The very best of the week ahead
Today All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
BBC Two, 10pm; not NI
This exceptionally powerful, Oscarnominated documentary traces the name-andshame campaign that set out to hold the Sackler family accountable for their role in the US opioid crisis – through the manufacturing and marketing of the highly addictive drug OxyContin by their company Purdue Pharma. Over the course of two hours, director Laura Poitras interweaves the ups and down of the campaign’s first four years with the story of the artist who led it – Nan Goldin, whose work was showcased by many of the major cultural institutions that accepted lavish donations from the Sacklers. It was largely through Goldin’s activism that institutions such as the Guggenheim in New York and the Tate and National Portrait Gallery in London were forced, in essence, to acknowledge a link between the Sacklers’ money and the deaths of over half a million opioid addicts in America. Poitras’s portrayal of Goldin’s own story is just as affecting. In particular, how her family background and the death by suicide of her older sister Barbara, at the age of 18, propelled Goldin into lifetime of rebellion, edgy art photography and political activism. Gerard O’Donovan
Gods of Tennis BBC Two, 9pm
This entertaining boxsetted threeparter, made up of archive footage and new interviews, transports us back to the 1970s to recall how a generation of charismatic mavericks – Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe, Bjorn Borg, Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe – revolutionised tennis. Plus, how Wimbledon provided the perfect stage for, as one contributor puts it, “brutal gladiatorial combat that’s disguised as a vicar’s tea party”. GO
Monday Vicky McClure: My Grandad’s War
ITV1, 9pm
Have tissues at the ready for this documentary to mark Tuesday’s 79th anniversary of D-Day, as Line of Duty’s
Vicky McClure learns about her 97-year-old grandfather’s role in the most crucial day of the Second World War. Like so many of his generation, Ralph McClure rarely spoke of his part in the day “hell let loose” in Normandy, until the actress persuaded him to take part in this film. As the McClures visit Sword Beach and other sites, Ralph recalls how, as a football-obsessed teenager in Nottingham – 80 miles from the sea – he joined the Navy as a signaller. He recounts the day Winston Churchill visited the troops on the beach, and how he was
involved in the building of Mulberry Harbour after D-Day. The ending, at the British Normandy Memorial in France, is deeply moving.
Veronica Lee Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland
BBC Two, 9pm James Bluemel’s excellent documentary series charting the Troubles continues as IRA prisoners start their hunger strikes and tit-for-tat killings become commonplace. Tonight’s episode concentrates on three women – one married to an RUC officer, one to an IRA gunman, and one who was the daughter of a hunger striker – each with devastating stories to tell. “In the flick of a switch,” says one, “your life changed forever.” VL
Tuesday Steeltown Murders: Hunting a Serial Killer BBC One, 9pm
This sort of documentary has become a standard accompaniment to truecrime dramas these days; a factual spelling out of what the previous days or weeks have been dramatising. Airing the day after the conclusion of Steeltown Murders, this is a fairly dogged, step-by-step account of the two investigations, embellished by compelling archive and a few clips from the drama. It does allow us to appreciate anew the performances of Philip Glenister and Steffan Rhodri as Paul Bethell and Phil Rees; the real, retired coppers feature here, their determination as apparent as the demons still haunting them after decades searching for the killer of three teenage girls in Port Talbot in the 1970s. While the documentary is careful to avoid explicit criticism of the police, the shortcomings of the investigation are plain enough to see. Gabriel Tate
The British Soap Awards 2023 ITV1, 8pm
With usual host Phillip Schofield stepping down following his dramatic exit from This Morning, Jane McDonald will now spearhead events. The show must go on and, as ever, EastEnders, Hollyoaks, Doctors,
Coronation Street and Emmerdale are up for the big prize. GT
Wednesday Britain’s Forgotten Pensioners: Dispatches
Channel 4, 10pm
A desperately depressing report on the impact the cost of living crisis is having on UK pensioners, too many of whom face the impossible dilemma of having to choose between heating their homes or eating. Looking at the problem through three individual – and equally moving – cases, the film is packed with stark statistics about the scale of the crisis, and should be a clarion call to any pensioner struggling with the ever-increasing cost of living to check that they are receiving all the benefits to which they are entitled. One of those featured in this programme discovers, with the help of a local charity, that he’s actually entitled to over £100 a week more than he was getting; a sum sure to improve his quality of life (he’s been living without a fridge because it cost too much to run) significantly. GO
Kisses at Fifty BBC Four, 10pm
This 1973 Play for Today by Colin Welland and directed by Michael Apted has extraordinary immediacy and timelessness. A snapshot of working-class life in Yorkshire in the early 1970s, it is a strikingly humane response to the rocketing rise in the UK’s divorce rate at the time. Bill Maynard (Carry On; Heartbeat) leads a superb cast as factory worker Harry, whose birthday drink at his local has far-reaching consequences. GO
Thursday Michael Tippett: The Shadow and the Light BBC Two, 9pm
British composer Michael Tippett was one of the leading visionaries of 20th-century classical music. In this lovingly produced documentary, film-maker John Bridcut (best known for his BBC profiles of Britten and Elgar) paints a portrait of an underappreciated genius: a composer whose music was as life-affirming as it was innovative, and whose personal life was defined by tragedy. Bridcut begins at the beginning: Tippett’s childhood, his university days, his influences. Yet his career only truly began in his 30s. It was here, during the darkest days of the Second World War, that the ardent pacifist (once jailed as a conscientious objector) wrote A Child of Our Time, a sweeping oratorio inspired by Kristallnacht. Sections of it are performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Harish Shankar, who relishes the challenge of Tippett’s more complex work. Even more challenging was Tippett’s personal life, in which he struggled with both his homosexuality and his romantic partners; two of whom killed themselves. As one contributor puts it, “loving Michael meant loving someone adulterous to the music.” Stephen Kelly
Davina McCall’s Pill Revolution
Channel 4, 9pm
“Hello and welcome to contraception roulette!” says Davina McCall, standing in front of a big wheel of possible contraception pill side-effects. It is a playful opening for what is a serious and engaging documentary: an exploration of why the science underpinning contraception has not moved forward, or omitted side effects, in more than 60 years. SK
Friday The Crowded Room Apple TV+
Apple TV+ are quietly establishing themselves as the first destination for great original drama: Slow Horses,
Bad Sisters, Silo to name a few. This psychological thriller, written by Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) and loosely based on the true story of Billy Milligan, is no exception. Spider-Man’s
Tom Holland stars in and executive-produces the 10-part series about a man arrested for murder in 1970s New York. The opening episodes focus first on the event, then the interrogation. Holland’s performance of a man on the brink is anchored by a starry cast, including Amanda Seyfried’s (excellent) investigator. As she quizzes Sullivan, things start to slot together – unveiling a portrait of a man, and the justice system, more damaged than we thought. Poppie Platt
Have I Got News For You BBC One, 9pm
Harry Hill guest hosts with comedian Jack Dee, VICE UK editor Zing Tsjeng and team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop on the panel. The front pages – most likely covering Rishi Sunak’s uphill battles or the crisis over at ITV – promise thought-provoking fare. PP