OLD BOY’S TV CHOICE

OLD BOY’S TV CHOICE: 6 AUGUST 2022

🔘 - Standard definition

🤗 - Sounds good

🤔 - Might be worth a look

🆕 - New to TV

↔️ - Series

📀 - Film

👬 - For under-12s

📲 - Channel/time

***SUGGESTED RECORDING PICKS

From your TV channels

All content is presented in HD or UHD except where otherwise indicated

Regional variations may apply for certain programmes on BBC and the main ITV channel.

These listings apply to viewers in England on the Virgin Media platform. Sky Atlantic listings are included for those who also have the Now entertainment package.

The focus of these listings is on selected films less than 20 years old, dramas, music, new entertainment shows, important scheduled events (not sport) and documentaries.

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👁SATURDAY

6 August 2022

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📀PRIDE & PREJUDICE (2005)🤗

In late 18th century England, the five Bennett sisters go about finding suitable husbands. in line with their status. But a clash of personalities results when Elizabeth meets the rich and aloof Mr Darcey.

📲BBC2, 6pm

📀SPOTLIGHT (2015)🤗

Journalists from the Boston Globe investigate a cover-up of abuse within the Roman Catholic Church.

📲Sky Cinema Drama, 8pm

🆕PAUL SIMON: UNDER AFRICAN SKIES

This programme is followed by the Simon & Garfunkel Concert in Central Park at 10pm.

📲Sky Arts, 8pm

🆕SOUNDS OF BIRMINGHAM AT THE BBC

Artists include UB40, ELO and Duran Duran.

📲BBC2, 8pm

🆕📀THE GOOD NEIGHBOUR (2022) 🤔

When two friends abandon the scene of a fatal car accident, a frightening evening ensues.

📲Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm

🆕LES DAWSON: 30 FUNNIEST MOMENTS

📲Channel 5, 8pm

📀SECOND ACT (2018) 🤔

A woman is successful in applying for a job under false pretences.

📲Film4, 9pm

🆕DURAN DURAN: RADIO 2 IN CONCERT

Recorded last December.

📲BBC2, 9pm

📀🔘BAD SAMARITAN 🤗

Two burglars find that a woman is being held captive in the house they intended to burgle.

📲HorrorXtra, 9pm

🆕↔️🔘SECRET EATS WITH ADAM RICHMAN

📲Food Network, 9.30pm

🆕↔️MICAH RICHARDS’ PLAYER PRANKS

The Premier League defender plays tricks on our football celebrities.

📲Sky Max, 10pm

📀WIDOWS (2018) 🤗

A gangster widow needs to find £2million that her late husband owed to a gangster. With little alternative that she can think of, she decides to carry out a robbery that he had planned to carry out before he died. Her problem is to convince her fellow gangster wives to help her.

📲Channel 4, 11.30pm

📀ZODIAC (2006) 🤗

Thriller based on the true story of a serial killer who taunted the cops with cryptic clues.

📲BBC1, 11.40pm

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👁SUNDAY

7 August

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🆕↔️EISTEDDFOD 2022

Huw Stephens introduces the best performances from the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

📲BBC4, 7pm

🆕QUEEN VICTORIA AND THE BRITISH MAHARAJAH

Documentary.

📲Channel 4, 7pm

TOP PICK

🆕↔️VAN DER VALK 🤗

The updated version of this series returns. A solicitor is found murdered and her mutilated body is found with a puzzling note left by the perpetrator.

📲ITV, 8pm

🆕↔️THE REAL WINDSORS: QUEEN OF STEEL

📲Channel 4, 8pm

🆕THE MAGIC OF MOZART AT THE PROMS

📲BBC4, 8pm

⚽️🆕↔️ONE SHOT: THE FOOTBALL FACTORY

Documentary looking at ambitious footballers who want to play in the Premier League.

📲Sky Documentaries, 9pm

🆕↔️INDIA 1947: PARTITION IN COLOUR

📲Channel 4, 9pm

🆕LOVE ISLAND: THE REUNION

📲ITV2, 9pm

📀STAR TREK BEYOND (2016)🤗

An alien lures the Enterprise crew onto a faraway planet.

