The very best of the week ahead
Sunday Grace ITV1, 8pm
For fans still coming to terms with the end of Endeavour, the third series of Grace has arrived just in time to fill the Brit detective void; the first two series of this Brighton-set drama were in fact written by the Inspector Morse prequel’s primary writer, Russell Lewis. Based on Peter James’s bestselling novels, Grace has all the usual cosy crime elements: a world-weary detective; a younger sidekick; and plenty of knotty cases to be solved. The first of three standalone films, titled Dead Like You, sees John Simm’s pleasingly understated DSI Roy Grace investigate an attack at a local hotel on the same night as ACC Alison Vosper’s (Rakie Ayola) leaving do. As Grace dives deeper into the case, he’s forced to question all hotel guests – including high-ranking members of his own police force. Can he overlook his own biases, and dive into his past, to identify the offender and crack the case? Poppie Platt
Rise and Fall Channel 4, 9pm
Channel 4 bosses are surely hoping for a repeat of the BBC’s runaway success The Traitors with this new game-cumreality show. Hosted by Greg James, it sees 16 Brits split into two teams – Rulers, living the high life in a penthouse, and Grafters, stuck down in the dingy basement – competing to scoop the £100,000 prize. Think the Stanford Prison Experiment crossed with The Crystal Maze. Continues throughout the week. PP
Monday The Gold: The Inside Story
BBC One, 9pm
Well worth watching whether or not you followed Neil Forsyth’s excellent drama of the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery, this film introduces us to the real DCS Brian Boyce (played in The Gold by Hugh Bonneville), along with several former colleagues, journalists and lawyers who retell the story without embellishment. Directed by Todd Austin, whose Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line was a similarly deft blend of gloriously grainy archive, snappy soundtrack (Human League, Simple Minds) and gruff types talking in dilapidated warehouses, it begins with the theft of £26m of gold bullion (worth almost four times that today), the ensuing media storm and rapid flushing
out of a handful of miscreants, before the long hunt for the bigger fish begins. It is an extraordinary yarn populated by dogged good guys and truly reprehensible wrong ’uns, chief among them the monstrous Kenneth Noye and impossibly smug John Palmer, proclaiming his innocence to Kate Adie in Tenerife. Gabriel Tate
24 Hours In Police Custody: The Honeytrap Murder
Channel 4, 9pm
Concluding tomorrow, this fine if distressing two-parter addresses the fatal stabbing of a man in Luton. Following the case through to trial, Martha Bailey’s film is a tribute to good judgment, perceptiveness and persistence. GT
Tuesday Anton & Giovanni’s Adventures in Sicily
BBC One, 9pm Strictly colleagues Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice are the genial hosts of this three-part travelogue
pootling around the latter’s homeland. The local tourist board will be delighted, as it all – the scenery, the food – looks gorgeous. The pair share the good-willed banter and play up to their assigned roles – Du Beke as the immaculately suited Englishman abroad, Pernice as the super-proud Italian bigging up everything about his home – but, fortunately, the two friends bounce off each other well. They begin their road trip in the port town of Sciacca, where Pernice would often go with his family as a child, then to the Valley of the Temples near Agrigento, one of Sicily’s greatest cultural treasures. From there they head to Syracuse – once one of the largest colonies in ancient Greece – and end this episode in Catania, where Pernice moved as a teenager to pursue his dance career. Veronica Lee
DNA Journey ITV1, 9pm
Line of Duty co-stars Neil Morrissey and Adrian Dunbar (who met at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama) delve into their family histories on both sides of the Irish Sea. Morrissey, who was taken into care at the age of 10, discovers new relatives, while Dunbar’s DNA test throws up a surprise. VL
Wednesday Race Across the World BBC One, 9pm
Having previously done London to Singapore and Mexico to Argentina, the series confines itself to just one country for its third outing. Even so, Canada is the second largest country
