What’s on TV tonight: Big Mood, Grey’s Anatomy and more

Your complete guide to the week’s television, films and sport, across terrestrial and digital platforms

Nicola Coughlan in Big Mood
Nicola Coughlan in Big Mood Credit: Chris Baker/Channel 4

Thursday 28 March

Big Mood
Channel 4, 10pm & 10.35pm
With so much stand-up comedy riffing on mental health in recent years, it’s no surprise to find it now filtering down into scripted TV comedy. What is a surprise, though, is finding it filtering down into as original and subversively funny a comedy as this one. Written by Camilla Whitehill, it stars Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls) and Lydia West (It’s a Sin) as best pals Maggie and Eddie, respectively, whose relationship is dominated by Maggie’s bipolar disorder. 

Friends for a decade and now heading into their 30s – with pressures of work, family and unfulfilled ambition beginning to bite hard – their relationship is pushed to its limit when Maggie’s disorder shows worrying signs of making a return. Coughlan and West are a perfect pairing here: the former an impish, uncontainable explosion of chaos on screen, and the latter the balancing element of superficial calm. Tonight’s opening double bill (the full six-episode series is available on Channel 4 online from today) takes two fairly ordinary set ups – a school speech and a birthday party – and lights them up with some of the most outrageously funny, heartwarming scenes to hit our screens this year. GO

American Rust
Amazon Prime Video
The US crime drama featuring Jeff Daniels as the sheriff in a depressed steel town returns, revived by Amazon following Showtime’s premature decision to cancel it after just one series. Most of the cast, including the excellent Maura Tierney, are also back, and the story is more nuanced than ever before – kicking off with a mysterious series of mail bomb attacks. 

Grey’s Anatomy
Disney+
Fans of the long-running (this is its 20th season) Seattle-based medical drama will be relieved to see lead character Dr Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) weighing up her options after last season’s cliffhanger, which suggested that she was leaving the show. But could the end of her reign be imminent? 

Bruce Lee: A Life in Ten Pictures
BBC Two, 9pm
Live fast, die young is a tag perfectly befitting of this portrait of the pioneering martial artist and film star, who took the world by storm in the 1970s. Those who knew him best, including former wife Linda, daughter Shannon and colleagues, recall 10 key moments in his brief – he died at just 32 – but very eventful life.

The Twelve
ITV1, 9pm
Sam Neill leads this twisty Australian courtroom drama to its terrestrial showing after an ITVX premiere last year. It gets off to a slow start in tonight’s opening double-bill, setting us up to follow – in off-puttingly minute detail – the lives of jury members in the trial of a woman accused of murdering her missing niece. Despite Neill’s best efforts, you’re left at a loss as to why you should care.

Taskmaster
Channel 4, 9pm
Nick Mohammed, Steve Pemberton, Joanne McNally, John Robins and Sophie Willan are the latest (unlucky?) five tasked with undertaking fiendish challenges in hope of amusing dastardly show dictator Greg Davies. Egg-protection and gorilla-ring-tossing are among the nonsense trials set by Alex Horne in tonight’s deliciously chaotic opener.

The Hotel Inspector
Channel 5, 9pm
With the UK hospitality sector in crisis, Alex Polizzi casts her net wider as the business rescue series returns. In her sights, tonight, a British-Italian couple who run a lovely but woefully unprofitable café in a livery yard in a Somerset village. Weighing in with gusto, Polizzi soon comes up with new routes to success. 

Breaker Morant (1980, b/w) ★★★★★
Great! Action, 4.50pm  
One of the all-time great war films, Bruce Beresford’s epic focuses on one of the first war-crime prosecutions in British military history. Lieutenants Harry Morant (Edward Woodward), Peter Handcock (Bryan Brown) and George Witton (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) were all Aussies serving in the British Army during the Second Anglo-Boer War, and stood accused of murdering PoWs and an unarmed civilian. Their trials are portrayed in thrilling detail.

The Breakfast Club (1985) ★★★★★
Comedy Central, 9pm  
John Hughes’s 1980s smash centres on five disparate students stuck together in detention, as they begin to realise that they are more than stereotypes: the swot (Anthony Michael Hall), the jock (Emilio Estevez), the basket case (Ally Sheedy), the snobby princess (Molly Ringwald) and the rebel (Judd Nelson). The latter’s raised fist, soundtracked by Don’t You Forget About Me, remains one of cinema’s most gloriously romantic moments.

Stand by Me (1986) ★★★★★
Film4, 9pm  
Few dramas about youth can rival Rob Reiner’s powerful tale about four plucky boys who go in search of a missing teenager. Based on Stephen King’s autobiographical novella, it’s beautifully observed and wonderfully nostalgic. It’s also probably the finest film that River Phoenix (brother to Joaquin) made, his appearance a sad reminder of a talent wasted when he died only seven years later at the age of 23.

Friday 29 March

Ewan McGregor in A Gentleman in Moscow
Ewan McGregor in A Gentleman in Moscow Credit: Ben Blackall/Paramount+

A Gentleman in Moscow
Paramount+
Ben Vanstone, the man behind Channel 5’s hugely successful revival of All Creatures Great and Small, here takes on something completely different: Amor Towles’s acclaimed 2016 novel about Count Alexander Rustov, a Russian whose house arrest in 1917 in the poky attic of Moscow’s Hotel Metropol lasts for years as the world changes around him. Ewan McGregor gives his finest small-screen performance to date, lavishly moustachioed but essaying a sensibly neutral accent as the urbane aristocrat who refuses to give his captors the satisfaction of seeing him defeated, despite the attentions of Johnny Harris’s scowling Bolshevik. 