📲Channel 4, 10pm

🆕↔️CELEBRITY BEEF

Celebrity cook-off.

📲E!, 10pml

🆕📀BLUE BAYOU (2021)🤔

A tattoo artist living with his pregnant wife and her daughter unexpectedly faces deportation to Korea.

📲Sky Cinema Premiere, 10.30pm

📀MIDNIGHT SPECIAL (2015)🤗

Sci-Fi drama. A father of a boy with strange psychic powers rescues him from a cult. But then the FBI pursue him to learn more about the boy.

📲BBC1, 11.30pm

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👁MONDAY

8 August

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TOP PICK

↔️CHERNOBYL 🤗

Another chance to see this excellent drama about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that occurred in 1986.

📲Sky Atlantic, 5pm

TOP PICK

↔️THE NIGHT OF 🤗

Excellent drama series in which a college student is arrested for murder.

📲Sky Atlantic, 6.10pm

🆕SPORT RELIEF ALL STAR GAMES

Celebrities compete in this fundraising event.

📲BBC1, 7pm

❗️LIVE ❗️

🆕COMMONWEALTH GAMES CLOSING CEREMONY

📲BBC1, 8pm

🆕HOTEL CHOCOLAT: INSIDE THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

📲Channel 4, 8pm

🆕↔️LONG LOST FAMILY: WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

📲ITV, 9pm

🆕THE FRINGE, FAME AND ME

📲BBC Scotland, 10pm

🆕↔️LOVE ISLAND USA

📲ITV Be, 10pm

TOP PICK

↔️MANHUNT 🤗

Second series.A review into the case of a serial rapist is conducted, and it becomes clear that some additional work is required to follow up leads that were neglected first time.

📲ITV3, 10pm

TOP PICK

↔️INNOCENT 🤗

A man is acquitted of murder, having already served seven years for the murder of his wife. However, he is determined not to let the killer get away with it.

📲ITV3, 11pm

📀TULIP FEVER (2017) 🤔

A young married woman falls for the artist commissioned to paint her portrait during the tulip mania of 17th century Amsterdam.

📲BBC2, 11.15pm

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👁TUESDAY

9 August

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📀NO SUDDEN MOVE (2021)🤗

In 1954 Detroit, small-time criminals are hired to steal a document. When their heist goes horribly wrong, their search for who hired them - and for what purpose - sends them through the echelons of the race-torn, rapidly changing city.

📲Sky Cinema Hits, 5.50pm

🆕↔️WOMEN’S HEALTH: BREAKING THE TABOOS

📲Channel 5, 7pm

🆕TOM DALEY: ILLEGAL TO BE ME

📲BBC1, 9pm

🆕↔️SECRETS OF THE SPIES

📲ITV, 9pm

🆕↔️PRIMAL SURVIVOR: MIGHTY MEKONG

📲National Geographic, 9pm

🆕↔️FIRST BLOOD

📲CI, 9pm

🆕CRYPTOCURRENCY: HAS THE BUBBLE BURST?

📲Channel 4, 10pm

📀UNFAITHFUL (2022) 🤗

When a suburban wife meets a Manhattan book dealer and begins an affair, her husband begins to suspect something and hires a detective. Soon learning the truth, the husband takes matters into his own hands and decides to confront the wife’s lover.

📲Film4, 11.10pm

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👁WEDNESDAY

10 August

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🆕↔️CELEBRITY MASTERCHEF

📲BBC1, 8pm

🆕↔️CHANGING ROOMS

The interior designers head to Tunbridge Wells.

📲Channel 4, 8pm

TOP PICK

🆕↔️SHETLAND 🤗

DI Jimmy Perez returns to work following his suspension, but he has become disillusioned and starts to re-evaluate his life. In the meantime, the worried parents of Connor Cairns report his disappearance.

📲BBC1, 9pm

📀🔘SURROGATES (2009)🤗

In a future when people live their lives through surrogates rather than venture outdoors, a cop has to venture into the real world to investigate a murder.