in the world, and the five pairs have to trek from its Pacific to Atlantic coasts (via the Arctic Circle) without phones or credit cards, and just £5,000 cash and a paper map to guide them on their 16,000 km transcontinental journey. While the lack of significant language barriers might make things seem easier this time round, the wildness and remoteness of much of the route offers equally tough challenges. As ever, casting is key. This year’s line-up – two father/daughter teams, two lifelong friends (one visually challenged), a married couple and two brothers who barely know each other – prove to be an instantly intriguing bunch. The race gets underway in Vancouver, whence the teams must choose from a variety of overland and seaborne routes to reach the first checkpoint 800 miles north. It proves an eventful opening leg for all, with British Columbia’s unrelentingly eye-popping land and seascapes providing a spectacular backdrop throughout the episode. Gerard O’Donovan
The Cockfields BBC Two, 10pm
Punching well above its budget in terms of cast and script, Joe Wilkinson’s quietly entertaining sitcom at last gets a mainstream showing, having originally aired on Gold. He plays Simon, who takes his new girlfriend Donna (Diane Morgan) to meet his oddball family (Sue Johnston, Gregor Fisher, Nigel Havers, among others) on the Isle of Wight. All episodes are on iPlayer. GO
Thursday Inside Taiwan: Standing Up to China
BBC Two, 9pm
Jane Corbin presents this sobering overview of one of several potential flashpoints between China and the US; if Taiwan continues to resist China’s efforts to reunify it with the mainland, warns CCP spokesperson Victor Gao, it “may lead directly to Armageddon”. Corbin skilfully details how matters have come to a head, from Chiang Kai-shek’s flight from Mao’s forces in 1949 through to the present day, with Taiwan not only a tacit beachhead for Western democracy but also a technological hub where 90 per cent of the world’s advanced semiconductors are made. The repercussions of an invasion would be far-reaching, to say the least. And yet, China has left itself with few alternatives. Taiwan’s people have tired of the cyberwarfare, influx of fake news and failures of the proposed “one country, two systems” model as seen in Hong Kong. Essential viewing, especially while the world’s attention is focused on Russia. GT
The Apprentice BBC One, 9pm
This 17th series has been something of a return to form, with the finalists as always being rejoined by former comrades and adversaries to launch their business. Marnie, who hopes to open a boxing gym, and hair-salon owner Rochelle are the finalists hoping to secure Lord Sugar’s coveted £250,000 cash injection. At 10pm, this year’s winner meets Tom Allen on The Apprentice: You’re Hired. GT
Friday The Cleaner
BBC One, 9.30pm
The second series of Greg PICK Davies’s The Cleaner is just OF THE as delightfully dark and WEEK playful as the first. Based
on German comedy Der Tatortreiniger, it stars Davies as Paul “Wicky” Wickstead, a droll crime-scene cleaner who specialises in getting blood out of carpets. In this opening episode, he is called to the aftermath of a grisly pub brawl, where one man stabbed another, leaving behind a right ol’ gory mess. If it wasn’t for his promise to his new girlfriend to lay off the booze, it would be his ideal office. Still, there’s a jukebox, and a severed ear to use as a microphone. For a man so physically imposing (weaponised to great effect in shows such as Taskmaster and The Inbetweeners), there is a gentleness to the 6ft 8in Davies that makes him a perpetually endearing performer. His scenes here with landlady Lisa (Harriet Walter), a cynic who has lost her young lover in the fight, are as softly touching as they are hilarious – a highlight being Wicky’s tongue tying itself in knots while he tries to guess Lisa’s age. There is also the comically terrifying Cuddles (Charlie Rawes), a brawny barman who talks with the deep, menacing voice of a Rottweiler. Yet, like Wicky, he’s actually a big softie at heart. Stephen Kelly
Yellowjackets Paramount+
Part survival epic, part psychological horror, Yellowjackets’ first series flicked back-and-forth between a group of American teens, stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash, and the ill-adjusted adults they become. Series two shines welcome attention on the ostensibly supernatural Lottie, now a cult leader played by Simone Kessell. Elijah Wood joins the cast.