Rustov’s fellow residents include Paul Ready’s prince and a sharp-witted actress (played by McGregor’s real-life wife, Mary Elizabeth Winstead), as well as Nina (Alexa Goodall), the young daughter of a widowed bureaucrat, with whom he forms a critical bond. Despite a superfluous voice-over and initial emotional reserve, the rich variety of characterisation and unaffected warmth of McGregor’s performance snares the interest in an elegant eight-part adaptation, which should please fans of the book and newcomers alike. GT

Steve!
Apple TV+
Enjoying a late-career renaissance thanks to Only Murders in the Building, Steve Martin is the focus of Morgan Neville’s winning profile, told across two timelines: the first, through glorious archive, relates his rise to stand-up superstardom, while the second has the septuagenarian looking back on his life.

Renegade Nell
Disney+
Sally Wainwright relocates her abiding interests in family and justice to 18th-century England in this rollicking ride which casts Derry Girls’s Louisa Harland as highwaywoman Nell Jackson, residing on the fringes of society. In her favour: a sprite with magical powers called Billy Blind (Nick Mohammed). Counting against her: a murder charge. 

The Sewer Map of Britain
Channel 5, 8pm
Mark Benton narrates the broadcaster’s latest gently informative survey of a national niche, this one spanning London and Hadrian’s Wall, Roman invention and modern innovation, adding a generous dollop of unpleasantness for good measure.

Pilgrimage: the Road through North Wales
BBC Two, 9pm; Wales, 9.30pm
Casting is everything for this annual spiritual trek, and this year’s yomp (from Flint Castle to Bardsey Island) gathers another diverse group including The Traitors’ Amanda Lovett, actor Tom Rosenthal and presenter Christine McGuinness. The revelations come thick and fast in another series with much to appeal, whether you’re devout or a non-believer. 

The Life and Death of Lily Savage
ITV1, 9pm
A year on from his death, Paul O’Grady’s beloved alter ego receives her due in this funny and often very affecting documentary following their trailblazing campaigning against homophobia up to 2004, when Lily Savage was retired and O’Grady settled into the bosom of mainstream television. Ian McKellen, Graham Norton and O’Grady’s sister, Sheila Rudd, all contribute.

Chernobyl: Countdown to Armageddon
Channel 5, 10pm
Few revelations here, but a briskly useful summary of the story behind the infamous nuclear disaster   – interest in which remains high since the 2019 drama – and an overview of the impact of the war in Ukraine make this Ben Fogle-narrated film worth a look. 

The Beautiful Game (2024) ★★★
Netflix  
The second of this week’s football-themed offerings stars the reliably excellent Bill Nighy as an experienced football coach tasked with getting a team of gifted but troubled British footballers to the Homeless World Cup tournament in Rome (this year’s real-life competition will be held in Seoul). The players’s circumstances and demons threaten to come between them and the game. Top Boy’s Micheal Ward is the talented striker with everything at stake. Thea Sharrock directs.

Kung Fu Panda (2008) ★★★★
Channel 4, 12.30pm  
Jack Black delivers a suitably silly performance as the voice of the hero in this delightful animated semi-spoof of martial arts movies. After being identified as the Dragon Warrior, pot-bellied panda Po (Black) is forced to train for a showdown with evil master and snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane). Further animal-animated fun – perfect for the Easter weekend – can be found in Hop (2011) on ITV2 at 4.30pm.

PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023) ★★★
Sky Cinema Premiere, 4.05pm/Paramount+  
If you happen to have children – or grandchildren – under five, chances are your life has already been haunted by the presence of Paw Patrol’s heroic pups. Here, the gang – Marshall (Christian Corrao), Skye (McKenna Grace) et al – head into space to stop a super-galactic villain in his tracks. For some reason, Kim Kardashian and her children (North and Saint) also lend their voices.

Barbie (2023) ★★★★
Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm  
It might have been shunned at the Oscars – its sole win was for Best Original Song – but Greta Gerwig’s bubblegum extravaganza made more than a billion dollars worldwide and brought us “Kenergy” (thanks, Ryan Gosling). Margot Robbie is the plastic doll trapped in a Truman Show-esque world where women rule… until they don’t. More Gosling treats with La La Land, in which he plays a struggling jazz pianist, on BBC Two at 11pm.

Saturday 30 March

Celebrate the life of the Queen of Jazz
Celebrate the life of the Queen of Jazz Credit: Don Smith/Radio Times/BBC

Ella Fitzgerald Night
BBC Two, from 8.35pm
Seven hours of the Queen of Jazz still only scratches the surface of her bottomless talent and remarkable life, and we begin by focusing on the latter through another excellent edition of A Life in Ten Pictures. The first snapshot is taken from New York in 1935, its history related by the son of the Apollo Theatre MC whose Amateur Night introduced her skyscraping voice to the world; the last an intimate portrait in Beverly Hills, taken months before her death in 1996 – her son, Ray Brown Jr, pays tribute and elaborates on the context of the image.

In between are accounts of her charitable work, her insecurities and isolation, and, of course, her vocal gifts. A collection of BBC performances follows at 9.30pm and includes songs Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye and Day by Day, before Alan Yentob introduces two 1974 concerts from Ronnie Scott’s (listen out for a fiery Sweet Georgia Brown). Night owls 
will appreciate the gigs wrapping up the evening, starting with a series of collaborations with Oscar Peterson and ending with 1965 performances Ella Fitzgerald Swings (including Take the “A” Train) and Ella Fitzgerald Sings (enjoy Don’t Rain on my Parade). GT

Quentin Blake’s Box of Treasures
CBBC, 7.30am
The latest series of charming adaptations from the great author and illustrator’s work is once again narrated by Adrian Lester and features the vocal talents of Simon Pegg. The story concerns Sir Thomas Magpie, a village knight, and his well-meaning but inept squire, Snuff, who finally finds his calling when four thieves menace a shoemaker’s shop.

