TV guide: 27 of the best shows to watch this week, beginning tonight

Midsomer Murders
Sunday, ITV, 8pm
DCI John Barnaby and his trusty sidekick DS Jamie Winter (Neil Dudgeon and Nick Hendrix) investigate life in Granville Norton (which sounds more like a person than a place), a village famous for the healing power of its locally produced honey. The bees responsible are owned by a clan of local aristocrats, and it seems that at least one of them will stop at nothing to make sure the family business remains intact. This episode (The Sting of Death) premiered in the US in December 2019 but is only now being broadcast on this side of the pond.

Line of Duty
Sunday, BBC1, 9pm

The BBC’s hit cop drama finally returns for its sixth season, and if you’re looking for amped-up thrills and ramped-up intrigue, you’ve come to the right department. Adrian Dunbar, Martin Compston and Vicky McClure reprise their roles as Supt Ted Hastings, DS Steve Arnott and DI Kate Fleming of AC-12, investigating corruption within the force – and rooting out the bent cops in their midst. Kelly Macdonald joins the cast as DCI Joanne Davidson, whose team is tasked with finally cracking the unsolved murder of journalist Gail Vella a year ago. But the AC-12 team begin to suspect that police corruption is behind the delay in closing the case and bringing Vella’s killer to justice. Their suspicions turn on DCI Davidson, but their latest adversary may well be their hardest one to bring to book. Compston has hinted that this extended sixth series from Jed Mercurio will not only deliver on the entertainment front, it will also tie up a few loose ends from previous series.

All Star Musicals
Sunday, ITV, 6.30pm
All Star Musicals is back for one night only. Jessica Hynes, Rob Rinder, Barney Walsh, Robert Peston, Dr Ranj Singh and Luisa Bradshaw-White are the famous faces thrilled to be entering the spotlight to show off their hitherto unknown singing talents. They will take part in a theatrical masterclass before performing an iconic musical number. The winner will be the celeb whose all-round performance skills most impress a panel of experts (West End icon Elaine Paige and fellow stage stars Trevor Dion-Nicholas and Samantha Barks). John Barrowman, no stranger to jazz hands himself, hosts.

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Shane MacGowan: Live at Montreux
Sunday, TG4, 11.10pm
Shane MacGowan & The Popes Live at Montreux 1995. This show combines tracks from the Snake album, including Nancy Whiskey, Donegal Express and Bring Down, with Pogues classics such as If I Should Fall from Grace with God, Streams of Whiskey and The Irish Rover – and with a rousing version of the Hippy Hippy Shake.

Bernard's Working Comics
Monday, RTÉ2 9.30pm

What happens when ordinary people are thrust in front of the comedy mic and told to make the audience laugh? Will they freeze? Will their jokes fall flat? Will they be driven off the stage by hecklers? The answer is no, no and no, because they’ll have none other than comedian Bernard O’Shea to help them make the scary transition from regular boring person to scintillating stand-up comedian. In this new series, O’Shea takes up a variety of jobs, scouts out the wittiest workers, and persuades them to give stand-up comedy a go. In the first episode, he’s working with gardaí and hoping some of them will accompany him to the comedy club to entertain their colleagues. O’Shea will help his rookies come up with some arresting jokes, and give them tips on how to capture the crowd’s attention.

Football's Darkest Secret
Monday, BBC1, 9pm
Bafta-winning director Daniel Gordon, whose previous credits include Hillsborough and The Australian Dream, is behind another landmark documentary. The three-part programme examines the abuse of youth footballers from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. During that period, several coaches and scouts attached to major clubs used their positions of power to prey on vulnerable boys. We learn how many were too afraid to speak out about their experiences until one man – Andy Woodward – came forward. Since then, more than 800 victims have broken their silence, identifying around 300 suspects in the process. Survivors and their families discuss how their experiences have impacted on their lives, in many cases leaving them living a nightmare after their dreams were shattered.