📲GREAT! movies, 9pm

📀🔘YOU’RE NEXT (2011)🤗

A family guest proves to be their saviour when a couple suffer a home invasion while celebrating their wedding anniversary and the reunification of their family.

📲Legend, 9pm

🆕↔️#TEXTMEWHENYOUGETHOME

📲CI, 9pm

📀🔘THE ISLAND (2005)🤗

When resident Lincoln Six Echo discovers the chilling truth about the futuristic colony he lives in, he tries to escape with his friend, Jordan Two Delta.

📲5STAR, 10pm

↔️BLOODS 🤔

Wendy and Maleek find themselves involved in an investigation into malpractice.

📲Sky Showcase, 10.30pm

📀THE DUCHESS (2008)🤗

Based on the life of the 18th century Duchess of Devonshire, a bright, popular aristocrat trapped in a loveless marriage and who has to face personal conflicts, including living with her husband’s mistress and falling in love with a young politician.

📲BBC1, 10.40pm

📀MISS SLOANE (2016)🤗

Political drama in which a lobbyist attempts to face down the gun lobby to ensure that a gun control law is passed.

📲Channel 4, 1.05am

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👁THURSDAY

11 August

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🆕↔️THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NEW YORK CITY

📲ITV Be, 5pm

🆕↔️GEORGE CLARKE’S OLD HOUSE, NEW HOUSE

📲Channel 4, 8pm

📀MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN (2012) 🤗

Drama from Salman Rushdie’s novel about a boy who was born in Bombay who grows up with special powers.

📲BBC4, 8pm

🆕↔️AMBULANCE

📲BBC1, 9pm

⚽️🆕↔️FOOTBALL DREAMS: THE ACADEMY

Developing the talent of aspiring young footballers at Crystal Palace FC Academy.

📲Channel 4, 9pm

🆕↔️THE RAP GAME U.K.

The search for a new rap star commences.

📲BBC3, 9pm

🆕↔️INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM MAGIC

This programme explains how things will look ‘when’ aliens arrive on Earth.

📲Sky History, 9pm

📀BLUE STORY (2019)🤔

Two friends find themselves on opposite sides in the gang warfare taking place in London because of where they live.

📲BBC3, 9.55pm

🆕🔘MOST TERRIFYING PLACES IN AMERICA: DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND

📲Really, 10pm

📀SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN (2011)🤗

Surprisingly good film, considering the banality of the title. A sheikh comes up with a seemingly harebrained scheme to introduce salmon to the Yemen.

📲BBC2, 11.15pm

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👁FRIDAY

12 August

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🆕REVOLUTION OF SOUND: TANGERINE DREAM

📲Sky Arts, 7pm

🆕OUR LIVES

📲BBC1, 7.30pm

🆕📀BLACK SITE (2022) 🤔

A group of officers based in a labyrinthine must fight for their lives against Hatchett, a brilliant and infamous high-value detainee. When he escapes, his mysterious and deadly agenda has far-reaching and dire consequences.

📲Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm

🆕↔️BRITAIN’S POSHEST FARM SHOP

📲Channel 5, 8pm

🆕I DREAM OF WIRES

The resurgence of the modular synthesizer.

📲Sky Arts, 8.45pm

🆕📀SPREE (2020) 🤔

This crime comedy drama is about a man who decides to increase his online presence by killing people. Don’t try this at home…

📲Film4, 9pm

📀🔘THE LOFT (2013)🤗

Paranoia grips a group of married men who find the body of a dead woman in the penthouse they share for extramarital trysts.

📲Legend, 9pm

🆕WILD WAY OF THE VIKINGS

📲BBC2, 9.30pm

📀GET OUT (2017)🤗

Allison’s boyfriend is anxious about meeting her posh parents but he is not prepared for what happens when he comes to stay for the weekend.

📲Film4, 10.50pm

🆕↔️RAMY 🤔

Return of the comedy drama. Ramy’s behaviour causes concern to his friends.