Gladiators
BBC One, 5.50pm
This pitch-perfect revival will take what is surely only its temporary leave (buying a bit of time for Barney Walsh to work on his presentational skills and Viper to hone the villainy) after tonight’s final. Two well-matched pairings find Wesley facing Finlay and Marie-Louise taking on Bronte. Three, two, one…

Hindenburg: The Cover-Up
Channel 4, 7.30pm
Cock-up or conspiracy? When the eponymous airship went down in flames in 1937, theories abounded, ranging from human error to a Nazi bomb. This US-made film offers no irrefutable evidence in any direction, but the digging into fact and fiction is diverting enough.

Traces
BBC One, 9.25pm
Returning for a second series, this Dundee-set crime drama (previously shown on Alibi) still has an uncertain tone and narrative, but the leads are solid enough. Molly Windsor and Martin Compston play lab technician Emma and construction magnate Daniel, preparing for bad news as the latter’s father faces a murder trial, only for a church bombing to throw their lives into further disarray. All six episodes are on iPlayer.

Britain’s Killer Hurricane of 1990
Channel 5, 9.35pm
The 1990s began with arguably Britain’s worst weather disaster, in which winds of over 100 mph swept across the UK on January 25th: three million trees were damaged, livelihoods and homes ruined, 47 lives lost and one ’Allo ’Allo star suffered life-changing injuries. This film tracks the event itself, its aftermath and efforts made since to mitigate further calamities.

Stable: The Boxing Game
BBC One, midnight
Available as a box set on iPlayer, this insightful four-part series follows eight fighters in the McGuigan family’s stable of boxers, trained by Shane (son of Barry). We follow their careers as they forge very different paths, from prospects of the young Azim brothers to world title contender Lawrence Okolie. 

Hook (1991) ★★★
Channel 5, 2.20pm  
Robin Williams is the grumpy, grown-up Peter Pan who’s whisked back to his childhood in 
a somewhat wild variation on JM Barrie’s classic tale. Steven Spielberg’s swashbuckling adventure has its detractors, but although it’s a bit of a muddle, it’s still a lively family film. Support sees Dustin Hoffman in full scenery-chewing mode as Hook, while Julia Roberts plays Tinkerbell and Bob Hoskins appears as Smee.

On the Waterfront (1954, b/w) ★★★★★
BBC Two, 2.30pm  
A mesmeric Marlon Brando plays failed boxer and have-a-go hero Terry Malloy, who takes a stand against the Mob on the docks of New York and finds nobility in the process. This is a flawless, deeply troubling vision by director Elia Kazan of working-class people jaded and degraded by the Mafia’s insidious presence. It includes the timeless line from Brando: “I could have been a contender.” Also on BBC Four on Thursday at 8pm.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) ★★★
Channel 4, 9pm  
The alien symbiote living inside Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock returns in this sequel to the middling 2018 film. Leaning further into the outlandish concept of the original, Brock and Venom must stand up to Carnage, another symbiote who has taken up residence inside the body of serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). Hardy brings a sense of fun camp to his voice-work as Venom, channelling Brian Blessed.

Snatch (2000) ★★★★
Channel 4, 10.50pm  
Guy Ritchie may have now revisited his London crimeland niche a few too many times, but this follow-up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels got pulses racing. Brad Pitt proves an inspired piece of casting as a hell-raising Irish traveller, while the insane plot and comic machismo are memorable. Ritchie favourites Jason Statham, Stephen Graham and Vinnie Jones co-star.

Easter Sunday

Levi Brown in This Town
Levi Brown in This Town Credit: Robert Viglasky/BBC

This Town
BBC One, 9pm
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight returns to his native West Midlands for this six-part series, another winning mix of thriller and family drama. The story – focused on a group of council estate youngsters who are drawn into the ska and two-tone music scene in Birmingham and Coventry – begins in 1981 and is set against the backdrop of inner-city riots and the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The first episode kicks things off rather slowly – all the better to appreciate the clever plot-twist drawing various strands together by the end of the hour – as we meet the group, for whom a shared love of music will change their lives. Dante (Levi Brown) is a would-be poet full of romantic notions about fellow college student Fiona (Freya Parks), Eve Austin is his music-loving friend Jeannie, while Ben Rose is Bardon, under pressure from his Provisional IRA hardman father (Peter McDonald) to “join the cause”. Geraldine James appears as Bardon’s grandmother, while Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery impresses as a faded rock singer and, as you might expect, the music (made up of vintage tracks such as A Message to You Rudy by The Specials) is stellar. Episode two follows tomorrow; all six are on iPlayer. VL

Gareth Malone’s Easter Passion
BBC One, 11.30am; Scotland, 1.30pm
A behind-the-scenes look at how Gareth Malone tutored eight talented amateur singers for a special 300th-anniversary performance of JS Bach’s 1724 oratorio, the St John Passion. The concert itself is on BBC Two at 6pm. Beforehand, watch the Easter Sunday Service from Canterbury Cathedral at 10am and Urbi et Orbi, the Pope’s traditional Easter Sunday address, at 11am.

