The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
After hoovering up every award going with its first series, this Rachel Brosnahan-starring comedy-drama about a 1950s housewife-turned-fledgling standup returns with lofty expectations to meet. Thankfully, advance word suggests it’s as funny and pointed as ever, as Midge Maisel decamps to Paris looking to succeed in an overwhelmingly blokey industry.
From Wednesday 5 December, Amazon Prime Video
Have I Got News for You
Albert Square regular, Pinter protege and expert DVD-commentary provider Danny Dyer is now handed Have I Got News for You hosting duties. Expect him to go off about Brexit, David Cameron, Love Island and basically whatever he fancies, really.
Friday 7 December, 9pm, BBC One
Secrets of British Animation
From Aardman and Morph to Halas and Batchelor’s Animal Farm, animation is a rare thing that we can all feel a modicum of pride over. This doc, created in collaboration with the BFI, looks at how the best Brit animators of the 20th and 21st centuries honed their signature styles.
Sunday 2 December, 9pm, BBC Four
Fortitude
After two series – and one scene involving a cutlery utensil that will remain indelibly in the minds of anyone who sat through it – Sky’s savage Scandi crime drama concludes. This shortened final run sees the antic Arctic town of Fortitude descending further into chaos and violence as Sheriff Dan Anderssen (Richard Dormer) goes fully postal.
Thursday 6 December, 9pm, Sky Atlantic
North Korea: Life Inside the Secret State
As Donald Trump continues his unlikely bromance with Kim Jong-un, this immersive doc glimpses the repressive and shadowy nation the North Korean ruler is presiding over. Using phone recordings between defectors and family members still living in the country, it asks what life is like for the 25 million people residing there.
Wednesday 5 December, 10pm, Channel 4
Dumplin’
Teen beauty pageants are clearly a source of fascination for execs at present. On the heels of Catherine Zeta-Jones’s fiery turn in Facebook’s Queen America comes another swipe at the subject. Jennifer Aniston stars as a former beauty queen whose plus -size daughter elects to compete herself.
From Friday 7 December, Netflix
Gun No 6
An innovative take on a troubling topic, this film considers the recent rise in gun crime in the UK through the prism of a single firearm used in 11 different shootings (including three deaths) in the West Midlands. Families of victims of these incidents, as well as ex-offenders, provide testimony, while reconstructions show the damage done.
Sunday 2 December, 9pm, BBC Two
Their Own Devices
While we still might not have settled on a name for the generation below millennials (Gen Z? Founders? Plurals?), what is clear is that they are the first to be fully “digitally native”, having grown up with screens from the cot. This occasionally chilling MTV podcast looks at the impact of that tech immersion, and the many potential dangers it may bring.
Podcast
Hail, Caesar!
George Clooney is 1950s Hollywood star Baird Whitlock, who is kidnapped and held to ransom while shooting biblical epic Hail, Caesar! But this is just one of a host of problems facing Josh Brolin’s hard-nosed MGM studio PR head Eddie Mannix in the Coen brothers’ superbly staged, deliriously wacky homage to Tinseltown, red-menace paranoia and all.
Saturday 1 December, 11.35pm, Channel 4
The Sinner
Good news for those who have resisted the siren call of Netflix: one of the most impressive shows on the platform is coming to free-to-air TV. Psychological thriller The Sinner stars Jessica Biel as a seemingly normal housewife who commits an impulsive and horrifying crime, and Bill Pullman as the detective trying to figure out why she dunnit.
Saturday 1 December, 9pm, BBC Four