Fleabag
Monday, RTÉ2, 9pm

You’ve already seen this second series of Fleabag, but it’s worth seeing again – especially since it features Andrew Scott in his most iconic role, as “hot priest”. Once again, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character pushes boundaries and knocks over the fourth wall as she tries to pick up the pieces following the mostly self-inflicted carnage of series one. She’s looking for salvation of sorts, but when she takes a fancy to a man of God, Fleabag is soon heading for the third circle of hell – and bringing everyone else along with her. Watch it again; at least this time you’ll know when to start covering your eyes.

Undercover OAP: The Mole Agent – Storyville
Monday, BBC4, 9pm

This unusual Oscar-nominated Chilean documentary follows lovable Sergio Chamy (83), who is hired by a private eye and equipped with “spy” glasses and a special Austin Powers-style pen as he snoops around a nursing home, making sure that the residents there are being treated properly. As Sergio keeps copious notes and shares his observations, the playful documentary gradually becomes a sombre look at ageing and desperately hanging on to human connection. In her fourt-star review, Irish Times critic Tara Brady called El Agente Topo “charming...the film never hides its artifice or playful devices. Besides, there’s no faking the hero’s emotional impact at the home and the lovely, heart-tugging friendships we witness along the way.”

Alias Grace
Tuesday, TG4, 10.30pm

Margaret Atwood has become the primetime prophet of modern streaming services. Alias Grace may have some sartorial similarities to The Handmaid’s Tale, but these bonnets and aprons are firmly rooted in our past, in the dark historic subjugation of women. This six-episode Canadian series from 2017, is set in the 1840s and follows the story of domestic servant Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon) who is convicted of the murder of her employer and his housekeeper. In prison Grace recounts to a doctor her torturous childhood and emigration from Ireland.

Kate Garraway: Finding Derek
Tuesday, ITV, 9pm
In March 2020, shortly after Britain first went into lockdown, Derek Draper was admitted to hospital with Covid-19. One year later, he has still not come home. His wife, the journalist and presenter Kate Garraway, is grateful for the sympathy and support she has received from the public, but she also knows that her experience isn't unique. In this documentary, she talks about how her family has been forced to adjust to a new way of life and meets people who have been through similar life-changing ordeals, including a community nurse who is suffering from the effects of long-Covid, and a woman whose husband has not regained consciousness after contracting the disease.

Lockdown Live: What Next?
Tuesday, BBC1, 7pm
It's now 12 months since Boris Johnson announced the first UK lockdown, with the public being told to stay at home and protect the NHS. The vaccines and the roadmap have given many hope that Britain will eventually return to something resembling normality. Here Naga Munchetty and Nick Robinson look at just how the nation will recover from the pandemic and what long-term effects are expected. The presenters are joined at a mass vaccination centre in Newcastle by a panel of guests who share their stories about the impact of Covid-19.

Strangers Making Babies
Tuesday, Channel 4, 9.15pm
Some people want to become parents without waiting for a partner first. There are currently some 70,000 people signed up to UK co-parenting sites, looking for someone to have a child with as part of a platonic arrangement, but these can be unregulated. Here a group of experts, led by fertility specialist Dr Marie Wren, have created a vetting and matching scheme to help single people find the perfect co-parent. In this series, women who want to become mothers will each be matched with several men who share their desire to have a baby without becoming a couple. But the show will also raise questions about the potential pitfalls of these non-traditional arrangements.

Cumhacht an Nádúir
Wednesday, TG4, 9.30pm

One of the benefits of the lockdowns and restrictions is that many of us have rediscovered the natural world outside our bubble, finding solace in parks, woodlands and coastal areas, not to mention our own gardens. In this two-part documentary, presenter Darach Ó Murchú is given a special dispensation to travel outside the 5km limit and goes on a breathtaking journey around the country, visiting some of Ireland’s most popular tourist sites – now quiet and uncrowded. With fewer visitors to the likes of Glendalough, Malin Head and the Blaskets, how has this affected local wildlife, and has the year-long pause in footfall sparked a resurgence of natural habitats? Ó Murchú will look at how the natural world has reacted to the absence of people, how our relationship with nature has changed, and how the lessons of the pandemic can spur us to greater conservation action in the future.