Mammals
BBC One, 7pm
David Attenborough narrates this illuminating six-part series about mammals that thrive in the dark. Dive into the world of leopards who use night vision to hunt their prey and bats who rely on echolocation to navigate at night-time.

The Great Celebrity Bake Off for SUTC
Channel 4, 7.40pm
Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond welcome Strictly’s Oti Mabuse, presenter Gabby Logan and comedians David O’Doherty and Suzi Ruffell into the tent. As Prue Leith puts it, “Some are more flour-savvy than others” – who will manage to impress her and fellow judge Paul Hollywood?

Paul O’Grady’s Great Elephant Adventure
ITV1, 8pm
This two-part travelogue/documentary was filmed just before Paul O’Grady’s sudden death last year, and it follows him to Thailand and Laos as he visits numerous elephant rescue centres. He begins his journey in Chiang Mai, the elephant capital of Thailand. You don’t have to be an animal lover to be moved by O’Grady’s genuine connection with the majestic beasts as he says: “My love of elephants runs dogs a very close second.”

Passenger
ITV1, 9pm
Andrew Buchan’s thriller continues with this third episode as the residents of Cheddar Vale hear about Mehmet’s death; Jim Bracknell (David Threlfall) has to prove his innocence as DI Riya Ajunwa (Wunmi Mosaku) investigates. The sparky dialogue adds greatly to the darkly comic tone. 

Stonehenge: The Discovery with Dan Snow
Channel 5, 9pm
The historian reveals the latest discoveries about the famed Wiltshire Neolithic site, including where the giant stones (some weighing 20 tons) are from and how they were moved. Snow praises the “unbelievable sophistication” of our ancestors in making the stones’ solar alignments so precise. 

Ben-Hur (1959) ★★★★★
Channel 5, 12.05pm  
A majestic slice of Hollywood history, this Roman-era melodrama directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston won 11 Academy Awards (not equalled until Titanic in 1997). It still makes for magnificent viewing. Set in 26AD, it tells the story of a Jewish prince who clashes with the Roman governor and ends up enslaved, desperately plotting his revenge. Watch out for the famous chariot race.

Film of the Week: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) ★★★★★
ITV1, 12.25pm
Timothée Chalamet’s Wonka opened up Roald Dahl’s story to a new generation last year, 
but Mel Stuart’s weird, wacky and wonderful 1971 off-kilter fairy tale remains the finest adaptation. Its cult status started to grow in the 1980s, so much so that Stuart would compete with his cousin, the Marvel Comics head honcho Stan Lee, over who was more famous – Spider-Man or Willy Wonka. The request to make the film came from Stuart’s daughter after she read Dahl’s 1964 novel in which five children win a trip to Wonka’s factory, an indulgent paradise where dreams come true, but where kids are also inflated like giant blueberries for brattish misdemeanours. Only the pure-hearted Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) proves himself something other than a monster-child. Dahl’s preferred choice for madcap chocolatier Willy Wonka was Spike Milligan or Peter Sellers, but the flinty Gene Wilder is perfectly cast. The songs – particularly Oompa Loompa and Pure Imagination – are cultural touchstones and The Candy Man became a number one hit for Sammy Davis Jr. Film critic Roger Ebert called it the best family film since The Wizard of Oz, and he was right.

Easter Parade (1948) ★★★★★
BBC Two, 12.30pm  
With charming performances, terrific dance routines and 17 original songs (including classics such as Steppin’ Out with My Baby) by Irving Berlin, it’s no wonder that this film was trumpeted as “the happiest musical ever made”. It was the only screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, and what ensues is a union just as delightful as you would expect. And, of course, it makes for perfect Easter viewing.

Beauty and the Beast (1991) ★★★★★
BBC One, 2.40pm  
The film that was responsible for the rejuvenation of Disney and the first animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, Beauty and the Beast is a slickly made confection. Beauty was also one of a growing number of female lead characters to be portrayed as stronger, rather than damsels in distress. The supporting cast – Angela Lansbury as a teapot, Jerry Orbach as a candelabra – are pure joy.

The Wizard of Oz (1939) ★★★★★
Channel 5, 4.20pm  
Few films are more fun to watch than The Wizard of Oz, and few have such a charming message. Judy Garland stars as Dorothy, who’s bored with her drab, literally black-and-white existence in Kansas, and desperate to escape to “somewhere over the rainbow”. But once she gets there, she discovers that there’s more to life than selfish pleasures. Prequel musical Wicked finally arrives in cinemas later this year.

Easter Monday

John Torode and Gregg Wallace celebrate 20 years of MasterChef
John Torode and Gregg Wallace celebrate 20 years of MasterChef Credit: BBC

MasterChef
BBC One, 6.30pm
The grand dame of TV cookery talent shows returns for an astonishing 20th year in its current format (and since 1990 in earlier versions). Some of us even remember how fresh it felt back in the early days, before the mainstream schedules became bloated with endless veg-out food shows. MasterChef, though, retains much of its original flavour, largely because it still forefronts ambitious amateurs, which allows it to cut through the more hackneyed elements of format, presentation and edited-in jeopardy. (And because it remains a recognised way for talented cooks to realise a dream of breaking into the professional realm, whether kitchens or recipe-writing.)

