair work up an appetite competing to plough the straightest furrow before sawing timber with the Women’s Land Army, but are confronted with the harsh reality of rations when dinner arrives – an anaemic Woolton pie. The boys banter away while Goodman keeps them in check, a pleasant formula. JT
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
Disney+
Tatiana Maslany suits up to play the dual roles of attorney Jennifer Walters and gamma green giant She-Hulk in this new series. Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner is also on board to help Jennifer get a sense of her newfound abilities. The tone is fun and knowing – think Ally McBeal via Fleabag. JT
Friday
Bad Sisters Apple TV+ Created by Sharon Horgan, who also stars, Bad Sisters is a dark comedy that plays more like a taut, stylish, feminist thriller. Based on the Belgian series TV
Clan, it opens in Dublin as the Garvey sisters, led by the heavy-drinking Eva (Horgan), get ready for the funeral of John Paul (Claes Bang), the husband of their sibling Grace (Anne-Marie Duff). What quickly becomes obvious is that John Paul’s death was no accident, as Grace’s sisters (Eva Birthistle, Eve Hewson and Sarah Greene) well know. The humour is pitch black – one scene involves an aroused corpse – but it never feels contrived. There is a deep elegance to the well-observed script. In the present, the Garveys sweat from the detective work of life insurance agent Thomas (Brian Gleeson, son of Brendan) and his brother Matthew (Daryl McCormack). But it is when the show flashes back to John Paul’s controlling treatment of Grace that the drama comes alive, with the shark-like Bang a delicious villain. The series premieres with two episodes and airs weekly thereafter. Stephen Kelly
Kleo Netflix
Here’s a fizzy German-language thriller that may scratch the Killing Eve itch. Set after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it follows newly freed spy Kleo (Jella Haase) as she cuts her way through everyone who betrayed her. SK