📲Channel 4, 11.05pm

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OLD BOY’S TV CHOICE: Previous week

🔘 - Standard definition

🤗 - Sounds good

🤔 - Might be worth a look

🆕 - New to TV

↔️ - Series

📀 - Film

👬 - For under-12s

📲 - Channel/time

***SUGGESTED RECORDING PICKS

From your TV channels

All content is presented in HD or UHD except where otherwise indicated

Regional variations may apply for certain programmes on BBC and the main ITV channel.

These listings apply to viewers in England on the Virgin Media platform. Sky Atlantic listings are included for those who also have the Now entertainment package.

The focus of these listings is on selected films less than 20 years old, dramas, music, new entertainment shows, important scheduled events (not sport) and documentaries.

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👁SATURDAY

30 July 2022

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🆕TOMMY COOPER: 30 FUNNIEST MOMENTS

📲Channel 5, 8pm

TOP PICK

🆕↔️SURREALESTATE 🤗

Paranormal drama series about a real estate team who make a speciality out of dealing with haunted houses.

📲Sky Sci-Fi, 9pm

📀LE MANS ‘66 (2019)🤗

Automotive designer Carroll Shelby and race car driver Ken Miles build a revolutionary vehicle for Ford to compete against the race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.

📲Channel 4, 9pm

📀🔘ODD THOMAS (2013)🤔

A psychic takes it upon himself to deal with paranormal predators in the town in which he lives.

📲Legend, 9pm

📀PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009) 🤗

Depression-era John Dillinger becomes the fledgling FBI’s most wanted criminal and a folk hero to much of America’s downtrodden public.

📲Virgin Ultra HD, 9.05pm

⚽️🆕↔️THE MEN WHO SOLD THE WORLD CUP

📲Quest, 10pm

📀🔘MOTHER’S DAY (2011)🤔

Crazed members of a sadistic family return to their childhood home to terrorise the new owners.

📲Legend, 10.55pm

🆕🔘UNRAVELED: TOXIC TESTIMONY

📲Quest Red, 11pm

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👁SUNDAY

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🆕↔️EXTREME HEIGHTS REPAIR TEAM

The Extreme Heights Repair Team place 13 targets on one of America’s tallest dams in three days, then install bird sensors on a wind turbine.

📲Dave, 6pm

🆕↔️CLEANING BRITAIN’S GREATEST TREASURES

📲More4, 8pm

🆕WAR AND JUSTICE

Documentary looking at convicted battlefield murderer Alexander Blackman.

📲Channel 4, 9pm

📀SHOT CALLER (2017)

A Californian stockbroker is arrested and charged with a fatal DUI accident and on his lawyer’s advice he takes a plea deal which sees him incarcerated to 16 months in prison. There he becomes involved with a violent white supremacist gang.

📲Film4, 11.25pm

📀INVICTUS (2009)🤗

Nelson Mandela decides to ensure that his Springboks players are in shape to play New Zealand’s All Blacks.

📲BBC1, 11.30pm

📀🔘LIFE (2017)🤗

Terror strikes when astronauts aboard the International Space Station discover a rapidly evolving and highly intelligent life form from Mars which threatens Earth. The crew of the Space Station must act quickly to save Earth.

📲5STAR, 11.30pm

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👁MONDAY

——————-

🆕↔️CASH IN THE ATTIC

📲Channel 5, 6pm

🆕↔️MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA

📲W, 7pm

🆕SUSAN CALMAN’S GRAND WEEK BY THE SEA

📲Channel 5, 8pm

🆕↔️BELOW DECK

📲E4, 8pm

🆕↔️BLUEWATER SAFARI

A look at the most remote parts of the Coral Sea.

📲Virgin Ultra HD, 8.15pm

TOP PICK

🆕↔️LA BREA 🤗

When a massive sinkhole opens in Los Angeles, the Harris family is split in two - Eve and her son end up in a mysterious primeval world and Gavin discovers that the visions that have plagued him for years might hold the key to bringing them home.

📲Channel 5, 10pm

(Note: The remainder of this series is on Paramount+ only)

TOP PICK

↔️MANHUNT 🤗

Another chance to see the crime drama about serial killer Levi Bellfield.

