In the Long Run
Actors turning their hands to making fiction isn’t always a cause for celebration. But Idris Elba’s new creation (he also stars) is a delight. Set in and around a London tower block in the mid-80s, it’s a warm and acute rendering of family life, happily wallowing in period nostalgia but probing – albeit very gently – the racial politics of the day.
Thursday 27 March, 10pm, Sky1
Come Home
Christopher Eccleston activates his trusty tormented alpha-male mode in this drama about the breakup of a seemingly happy couple. This week, Eccleston’s Greg gets to play the innocent; next time his wife Maria (Paula Malcomson) says her piece.
Tuesday 27 March, 9pm, BBC One
Indian Summer School
Can unruly Brit kids be redeemed by exposure to discipline, structure and punishment? It sounds like the kind of question Jacob Rees-Mogg might pose. But undeterred, Channel 4 is packing five lads off to a strict Indian school for a purgative sorting-out.
Thursday 29 March, 9pm, Channel 4
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Netflix’s excellent adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s much-loved children’s books returns for another series of its bone-dry yet fantastical gothic fancies. As we left the blameless but ill-starred Baudelaire orphans, they were still entangled with villainous Count Olaf. Will their fortunes improve? Don’t bet on it.
Available from Friday 30 March, Netflix
R Kelly: Sex, Girls and Videotapes
The wildly successful R&B singer R Kelly denies the recent accusations that he keeps women in a “cult”-like environment. But these are just the latest set of deeply disturbing allegations against him. This documentary speaks to members of Kelly’s family and inner circle and also to some of his former lovers in an attempt to get to the truth.
Available from Wednesday 28 March, BBC Three
Battle of the Sexes
Emma Stone and Steve Carell are perfectly cast in this funny but pointed comedy dramatising the famous 1973 tennis challenge between grand slam-winning legend of the women’s game Billie Jean King and buffoonish, chauvinist ex-player Bobby Riggs.
Available from Monday 26 March, Sky Store
Lee and Dean
A new comedy for Friday nights, Lee and Dean is an improvised affair set in Stevenage and starring its first-time creators Mark O’Sullivan and Miles Chapman as the titular builders and banterous besties. It’s a touch broad and not a little crass on a first viewing but let’s hope it beds in and finds a little subtlety.
Friday 30 March, 10pm, Channel 4
Ear Hustle
Earlonne Woods is currently in San Quentin state prison, serving 31 years to life for attempted second-degree robbery. But, happily, that hasn’t stopped him from making a podcast. And it’s a very good one too – this second season begins with more fascinating, heartbreaking and even amusing revelations from inside the razor wire.
Podcast
Rapture
An eight-part documentary series on the past, present and future of US hip-hop that gives equal episodic space to bona fide legends such as Nas and comparative newcomers like 2 Chainz and Rapsody. Enjoyment will, of course, vary from subject to subject but hip-hop’s regional, generational and gender variations are explored in satisfying detail.
Available from Friday 30 March, Netflix
A Late Quartet
This delicate, moving character study focuses on the internal dynamics of an acclaimed New York string quartet. It is led by cellist Peter (Christopher Walken), whose announcement that he is suffering the onset of Parkinson’s throws his colleagues (including Philip Seymour Hoffman) into confusion. The bitter winter setting reflects the melancholy mood.
Saturday 24 March, 10pm, BBC Two