This Is My House
Wednesday, BBC1, 9pm

Thanks to lockdown, it’s been a while since some of us have been in another person’s house, so this new series could be onto a winner. Hosted by Stacey Dooley, it sees four people walk into a home and announce that it is theirs – but only one of them is telling the truth. It’s up to a pane that includes regulars comedians Bill Bailey, Emily Atack, Jamali Maddix and Judi Love and a weekly guest, to work out who really lives there. It may sound simple, but we’re promised that it’s trickier than it sounds and also challenges some of our prejudices about who lives in what kind of property. If the panel gets it right, the honest homeowner gets a cash prize. In the first episode, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen joins in the fun.

Building the Dream
Wednesday, More4, 9pm
Architectural designer Charlie Luxton returns with a 10th series, helping more people build affordable dream homes. Tonight he is in Hertfordshire, where he meets up with retired firefighter Bob and his wife Wendy, who have spent years looking for the perfect building plot – until they found it in their back garden. This creative couple want the perfect place to play music, paint and write. But the build turns into more of a drama than a comedy as they battle an expanding budget to finish the house.

First Dates Hotel
Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm
The singletons checking into the hotel for the first episode in a new series include Thalia (24), who has a phobia of kissing following a string of bad relationships. Can Essex lad Jack help her overcome her fear as they bond over their shared love of something many people would find scarier (sharks)? Meanwhile, Tony (79) is matched with Lesley, but political differences threaten to derail their date. And self-declared "only gay in the village" Winston is about to get a surprise.

Sort Your Life Out
Thursday, BBC1, 8pm
Following the launch of her book Tap to Tidy: Organising, Crafting & Creating Happiness in a Messy World, based on her Instagram stories, this pilot for a new home-improvement series sees Stacey Solomon coach half a dozen families over the course of a week to declutter their homes. The programme will also feature the expertise of organiser Dilly Carter, carpenter Robert Bent and cleaner Iwan Carrington. Families will move all their possessions into a warehouse, where they will be encouraged to recycle, donate and sell thousands of items.

Black Power: A British Story of Resistance
Thursday, BBC2, 9pm

Steve McQueen’s recent five-part anthology Small Axe has inspired two more documentaries. The first Small Axe film, Mangrove, told the story of the titular restaurant in west London and the landmark 1971 trial at the Old Bailey. Tonight’s documentary, directed by Bafta-nominated George Amponsah, reveals how the movement came into being in the late 1960s and casts fresh light on the story of the young black people who fought back against police brutality and racism. There are studies of black British leaders, including Altheia Jones-LeCointe, Darcus Howe and Roy Sawh, and a look at how Black Power grew out of the civil rights struggle in the US.

Other Voices
Thursday, RTÉ2, 11pm

Singer-songwriter Brigid Mae Power performs an array of her contemporary folk songs. SON aka Susan O’Neill returns to play a solo set having previously played with collaborator Mick Flannery during the Courage series. And for Those I Love – the project of multi-instrumentalist producer – David Balfe gives a deeply emotional performance.

Churchill
Friday, Channel 5, 9pm
Winston Churchill was an inspiring leader with a bulldog spirit who is perhaps Britain's most iconic prime minister. He was also a Great War hero, not to mention a mercurial adventurer, an author of gargantuan output, an unapologistic imperialist, and political chameleon who was both radical liberal and reactionary conservative. But behind all that lies a extremely complicated man. This major six-part series from award-winning filmmaker Chris Durlacher explores every facet of the man, beginning with a look at how Churchill's early life was driven by the desire to prove himself to his father, Lord Randolph Churchill.

Later – with Jools Holland
Friday, BBC2, 10pm
This week Jools will be chatting to singer and actor Olly Alexander, frontman of Years & Years and most recently star of hit drama It's a Sin. Olly will choose and discuss his favourite performances from the Later... archive and treat viewers to an impromptu performance of a Stevie Wonder classic with Jools at the piano. Making her UK TV debut is rising star Griff, who will perform her dark pop anthem Black Hole. Holland also invites composer and musical polymath Nitin Sawhney and the multi-talented cellist and singer Ayanna Witter-Johnson to his studio as they perform a beautiful duet called Movement II.