📲ITV3, 10pm

🆕WE MET IN VIRTUAL REALITY

📲Sky Documentaries, 2am

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👁TUESDAY

——————-

🆕↔️THE ART OF THE GARDEN

📲Sky Arts, 7pm

📀THE STATION AGENT (2003)🤗

A lonely dwarf, played by Peter Dinklage, inherits a closed down railway station, where he makes some friends at last. A fine, warm-hearted comedy.

📲Sky Cinema Comedy, 8pm

🆕↔️ALASKA: THE NEW GENERATION

📲National Geographic, 8pm

🆕↔️SECRETS OF THE ZOO

📲National Geographic Wild, 8pm

🆕↔️WORST HOUSE ON THE STREET

📲Channel 4, 8pm

TOP PICK

🆕↔️IRMA VEP 🤗

Comedy drama series. A Hollywood actress who is tired of her superhero role goes to Paris to start afresh and avoid further stereotyping.

📲Sky Atlantic, 9pm

🆕↔️PRISONER OF LOVE

📲TLC, 9pm

🆕VICKY PATTISON: ALCOHOL, DAD AND ME

📲Channel 4, 10pm

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👁WEDNESDAY

——————-

TOP PICK

🆕↔️NEW AMSTERDAM 🤗

Max and Sharpe wake up to a new, more personal dynamic; Iggy calls upon an old contact to help with an explosive situation; Bloom begins a tricky dynamic with her new Emergency Department residents; Reynolds finds himself in an awkward situation.

📲Sky Witness, 9pm

TOP PICK

🆕↔️MY LIFE IS MURDER 🤗

When a woman shoots a stranger at point blank range, it appears to be an open and shut case. However, investigator Alexa Crowe discovers that all is not as it seems.

📲Alibi, 10pm

📀OSLO (2021)🤗

The true story of how a team of Israelis, Palestinians and Norwegians worked to achieve the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords.

📲Sky Cinema Drama, 10pm

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👁THURSDAY

——————-

🆕↔️CODE 404 🤗

Major and Carver find themselves dealing with a dangerous serial killer.

📲Sky Comedy and Sky Showcase, 9pm

🆕↔️🔘CRIME SCENE CONFIDENTIAL

📲Quest Red, 9pm

🆕↔️AFTER THE FIRST 48

📲CI, 10pm

📀🔘A GOOD WOMAN IS HARD TO FIND (2019) 🤗

A recently widowed young mother will go to great lengths to protect her children as she seeks the truth behind her husband’s murder.

📲HorrorXtra, 10.55pm

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👁FRIDAY

——————-

🆕📀FATHER OF THE BRIDE (2022)🤗

A new version of the story. A father must come to grips with his daughter’s upcoming wedding and handle multiple relationships within his sprawling Cuban American family.

📲Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm

🆕STEVIE NICKS: ROCK A LITTLE

📲Sky Arts, 8.15pm

🆕↔️THE BAIN FAMILY MURDERS

Police question David about his relationship with his dad and Robin suffers professional setbacks. But who is the real head of the household?

📲More4, 9pm

📀🔘IT FOLLOWS (2014) 🤗

A teenager finds herself being followed by different people who just keep coming towards her. The stalker is only seen by her and she realises that somehow she must pass on this curse to another person to get rid of him.

📀HorrorXtra, 9pm

🆕SOME MOTHERS DO ‘AVE ‘EM: A COMEDY CLASSIC

A look at how the series was made, which is followed by a profile of Michael Crawford at 10pm on this channel.

📲Channel 5, 9pm

__________________

A new series of Start-Up (Virgin Ultra HD) and Brittania (Sky Atlantic) start this week.

I have followed ‘Start-Up’ from the beginning and have really enjoyed this series. It follows a group of young people who start up a cryptocurrency business. If you have not seen this to date, all three series are available on Virgin On Demand and on Amazon Prime.

