Television
Normal People
Sally Rooney’s 2018 novel was the literary sensation of that year, captivating readers with its simmering story of two young lovers, Marianne and Connell, struggling through class differences as they drift from high school to university. This 12-part adaptation brings Rooney’s text to life with its slow-burning portrayal. All available on iPlayer.
Monday 27 April, 9pm, BBC One
Hollywood
Ryan Murphy’s Netflix production deal continues, following last year’s The Politician, with this glossy miniseries focusing on the golden era of 1930s Hollywood and its wannabe stars. David Corenswet plays acting hopeful Jack, who gets sucked into a seedier side of Tinseltown thanks to the pandering of a local gas stop owner.
Friday 1 May, Netflix
Paul Hollywood Eats Japan
Bread obsessive Paul Hollywood tours the nation best known for its rice and noodles in search of the perfect loaf in this new series. He begins in Tokyo with a meal in a prison-themed restaurant before karting his way through the city.
Tuesday 28 April, 9pm, Channel 4
Blood
This surprisingly gripping Irish drama about a family torn apart by lies returns for its second series. Patriarch Jim (Adrian Dunbar), now stripped of his medical licence, finds his family embroiled in yet more conflict, while a tragedy is slowly pieced together.
Monday 27 April to Friday 1 May, 9pm, Channel 5
Trying
Esther Smith and Rafe Spall play a mildly chaotic thirtysomething couple with an enviable London flat in this new comedy-drama. Desperate to have kids, the pair decide on adoption when they’re told they can’t conceive, a leap into the unknown that sees them re-evaluate their lives.
Friday 1 May, Apple TV+
Stacey Dooley: Costa del Narcos
The documentary-maker turns her sights on southern Spain and its organised drugs trade. Famed for its sunny beaches, the region has recently become a desired route for smuggling cocaine. Dooley gains unique access to the war between the police, the dealers and the smugglers.
Sunday 26 April, 9pm, BBC Two
Van Der Valk
Marc Warren stars as the cynical but street-smart Dutch detective Piet Van Der Valk in this remake of the series that ran sporadically between 1972 and 1992. It is split into three feature-length episodes, with the first about the seemingly unrelated murders of two innocents in the midst of an election. Warren is joined by a sterling support cast including Maimie McCoy as his feather-ruffling partner Lucienne.
Sunday 26 April, 8pm, ITV
Code 404
Shot down in the line of duty and left for dead, DI John Major (Daniel Mays) is given another lease on life thanks to a bionic intervention in this comedy-drama. He teams up with old partner DI Roy Carver (Stephen Graham) to find his killer but his reanimation has left him more than worse for wear – and there is trouble at home with his wife Kelly.
Wednesday 29 April, 10pm, Sky One
Extracurricular
This ultra-violent South Korean drama focuses on Oh Ji-soo, a quietly ambitious high-school student who, after the bell rings, funds his university hopes by committing unimaginable crimes. His lucrative sideline is upended when three fellow students involve themselves in his misdemeanours.
Wednesday 29 April, Netflix
Upload
Parks and Recreation co-creator Greg Daniels returns with this high-concept sci-fi comedy about life after death. The lantern-jawed Robbie Amell plays guileless hunk Nathan who, just prior to his death, agrees to be uploaded into a digital afterlife, only to fall for Nora (Andy Allo), the earthbound guide to his new world. Also features a talking dog.
Friday 1 May, Amazon Prime Video
Reasons to Be Cheerful With Matt Lucas
The Thank You Baked Potato hitmaker and new Bake Off presenter Matt Lucas fronts this comedy series. Written by Harry Hill, each week Lucas celebrates the ways in which people and pets, both famous or otherwise, are entertaining themselves in lockdown. Guests will include Rachel Riley and Basil Brush.
Sunday 26 April, 7.30pm, Channel 4
Dispatches from Elsewhere
This quirky creation from Jason Segel sees him playing lonesome wanderer Peter, who is brought into the orbit of three other ineffable Philadelphians played by Sally Field, Eve Lindley and André Benjamin thanks to a mysterious game designed by the company Jejune. All is watched over by CEO Richard E Grant.
Wednesday 29 April, 9pm, AMC UK, BT TV
Podcasts
Frank Skinner’s Poetry Podcast
Comedian Frank Skinner branches out into the slightly more florid world of poetry in this new podcast. As well as reading extracts from familiar and lesser-known works, he also promises to dissect this selection of his favourite verses with his trademark wry observations.
Podcast
Way Down in the Hole
Part of a growing trend of episode-by-episode TV show podcasts, this effort from The Ringer tackles that televisual magnum opus, The Wire. Hosts Jemele Hill and Van Lathan scrutinise every last detail of the drug-war drama, from character motivations to the show’s racial politics.
Podcast
Films
Moffie (18)
(Oliver Hermanus) 104 mins
This looks to be a breakthrough for the South African director, who has quietly carved out a reputation with festival hits such as Beauty and The Endless River. Moffie – whose title is a homophobic slur in Afrikaans – is about two soldiers who are forced to keep their relationship secret while serving in the South African army in 1981.
Curzon Home Cinema
Beastie Boys Story (No cert)
(Spike Jonze) 119 mins
Spike Jonze reunites with the Beastie Boys, with whom he made a string of memorable music videos in the 90s, to tell the band’s tale. Derived from a stage show Jonze put on with Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz, it also pays tribute to Adam Yauch, who died in 2012.
Apple TV+
Extraction (No cert)
(Sam Hargrave) 117 mins
Joe Russo took time out of his heavy-lifting superhero-movie activities to write this Bangladesh-set thriller, with Chris Hemsworth as a mercenary rescuing an Indian kid who has been sequestered in Dhaka. Samuel Hargrave, Chris Evans’s one-time Captain America stunt double, directs.
Netflix
A Russian Youth (No cert)
(Alexander Zolotukhin) 72 mins
An experimental feature from Sokurov protege Zolotukhin, a study of a simple peasant who enlists in Russia’s disastrous first world war campaign, intercut with an orchestra rehearsal whose music underscores the fighting.
Mubi from Thu
Sea Fever (15)
(Neasa Hardiman) 95 mins
An Irish-made monster B-movie set on a fishing trawler. Far out to sea, the crew encounter an infectious parasite/organism, and it’s down to marine biologist Hermione Corfield to figure out how to defeat it.
Digital platforms
The Taming of the Shrew (U)
(Franco Zeffirelli) 122 mins
Tempestuous lovers Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, hot from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, were a magnificent pairing for Franco Zeffirelli’s 1967 tilt at Shakespeare’s battle of the sexes. The couple sank bags of their own money into the production: Burton’s Petruchio talks the talk, but Taylor’s fiery Katharina walks the walk.
Saturday, 11.50am, Sony Movies Classic