Over the next eight weeks we’ll see 58 passionate cooks facing many uphill battles, beginning tonight as John Torode and Gregg Wallace introduce the first six hopefuls to a brand-new challenge, Basic to Brilliant, asking them to take an everyday ingredient and make something exceptional. After that it’s the Invention Test, followed by a two-course menu for three guest judges, chaired by 2023 champion Chariya Khattiyot. Only four can go through to Friday for a shot at the quarter-final. GO

Mastermind
BBC Two, 7pm
An hour-long grand final brings the series to a climax. Tonight’s specialist subjects include artist Francis Bacon, Greek poet Sappho and the Mercury Prize. But, as so often, it’s the general knowledge round that’s the real nailbiter. Meanwhile, at 8.30pm, University Challenge reaches its semi-final.

Anton & Giovanni’s Adventures in Spain
BBC One, 8pm
On the final leg of their journey the pair head north to the Basque Country, eating, drinking and dancing along the way. In San Sebastian they run into Strictly colleague Gorka Márquez, who gives them a tour of his home region, before they meet up with Du Beke’s Spanish mother, Conchita, in Bilbao.

Grand Indian Hotel
Channel 4, 8pm
The second episode takes us to a luxurious lakeside hotel in Udaipur, where a 340-strong team cater for clients willing to pay £1,000 a night to stay at a stunning venue where the staff are famed, we’re told, for their willingness to go the extra mile.

Tish
BBC Four, 9pm
This striking one-off documentary focuses on British photographer Tish Murtha, whose work documented the lives of marginalised, working-class communities in the northeast of England. Some of the shots of the impoverished community of Elswick in the 1970s are truly breathtaking, and, as her daughter Ella argues, deserve to be more widely known. Taken as 
a snapshot to the darker side of life in Thatcher’s Britain, it’s immensely powerful viewing.

Schindler: The Real Story
PBS America, 9.15pm
A chance to see Jon Blair’s seminal 1983 documentary, restored in HD and with new narration from Ben Kingsley, exploring the life and enigma of Oskar Schindler, the real-life hero of Schindler’s List, who saved more than a thousand Jews from Hitler’s extermination campaign. Featuring remarkable archive and moving interviews with more than 40 Holocaust survivors.

Prime Suspect: Murder in Suburbia
Channel 5, 10pm
This film peels back the layers of the 40-year-old mystery surrounding the 1983 murder of Diane Jones in Essex. Her GP husband took nine days to report her missing and was the prime suspect – but was never charged. Four decades on, those closest to the case seek closure. 

Ferdinand (2017) ★★★★
Channel 4, 12.05pm  
In this sweet CGI animation, wrestler John Cena plays (rather ironically) a sensitive bull called Ferdinand, who would rather tend to flowers than fight. He avoids the bullring, but when famous matador El Primero (Miguel Ángel Silvestre) comes to town and slaughter beckons, Ferdinand and nutty old goat Lupe (Kate McKinnon) decide that it’s time to take a stand. It’s colourful and surprisingly moving too; fun for the whole family.

Zulu (1964) ★★★★
More4, 12.30pm  
Despite being blacklisted in Hollywood at the time, director Cy Endfield’s epic recreation of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in 1879, when just over 150 mostly Welsh troops held off 4,000 Zulu warriors, was a box-office success and has stood the test of time. Stanley Baker leads a cast of familiar British faces, including Michael Caine in his first leading role as the delightfully named Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead.

Woman in Gold (2015) ★★★
BBC Two, 10pm  
Simon Curtis’s moving if slightly overwrought film is based on the true story of Maria Altmann, an elderly Jewish refugee living in Los Angeles who battled with the Austrian government for ownership of Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Gustav Klimt’s painting of her aunt that was stolen by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Helen Mirren is typically brilliant in her portrayal of Altmann, while Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds plays her determined lawyer.

Easy A (2010) ★★★★
BBC Three, 10pm  
A modern-day retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, this sharp comedy is a hoot. Two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone is Olive, a smart teenager who ends up a social pariah after embarking on a (pretend) path of promiscuity. The sight of her emblazoning lingerie to wear to school with the scarlet “A” for adulterer is hilarious. Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci play her wacky parents.

Tuesday 2 April

Dr Brett Lockyer and Prof Alice Roberts
Dr Brett Lockyer and Prof Alice Roberts Credit: James Cheadle/Sky

Royal Autopsy
Sky History, 9pm
Not all of this channel’s populist spins on the past have worked (Amanda Holden’s Sex: A Bonkers History, anyone?) but Royal Autopsy, returning for a second series, strikes just the right balance of fact and fun, serious scholarship and visceral visuals. Professor Alice Roberts is back, asking probing questions and supplying a bit of background while forensic pathologist Brett Lockyer uses the tools of contemporary medicine to carve up the prosthetic corpse of a long-deceased monarch and settles centuries-old debates over the cause of death.

While later episodes focus on Mary I, Henry IV and Anne, they begin with George IV, a king whose long list of vices and extravagances leaves no shortage of possible options. After a life of boozing, fornication, gluttony and laudanum addiction, his obese body was riddled with gout, tumours, lesions, blood clots and grotesque deformities of his organs. Yet amid all the grossness there is some fascinating history, filtered through George’s life and times and in part told through surprisingly effective and lengthy reconstructions. The medical quackery is intriguing, George’s concerns over inheriting his father’s mental illness salutary and the eventual conclusions surprisingly affecting. GT

Mary Cassatt: Painting the Modern Woman
Sky Arts, 8pm
Another thoughtful instalment in the Exhibition on Screen series, Ali Ray’s gentle documentary presents the work of Mary Cassatt, an Impressionist whose work has never received the attention of her male counterparts, yet whose portraits of women made a seismic impact on the art world.