Brittania I have yet to see, but it looks to be pretty outrageous and so it should be fun (if not rather near the knuckle!). If you missed the first series, Sky viewers can watch it on demand, but Virgin viewers will need to access both series via Now (TV).

Only two weeks to wait for the much improved Autumn season!

The updated listings for next week are available in post #2 above.

Next week’s listings are displayed on post #2 above.

For the beginning of the Autumn season, some Sky channels change from 1 September. Sky One is replaced by Sky Showcase and there is a new channel as well - Sky Max.

Many programmes on Sky Showcase are highlights of other Sky channels, and are simulcast with them. All in all, this does not mean we are getting lots of new content, and I suspect that this re-arrangement is cleverly disguised to cover up the reality that most of the new US content is going directly to the streamers now.

Hopefully, the promised additional programming from Sky Studios will help to plug the gap, along with some original stuff from Comcast.

Top Picks this week include ‘Vigil’ which sounds very promising.

3 September 2021

This week’s top dramas are ‘Snitch’ (Virgin Ultra HD), a repeat of ‘Limetown’ (Alibi) and new drama ‘Wolfe’ (Sky Max/Sky Showcase) - see #2 above.

As the Autumn Season progresses, more new dramas should be appearing on our screens, and as this happens, we will be concentrating more on these than the lower quality programming to which we are regularly subjected during the Summer Season. I am pleased to note that a lot more watchable new series will be available soon, despite the rise of the streamers and after the hiatus caused by the recent lockdown.

Top dramas this week are ‘Endeavour’ (ITV, 8pm Wednesday) which is a bit old school, but interesting storylines nonetheless; ‘Manhunt’ (ITV3, 10pm Monday) which is well worth seeing if you missed it first time around; ‘Help’ (Channel 4, 9pm Thursday), a powerful story starring Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham; and ‘All Creatures Great and Small (Channel 5, 9pm, Thursday).

See post # 2 above for details.

W/c 18 September 2022

Nothing much stands out in the listings this coming week - we still await those nice new programmes for the autumn season (see #2). One or two tasty bits to watch, though!

‘Hollington Drive’ and ‘The Undoing’ are two dramas to watch out for in particular this week, although ‘Powers’ also sounds promising if you enjoy stories about superheroes!

See #2 for details.

I am pleased to report that things are looking up on the drama front this week, although most of the programmes are repeats which you may well have missed. For example ‘Underground’ on Virgin Media Ultra HD (Monday) about a man who owns a slave plantation who wants to be a US senator, ‘Your Honour’ and ‘Succession’ on Sky Atlantic (Sunday and Monday respectively), and series 5 of ‘Blue Murder’, with previous series available on demand.

There is also a repeat of ‘Honour’ on Thursday, about a woman who goes missing after repeated attempts to get the police involved. It doesn’t stop there - another chance to see ‘Guilt’ is provided on Friday, in which two brothers try to cover up a road traffic accident.

In the week commencing 2 October, we have two new series beginning - Ridley Road from the BBC on Sunday about the British fascist threat in the 1960s, and ‘Valley of Tears’ about the Yom Kippur War in 1973, in which Israel faced a threat of annihilation.

Together with some decent films to watch, next week is not an altogether bad one! Full details at #2.

‘Angela Black’, ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ and ‘Cobra: Cyberwar’ are the top pick dramas showing in the week commencing 9 October.

Full details of recommended listings are shown in #2 above.

The recommended listings for the week commencing 16 October are now on post #2.

A key new one-off drama this week is ‘The Trick’, which follows the hapless scientist as he is embroiled in the events surrounding the climate scandal.

Another scandal involving President Clinton and intern Monica Lewinsky is dramatised in ‘Impeachment: American Crime Story’, the second good drama this week from the BBC.

‘Succession’ and ‘Shetland’ also make a welcome return to our screens.

Full details above.

Ray Donovan and Chernobyl are repeated and are two of the three of my top picks this coming week commencing 23 October (see #2 above).

The only original top pick is Temple, which returns with a new series this week.

All of these shows including the previous series will be on demand (or on Now TV for the Sky Atlantic shows not on Virgin Media).