Patrick Melrose
Benedict Cumberbatch apparently had to “posh up” for this new adaptation of Edward St Aubyn’s novels. Accordingly, the titular Melrose is almost certainly set to be the most upmarket smackhead ever seen on television. Melrose is a rich, unhappy, emotionally detached loafer whose father’s death leads him towards an existential crisis.
Sunday 13 May, 9pm, Sky Atlantic
British Academy Television Awards 2018
Sue Perkins brings her safe pair of hands and facility for mild double entendre to the Royal Festival Hall as this year’s television heroes are celebrated and rewarded. Expect recognition for shows including Black Mirror, Line of Duty, The Crown and Three Girls.
Sunday 13 May, 8pm, BBC One
Eurovision Song Contest 2018
The highlight of late spring is here as the annual festival of Euro-kitsch and submerged geo-political beef returns. SuRie carries the UK’s hopes – it’s a good job we’ve done so much to endear ourselves to the rest of Europe lately …
Saturday 12 May, 8pm, BBC One
Humans
The domestic Westworld returns for a third series, although the UK branch of the paranoid android family deals in a much less glamorous kind of angst than its US counterparts. As we rejoin the now-conscious synths, many of them are confined to concentration camps while other are trying, with varying degrees of success, to pass themselves off as humans.
Thursday 17 May, 9pm, Channel 4
Myanmar’s Killing Fields
An extraordinary piece of mainly citizen journalism reveals scarcely believable levels of barbarity in Myanmar. Over several years, this important, agonising film documents an unfolding genocide in unbearable detail.
Monday 14 May, 10.20pm, Channel 4
Potiche
There’s a sweetly old-fashioned feel to François Ozon’s light, 70s-set comedy that’s demi-farce and demi-political satire. Catherine Deneuve is Suzanne, neglected trophy wife of umbrella factory boss Robert (Fabrice Luchini). Much of the charm is in Deneuve’s affectionate relationship with her ex-lover, town mayor Gérard Depardieu – the couple’s disco dance is a delight.
Sunday 13 May, 1.40am, Film4
Lucifer
Tom Ellis is nicely cast as the son of Satan: handsome yet saturnine and with a streak of mischief rather than outright malice. As the series returns, Chloe finds herself wondering whether Lucifer is quite as powerful as he seems. Meanwhile, the pair look into the murder of a stand-in actor.
Monday 14 May, 9pm, Fox
