The League of Gentlemen: Live Again!
Despite being just about the busiest men in comedy, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith found time last year to reunite for a deliciously dark LoG live show. Now it comes to TV, complete with appearances from Edward and Tubbs, Herr Lipp and – shudder – Papa Lazarou.
Sunday 21 April, 10pm, BBC Two
Chambers
Sivan Alyra Rose stars as a heart transplant recipient who starts experiencing strange after-effects from her surgery in this deeply creepy horror series, complete with jump scares, gory visions and an unsettling turn from Uma Thurman as the mother of the deceased donor.
From Friday 26 April, Netflix
Avicii: True Stories
Airing a year on from his death at 28, this doc looks at the life and career of Tim Bergling, known to most by his moniker Avicii - from the initial worldwide success to the mental health problems which would later prove fatal. It serves as both a tender tribute and a cautionary tale about the pressures of fame.
Saturday 20 April, BBC Three
The Importance of Being Oscar
A heavyweight docu-drama with the elegant flourish of its subject, this one-off recalls the life and turbulent times of the writer. The cast assembled for its dramatic reconstructions is almost unnecessarily starry – Freddie Fox, Claire Skinner, Anna Chancellor and James Fleet all feature – while Stephen Fry and Wilde’s grandson are among the talking heads.
Saturday 20 April, 9pm, BBC Two
The Thread
One of the most inventive – not to mention informative – podcasts around, this effort from web magazine Ozy returns to tie together major and minor events from history. This time around the focus is on those who have used insanity as a defence in court, a theme that allows host Sean Braswell to explore everything from the Aurora cinema shooting to the notorious case of Lorena Bobbitt.
Podcast
Bonding
Fifty Shades having taken BDSM out of the dungeon, Netflix now feel emboldened enough to make a sweet, snappy comedy series on the subject, with Zoe Levin as an NYC grad student working as a dominatrix, and Brendan Scannell as her gay BFF/assistant.
From Wednesday 24 April, Netflix
Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema
The Observer critic’s entertaining dissection of film tropes and treasures returns for a special on disaster movies. From the Titanic going under to the carnage of the Godzilla franchise, he looks at how the genre has stirred our imaginations and tapped into our collective fears.
Monday 22 April, 9pm, BBC Four
The Looming Tower
For those without Amazon Prime, here’s a free-to-air chance to catch the big-budget drama, adapted from Lawrence Wright’s book about the events that led to the 9/11 attacks. Jeff Daniels and Tahar Rahim play US agents whose lives become intertwined with the web of conspiracies they are trying to untangle.
Friday 26 April, 9.30pm, BBC Two
Heal the Living
Adapted from Maylis de Kerangal’s award-winning novel, Katell Quillévéré’s singular French drama, which premiered at the 2016 Venice film festival, follows the journey of a human heart from a teenage crash victim to a fiftysomething mother (Anne Dorval) in the last stages of cardiac disease. It deftly blends lyrical visuals and authentic storytelling.
Monday 22 April, 2am, Channel 4
Sex Tape
Well, it wouldn’t be Friday night without Channel 4 forcing some watch-through-your-fingers gratuitous nudity on the nation. This new series sees couples attempt to solve their relationship problems by getting the camcorder – and everything else – out, before relationship therapist Anjula Mutanda talks them through what they’re doing right and oh so wrong.
Friday 26 April, 10pm, Channel 4
