The very best of the week ahead
Today
Agatha Christie’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? ITV1, 9pm
A couple of episodes of House aside, this richly enjoyable adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1934
mystery (originally shown on BritBox last year) is Hugh Laurie’s first piece of screenwriting and direction for almost two decades; on this evidence, it’s a shame that he left it so long. This intelligent, witty and agreeably tense three-parter (airing nightly until Tuesday) pairs Will Poulter’s naval officer Bobby Jones with childhood playmate-turnedlaconic aristocrat Lady Frances Derwent (Lucy Boynton) to investigate the mysterious death of a man whom Jones finds at the foot of a cliff on the Welsh coast, alive for just long enough to utter the titular line before he expires. including A Alistair wonderful Petrie ensemble as the diligent – local vicar and Jones’s father, Conleth Hill as his perceptive mentor, and Jim Broadbent and Emma Thompson as Lady Frances’s imperious parents – drift in and out of a narrative that both embraces and gently lampoons the Christie modus operandi. The amateur gumshoes attempt to answer the question and solve the mystery while avoiding the attentions of a shadowy figure in a bowler hat. Gabriel Tate
Easter Day BBC One, from 10am
The Very Rev Nicola Sullivan leads an Easter celebration from Southwell Minster, before the Pope offers his traditional message and blessing from the Vatican at 11am with Urbi et Orbi. At 11.30am, Sally Phillips talks to the Rt Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin about her faith and how she marks Easter. Later on at 1.15pm, Katherine Jenkins introduces Songs of Praise from Chester Cathedral, before the Tenebrae choir brings the day’s religious observance to a close at 8pm on BBC Four, with a concert from St John’s Smith Square in London that unites Bach and Sir James MacMillan. GT
Monday MasterChef BBC One, 8pm
“There is absolutely nothing stopping me from demolishing that plate and asking for another one,” gushes Gregg Wallace, his head practically cracking with excitement. Based on
tonight’s opening episode, the 19th series of MasterChef is sizzling with amateur talent. Tonight’s theme requires the contestants to prepare a family favourite dish. They are a diverse, likeable bunch. Jo, from Huddersfield, has the genius idea of crossing a Yorkshire pudding with naan bread for her hot curry. While Vanessa, from Croydon, plays to Wallace’s sweet tooth with a heavily spiced pineapple pudding. The six contestants who do not pass the audition must salvage their chances with the dreaded invention test, which tasks them with whipping up a meal from random ingredients. Delicious telly. Stephen Kelly
Succession Sky Atlantic, 2am & 9pm
It’s a big one this week. With the Roy children on the verge of sabotaging their terrifying father’s deal to sell Waystar Royco, the stage is set for one of the acerbic satire’s finest hours. The result is so unmissable that
we recommend staying up for Sky Atlantic’s 2am premiere. SK
Tuesday Colin from Accounts BBC Two, 10pm; not NI
If you’re looking for challenging comedy tonight, then you’re better off with the ongoing Rain Dogs. But you could do worse than spend the waiting time watching this new Aussie number, where dogs are the key component. Or rather, one particular dog, an adorably scruffy border terrier whose unfortunate encounter with the Sydney morning traffic helps precipitate the opening “meet cute” moment between principals Gordon (Patrick Brammall) and Ashley (Harriet Dyer). Complete strangers until moments before, a massive vets’ bill forces this unlikely pair – he’s a unicycle-owning brewer, she’s a tequila-quaffing medical student – into a mutually suspicious financial relationship. Co-written by Brammall and Dyer, the characters feel rounded from the inside out, making the waspish dialogue all the more credible – and, happily, the romance never cuts the laughs. Gerard O’Donovan
Springtime on the Farm
Channel 5, 8pm
Helen Skelton, Adam Henson and Jules Hudson are back for a sixth series celebrating British farming. There’s a stop-off at Princess Anne’s and plenty of famous faces helping out on the farm, plus a mission to thank suppliers who kept the nation’s food coming during the pandemic. GO
Wednesday Stacey Dooley: Ready for War? BBC Three, 9pm & iPlayer
More than a year on from Russia’s devastating invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is showing no sign of withdrawing his troops – meaning ordinary Ukrainians will continue to be turned into soldiers to defend their homeland. In this one-off documentary, Stacey Dooley brings more of the same familiar accessibility that has made her one of Britain’s most popular interviewers as she follows a group of Ukrainian men who have enlisted in their country’s armed forces, and now find themselves on British soil to receive five weeks of gruelling training from the British Army. She meets Pasha, a welder who returned home to Ukraine from Belgium when the war broke out; and Artem, a former jeweller who gets visibly emotional when talking about how much he misses his partner and six-year-old son. It’s a moving, personal insight to the lives of those changed forever by one man’s relentless cruelty. Poppie Platt
Matt Baker’s Travels in the Country: USA
More4, 9pm
Countryfile’s Matt Baker swaps Britain’s wonders for those of the US in this new series. Kicking things off in Florida, he explores the Everglades, the expansive swampland that is home to marsh and all manner of creepy crawlies – plus, of course, alligators – with the help of the region’s Miccosukee tribe. PP
Thursday Paul O’Grady: For the Love of Dogs ITV1, 8.30pm; UTV, 10.45pm; not STV
Chatshow host, dauntless campaigner for LGBT rights… Paul O’Grady, who died last month, enjoyed an extraordinary life and career, but one of his most endearing guises was in this long-running series, which begins its final run tonight. With O’Grady’s death so unexpected, there is of course no elegy, and in every other sense it is gentle, engaging business as usual at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, for whom he was a tireless ambassador. Tonight, he meets a Newfoundland whose prodigious size necessitates a complex operation on both hind legs, a tiny bichon found in a forest who flinches at the slightest sound or touch, and a joyous Staffy-lab cross whose propensity to get overexcited causes her kennel to flood several times a day. O’Grady’s effortless bond with both staff and residents has been apparent throughout all 11 series, and his empathy and hands-on approach makes for lovely, poignant television. GT
Peter O’Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
Sky Arts, 10pm
Jim Sheridan’s episodic documentary attracts an impressive cast, including
Anthony Hopkins, Brian Cox and Kenneth Branagh, to reminisce about one of the archetypal hellraisers. A magnificent actor on his day, Peter O’Toole was a man whose demons dated back to a traumatic childhood, and whose rapacious appetite for drink, drugs and women damaged both him and those around him. GT
Friday The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
Amazon Prime Video
The fifth and final series of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel gets it out of the way early. Does Midge Maisel, the 1950s housewife turned snappy comedian, played by Rachel Brosnahan, finally make it to the big time? The second episode (the season premieres with three episodes) opens with an aged-up Brosnahan, 20 years in the future, reflecting on Midge’s “worldwide fame and
notoriety”. The question is: how does she get there? For four series, the award-laden comedy, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino (best known for writing Gilmore Girls), has followed Midge through the ups and downs of the stand-up circuit. But for its last hurrah, Midge tries something different. Disillusioned with her ambition to book a life-changing slot on late-night talk show The Gordon Ford Show, she instead gets a job as the only woman in its writer’s room. It’s a smart way to keep the show fresh, and Midge’s chemistry with Ford himself (played by Veep’s Reid Scott) is joyous. Ultimately, Mrs Maisel exits the stage much as she entered it: fast, fizzing with life and with lines that zip back-and-forth like a shoot-out in a Wild West saloon. SK
Have I Got News For You
BBC One, 9pm
As the news becomes more dystopian, it’s only fitting that Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker opens a new series of the satirical quiz. He’s joined by actor Miles Jupp, alongside team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton. Although surely it is only a matter of time before they’re both replaced by AI. SK