Bodyguard
Fingernails finally grown back after the fourth series of Line of Duty? Well, be prepared to chew them down to the whites again as that show’s creator, Jed Mercurio, presents another tense thriller. This one stars Keeley Hawes as a hard-nosed home secretary, and Richard Madden as the man tasked with protecting her – but who might be her biggest threat instead.
Sunday, 9pm, BBC One
News Thing
Formerly airing on – of all places – Russia Today, Sam Delaney’s political variety show finds a less problematic home as a podcast. Athletico Mince’s Andy Dawson joins him for discussion on the pressing issues like Boris Johnson’s recent travails and whether you should pay £350 for a Bananarama ticket.
Podcast
Sharp Objects
After a summer of deliciously dark southern gothic, the Amy Adams-starring series reaches its conclusion as we find out just what happened to the Wind Gap girls. One thing is for sure: Patricia Clarkson’s Adora is one of the great bad mums of TV history.
Monday, 9pm, Sky Atlantic
The Great British Bake Off
Despite a dramatic shake-up to the personnel and a controversial move to Channel 4 in 2017, The Great British Bake Off behemoth marches on, powered by the jarring but utterly inspired pairing of Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding, and the tart putdowns of Prue Leith. In Tuesday’s opener, she and Paul Hollywood sink their teeth into biscuits week.
Tuesday, 8pm, Channel 4
Agendum
The spirit of Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci’s On the Hour is very much present in this satire on news magazine shows, which airs its second episode this week. Agendum is written by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris, who are also responsible for Philomena Cunk’s garbled word salads, so expect absurdism galore as well as pointed and very funny digs at the pomposity of the Today programme.
Tuesday, 11pm, Radio 4
Upstart Crow
Series three of that most remarkable of things: a recent Ben Elton comedy that isn’t unwatchable. David Mitchell’s Shakespeare is trying to pen his new play A Midsummer Night’s Dream – perhaps an encounter with an ass’s head and some love potion might provide inspiration ...
Wednesday, 8.30pm, BBC Two
Killer in Our Classroom: Never Again
#NeverAgain was the rallying cry heard across Twitter in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida earlier this year. This doc follows the remarkable teenagers who launched the movement as they campaign for stricter gun control in the US.
Wednesday, BBC Three
Who Is America?
While it couldn’t be called an unqualified success, Sacha Baron Cohen’s assault on the US has definitely pulled off a handful of jaw-dropping gotcha moments, and even prompted the resignation of a Republican lawmaker. It concludes on Monday with an episode that should hopefully feature one Sarah Palin.
Monday, 10.30pm, Channel 4
This Sporting Life
In this ferocious debut, director Lindsay Anderson captures the brutality of David Storey’s bleak novel. The “sporting” is deeply ironic in the story of Richard Harris‘s raging Frank Machin, a miner-turned-rugby league star who can’t separate violence on the field from his personal life, foolishly spurning the love of widow Rachel Roberts.
Monday, 11.30pm, True Movies
Jack Ryan
A very big year for A Quiet Place director John Krasinski continues with a starring role in the latest adaptation of Tom Clancy’s series of spy novels. He is a likable, unfussy presence as Jack Ryan, an analyst tasked with tracking down a terrorist threat, while building an uneasy report with his new boss, played with typical swagger by The Wire’s Wendell Pierce.
Friday, Amazon Prime Video