William Gaunt & Marcia Warren Remember: No Place Like Home
BBC Four, 8.20pm
BBC Four continues its disinternments of classic dramas and sitcoms with No Place Like Home, a middling hit from the mid-1980s in which empty nesters William Gaunt and Marcia Warren deal with the return of their adult children. Notable for launching the career of Martin Clunes, it ran to five series. Before a chance to catch a rerun (at 8.30pm), Gaunt and Warren share memories of the show’s creation.

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild
Channel 5, 9pm
Unlike so many similar series, New Lives in the Wild takes time to return to some of its featured exiles, with often enlightening results. Tonight, Fogle revisits British vet Janey, who had set up a charity in Sri Lanka for street dogs, and hears about the progress she has made.

Ricky, Sue and a Trip or Two
More4, 9pm
Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston finish their travelogue in north Wales, where they tick off a few inevitable tourist hotspots (the Ffestiniog Railway, Portmeirion) and a couple of more unusual experiences (a cooking lesson in Colwyn Bay and a race against athlete Colin Jackson).

The Secret Army
BBC Four, 10pm
In 1972, the IRA allowed an American company to make a documentary about them, anticipating it to be their “year of victory”. They even allowed the cameras to film the men running the organisation. Then the film vanished for almost 50 years. In this programme, which aired in Northern Ireland last week, Darragh MacIntyre goes in search of those who made it and tracks down some of the former IRA men who appeared.

The Rise and Fall of Pablo Escobar
Channel 4, 11.50pm
A much-scrutinised life and death receives another retelling, courtesy of the DEA agents who brought down the Colombian drug kingpin and with testimony from the journalists who followed the hunt. 

The Shiralee (1957, b/w) ★★★★
Talking Pictures TV, 2.15pm  
Ealing Studios swapped high-jinks British comedy for sprawling Australian vistas and romantic scenes in this sumptuous take on the Western genre. Based on the 1955 novel of the same name by D’Arcy Niland, it stars Peter Finch as rural worker Jim, who returns home to Sydney to find wife, Lily (Rosemary Harris), living with another man. After causing a ruckus, he takes his daughter (Dana Wilson) with him on the open road.

Mary Queen of Scots (2018) ★★★★
BBC Two, 11.15pm  
This ravishing period piece marked theatre director Josie Rourke’s film debut. Adapted from John Guy’s 2004 biography, it explores the internal whirrings of the Scottish monarch’s early reign, rising above the martyr-temptress image of legend. Saoirse Ronan delivers a thrilling turn as Mary, while Margot Robbie swaps her characteristic Barbie-tastic blonde locks for a red wig to portray Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth I. Both leads are excellent.

Rocketman (2019) ★★★★
Film4, 11.15pm  
Dexter Fletcher’s deliriously entertaining musical biopic frames Elton John’s life story with a 1990 rehab confessional. Taron Egerton, who has Elton’s look and mannerisms down to an uncanny degree (as well as his blessing), reflects on the life choices that brought him to rock bottom. Tiny Dancer is brilliantly transformed into a heartbreaking torch song.

Wednesday 3 April

Maya Rudolph in the second season of Loot
Maya Rudolph in the second season of Loot Credit: Apple TV+

Loot
Apple TV+
The first series of this moreish American sitcom introduced us to Molly Wells (Maya Rudolph), the flamboyant ex-wife of a tech tycoon who – thanks to a lucrative divorce – has come into a fortune of $87 billion. After blowing much of it partying, she decides to reinvent herself as the philanthropic head of a charity foundation – much to the chagrin of its director, the serious, uptight Sofia (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez).

Series two opens with a hilarious riff on Vogue’s famous 73 Questions, in which celebrities answer rapid-fire questions while showing off their fancy homes. Despite promising to give away all of her money, Molly is as cartoonishly decadent as ever. She has downsized to “just the five” swimming pools. She has a mental health support sloth. Her water bed is filled with chamomile tea. Today’s two-part premiere follows Molly as she pursues her bold new plan of buying up vacant properties and turning them into homes for the homeless. The gags are largely hit and miss, but Rudolph’s comic timing is so superb that you’re never far from a laugh. My personal favourite? “Right now I’m on the Pompeii diet; I’m eating what the people of Pompeii ate just before they died.” SK

Andi Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts
BBC Two, 8pm
Andi Oliver is in Bristol to help army veteran Jasper. He runs a homeless project in which shipping containers are turned into housing. To secure its future, his next idea is to set up a community cafe on site. Oliver’s task is to raise awareness – which means a fabulous Caribbean-themed feast.

Air Fryers: Sunday Lunch Made Easy
Channel 5, 8pm
Channel 5 are knocking out so many air fryer documentaries at the moment that you could be forgiven for thinking they are cooking them up with an actual air fryer. Anyway, tonight’s one is on how the culinary marvel helps with cooking Sunday lunch; tomorrow, learn how perfect they are for entertaining.

Backstage with the London Philharmonic
Sky Arts, 8pm
The first three episodes of this fascinating documentary followed the London Philharmonic Orchestra as they prepared to open their new season with Mahler’s epic second symphony, Resurrection. Tonight’s feature-length finale gives us the chance to hear the fruits of their labour – by showing the full performance in all its glory. Magnificent.

Surgeons: At The Edge of Life
BBC Two, 9pm
This week’s instalment follows a particularly challenging case: that of 76-year-old lorry driver Mick, who must have his eye removed in order to cut out the cancer growing behind it. The complex procedure is one of only 10 that is performed in a year, and requires exceptional precision.