The Graham Norton Show
Friday, BBC1, 11.15pm
Graham chats to father-and-son duo Liam Neeson and Micheal Richardson, stars of comedy drama Made in Italy (see below), which follows a London artist and his estranged son mending their relationship while repairing a dilapidated house in Italy. Tahar Rahim, the breakout star of recent BBC drama The Serpent, promotes his new film The Mauritanian, a legal drama based on the 2015 memoir Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Salahi. The Good Wife actress Cush Jumbo reveals her part in the thriller The Beast Must Die. Graham's other guests are comedian Rob Brydon and the queen of Dragons' Den, Deborah Meaden. Singer-songwriter Laura Mvula provides the music.

ON DEMAND

The Irregulars
From Friday, Netflix

Readers of Arthur Conan Doyle will know the Irregulars, the motley crew of street urchins in Victorian London occasionally recruited by a certain Baker Street detective to help out in his efforts to solve crimes. Now, the gang take centre stage in this new series, and the famous sleuth is reduced to a supporting role. (It’s not the first time Sherlock Holmes has played second fiddle: think Millie Bobby Brown as the detective’s very clever sister in last year’s Netflix film Enola Holmes.) In this series, the Irregulars are no longer a little boys’ club, but a group of troubled teens led by a girl named Bea. And Holmes and Watson are not the benevolent sleuths we know, but a sinister, manipulative pair who use the teens to do their dirty crime-solving work. But when the crimes take on a dark, supernatural edge, Bea and her gang are on their own against dark forces that threaten to engulf London and the entire world. Crumbs!

Invincible
From Friday, Amazon Prime

Having a famous dad can be pretty embarrassing for a teenager, with friends teasing you every time he puts out another naff song or stars in another bad romcom. But imagine having a superhero for a dad – total reddener. Who wants to watch their aul fella flying around with his underpants on the outside? This adult animated series tells the story of 17-year-old Mark, son of Omni-Man, the biggest superhero on the planet. Luckily, dad’s costume isn’t too cringey, but how can Mark measure up to a guy who can knock supervillains into the next solar system? Luckily, super-powers are hereditary, and when Omni-Man begins teaching Mark how to do cool superhero stuff, the scene is set for global-level father-son tensions. An impressive voice cast includes Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Andrew Rannells and Mark Hamill, but if your kids are used to the anodyne Marvel violence, beware: this cartoon is washed in grown-up gore.

Thou Shalt Not Kill
From Friday, All 4
The Italian crime drama (original title: Non Uccidere) is back for its third series. Once again, Valeria Ferro (Miriam Leone) is solving murders alongside her colleagues, but following her mother's death and her sister's accident, she decides to call a halt to her investigation into her own family's torrid past – for now. So, with no distractions, she's able to throw herself into a grisly case involving an 18-year-old girl whose handless corpse has been discovered near an apiary. It transpires that the victim's twin sister was also found dead a few months earlier, having supposedly committed suicide by jumping down a well.

Nailed It: Double Trouble!
From Friday, Netflix
We may have enjoyed a recent celebrity version of The Great British Bake Off, but it lacks the drama and suspense of the regular run. We'll have to wait until next year for another of those, but filling the gap is Nailed It, Netflix's own baking competition. It started out by having three amateur bakers going head-to-head in a challenge to replicate complicated cakes and confectionary, with the best bagging a cash prize. We've had Christmas-themed series, and now we're being treated to a spin-off featuring teams of two. What they have in common is a passion for all things sweet. They'll be faced with challenges including recipes inspired by Greek mythology and cakes like Grandma used to make.

Made in Italy
From Friday, Amazon
A few years ago Micheál Richardson decided to follow in the footsteps of his father, mother, maternal grandparents and aunt by becoming an actor. He was born Micheál Neeson, and is the eldest son of Liam Neeson and his late wife Natasha Richardson (Micheál changed his surname in her honour). He stars alongside his father in this comedy-drama which bears some similarities to their own story. They play estranged duo Robert and Jack Foster, who are brought back together in Italy at a property owned by the pair; they inherited it following the sudden death of Robert's wife and Jack's mother in a tragic accident some years earlier. They bond while renovating the place, and begin to realise how important it is to their lives.

Contributing: PA