Professor T
ITV1, 9pm
Ben Miller’s eccentric crime-solving professor continues to languish in prison. Fortunately for him, however, there has been a murder. The police need his help to investigate the curious case of a bride who has been found dead in a swimming pool on her wedding night. It is an endearingly odd little show – as illustrated by Miller’s imagined rendition of Daisy Bell. 

Paul Abbott Remembers Clocking Off 
BBC Four, 10pm
The gritty, witty and – to today’s eyes – starry Clocking Off was one of the BBC’s most daring early Noughties dramas. Creator Paul Abbott (Shameless) looks back on his colourful exploration of life in a Manchester textile factory. Stick around afterwards for repeats, featuring John Simm and Sarah Lancashire. 

Wish (2023) ★★
Disney+  
Released to celebrate Disney’s 100th anniversary – a century of captivating people the world over with their magical animations – Wish feels slightly too formulaic to go down in the history books with Frozen or Snow White. Desperate to free her kingdom from King Magnifico (Chris Pine), Asha (Ariana DeBose) makes a wish upon a star that unleashes a wave of magical powers.

Junior (1994) ★★★
Film4, 2.35pm  
Ivan Reitman (Twins) directs Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito (again) in this comedy about a male scientist who undergoes an experiment to become pregnant. The film is pretty much a one-joke concept (as was Twins, to be fair), but it’s freshly pertinent now as notions of gender are changing so rapidly. Following their brilliant Oscars skit, the actors have confirmed that a new project is in the works.

The Krays (1990) ★★★★
ITV4, 11.20pm  
Long before Tom Hardy decided to take on the roles of both Kray twins by himself (in Legend), Spandau Ballet brothers Martin and Gary Kemp filled the sharp suits of London’s most notorious gangsters. Peter Medak’s biopic, written by playwright Philip Ridley, isn’t always a success, but the New Romantic crooners are menacing, while a Bafta-nominated Billie Whitelaw has presence as Violet, their strong-willed, domineering mother. 

Thursday 4 April

Andrew Scott in Ripley
Andrew Scott in Ripley Credit: Netflix

Ripley
Netflix
Perhaps better-known these days thanks to an acclaimed film version featuring a bespectacled Matt Damon swanning around in Italy with an uber-tanned Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr Ripley is one of literature’s most intriguing thrillers. Here is a villain who eschews sadism and malice in favour of charm and confidence; the perfect role, then, for Andrew Scott. The Irish actor – in something of a career purple patch – leads this brooding adaptation, shot entirely in black and white (potentially inspired by writer-director Steven Zaillian’s previous work – he wrote the screenplay for Schindler’s List).

The eight-part series (boxsetted) opens in Rome in 1961, with a dead body being pulled down a flight of stairs, before a flashback takes us to New York City six months earlier, where petty criminal Tom Ripley (Scott) is handed a lifeline by a wealthy man who enlists him to bring his wayward son home from Europe. Dickie (Johnny Flynn, excellent) is in love with beaches, women (Dakota Fanning plays suspicious girlfriend Marge) and boozing. It doesn’t take long for the familiar tale of obsession, deceit and murder to come into play. PP

Star Trek: Discovery
Paramount+
The fifth and final series of Paramount’s spin-off from the original 1960s Star Trek follows USS Discovery’s crew, including Capt Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), in a race across the galaxy to find an ancient power.

The Dog House
Channel 4, 8pm
More couples arrive at Woodgreen Pets Charity hoping to complete their lives with a furry friend. Tonight, couple Rob and Andy find their perfect match in boxer-cross pup Diesel, who the bearded pair are told has a soft spot for facial hair. The team also search for a new home for 11-year-old terrier Holly, who has been admitted to their care after the death of her longtime owner.

The Apprentice
BBC One, 9pm
With only next week’s dreaded interview stage left between them and the final, the wannabe-business gurus are handed a nigh-on impossible task by Lord Sugar tonight: to create and brand a vegan cheese that actually looks (and tastes) good. As usual, expect plenty of melty reflections from the person sent packing.

Robin Williams: A Life in Ten Pictures
BBC Two, 9pm; Wales, 11.15pm
Thanks to his sparky humour and soulful depths Robin Williams was one of Hollywood’s most beloved actors, and his death in 2014 shocked the world. Through 10 snapshots, from his time on Saturday Night Live to life at home, contributors including comedian David Steinberg and half-brother McLaurin Smith-Williams discuss the now-familiar dark side to Williams’s life – and his enormous talent.

Taskmaster
Channel 4, 9pm
After last week’s opener, it’s clear that among the latest panel, Steve Pemberton is the dark horse and Sophie Willan is bad at the tasks – but ever so fun to watch. So which comedian tonight will best tie a noose for a soft toy or find ingenious uses for honey?

Big Mood
Channel 4, 10pm & 10.35pm
Camilla Whitehill’s millennial comedy won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but star Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls) makes it worthwhile. Trying desperately to prove to her therapist that she’s mentally stable, Maggie (Coughlan) decides to – bafflingly, as anyone who has slaved over an oven while their friends get drunk will know – throw a dinner party. Tonight’s double-bill continues with her dragging Eddie (Lydia West) away from her controlling boyfriend to a pagan festival. 

Mousehunt (1997) ★★★★
Film4, 2.45pm  
Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) announced himself with this extraordinary directing debut. Nathan Lane and Lee Evans play Laurel and Hardy-like brothers who inherit not just a string factory, but a dilapidated mansion that would be worth millions of dollars… if only it weren’t for the mouse. Cue vicious slapstick that invariably rebounds on the instigators and a winning cameo from Christopher Walken.

Apocalypse Now (1979) ★★★★★
BBC Four, 10.15pm  
Having already returned to his film about the Vietnam War once with 2001’s Redux, which was longer than the slowly meandering Mekong river, Francis Ford Coppola has now given us his definitive version, complete with meticulously restored film and audio. Martin Sheen stars as the soldier sent to kill an American colonel (Marlon Brando, superb). A magisterial, genre-defining war epic. Also on Sunday (BBC Two, 10pm).

One Day as a Lion (2023) ★★★
Sky Cinema Premiere, midnight  
Strap yourself in for a grunting, all-guns-blazing macho slice of cinema from director John Swab (Run with the Hunted). Jackie Powers (Scott Caan) is a nice guy but a lousy hit man, who takes a diner waitress (Marianne Rendón) hostage after a job goes bad. When Jackie reveals he needs money fast to get his son out of jail, she cooks up a scheme for them to get cash from her dying mother. Well-acted and fast-paced.

Friday 5 April

Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Colin Farrell in Sugar
Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Colin Farrell in Sugar Credit: Apple TV+

Sugar
Apple TV+
Television is becoming ever more cinematic and rarely more so than in this languorously stylish, hard-boiled private-eye drama starring Colin Farrell (the last time he graced the small screen was as the terrifying Henry Drax in The North Water) as John Sugar, a 21st-century Philip Marlowe prowling the mean streets of Los Angeles in search of a Tinseltown grandee’s (James Cromwell) missing granddaughter.

That’s not the only echo of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, but in a series packed to bursting with film noir and other classic Hollywood references (including Chinatown) it is all grist to the self-consciously cinematic mill. As is the fact that not a great deal happens in the opening episodes – it’s more about Sugar’s impeccable tailoring, his drop-dead gorgeous drophead coupé, the seedy (but not too seedy) dive bars, neon theatre marquees and sun-splashed LA mise en scène. “I don’t like hurting people” is Sugar’s mantra but, despite a health “issue” and heavily signposted displays of empathy towards life’s losers and dogs, you know he will do whatever it takes so long as the client is still paying. The first two episodes are available today, the remaining six weekly. GO

Girls State
Apple TV+
What would US democracy look like if it were left in the hands of teenage girls? This inspirational film from the makers of the Emmy and Sundance-winning Boys State, follows high-school juniors from different backgrounds around Missouri engaged in an immersive summer camp experiment to build a new style of female-led government from the ground up.

Beechgrove Garden
BBC Two, 7.30pm
The Aberdeen-based gardening stalwart returns for another prime-time outing. Carole Baxter and George Anderson attend to the rhubarb and assess how winter has left the garden. Brian Cunningham, meanwhile, outlines the basics of greenhouse gardening, plus there’s an allotment visit to Dundee.

Beyond Paradise
BBC One, 8pm; BBC Two Wales
The maritime equivalent of a locked-room mystery awaits DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) and his Devonian police team when a terminally ill woman (Jenny Coverack) goes missing off a trawler at sea. All the signs suggest that she died of suicide, but that’s never going to be convincing enough for DI Goodman.

Have I Got News for You
BBC One, 9pm; Wales, 9.30pm
The satirical quiz returns for a 67th run with, as ever, Ian Hislop and Paul Merton as the indefatigable team captains. News anchor Clive Myrie presents this opening episode, marking his fifth time in the host’s chair, while comedian Jon Richardson and journalist Marianna Spring are the guest panellists.

Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales
BBC Two, 9pm 
The second episode finds the group, now bonded, four days into their journey. Beginning in Eryri National Park, the trail leads them to visit Aber Falls. A detour to Anglesey, an area rich in pre-Christian history, and an attempt to summit Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) are among the surprisingly emotional challenges as they continue their trek along the 135-mile North Wales Pilgrims’ Way.

Avoidance
BBC One, 9.30pm; Wales, 10.40pm 
Romesh Ranganathan returns for another run of his sitcom about the conflict-averse Jonathan. There’s only ever been one joke here, so it’s no surprise to find him back at square one, desperate for Claire (Jessica Knappett) to take him back but too tongue-tied to ask. And wearing Lycra isn’t going to help. 

Scoop (2024)
Netflix  
Getting in ahead of Amazon’s mini-series on the same subject, Philip Martin’s film tells the irresistibly juicy story of Emily Maitlis’s jawdropping Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew, from the perspective of Sam McAlister, the producer who secured it (this is based on her book; Amazon’s series on Maitlis’s). Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell look the part as the central pair, while Billie Piper brings her trademark tour-de-force as McAlister.

10 Lives (2024) ★★★
Sky Cinema Premiere, 4.45pm  
A starry voice cast makes this sweet-natured animation as much a treat for parents as children: comedian Mo Gilligan, Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley, One Direction star Zayn Malik and Bill Nighy all get stuck in. The simple, yet charming, story is thus: a pampered cat (Gilligan) has enjoyed a life of luxury thanks to his student owner Rose (Ashley), but when his ninth life draws to a close, change commences.

I, Tonya (2017) ★★★★★
BBC Two, 11.05pm  
Craig Gillespie’s captivating drama about the American Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding, whose career went up in smoke in 1994 after she attempted to sabotage her rival, glides on the knife-edge between satire and sympathy. Margot Robbie is viciously mesmerising and morally ambiguous in the lead, while Allison Janney won an Oscar for playing her monster mother, LaVona, to the hilt. Sebastian Stan co-stars.


Television previewers

Stephen Kelly (SK), Veronica Lee (VL), Gerard O’Donovan (GO), Poppie Platt (PP) and Gabriel Tate (GT

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