Vic & Bob’s Big Night Out
The comic surrealists’ Christmas comeback got mixed notices. But when they nail it, Reeves and Mortimer are still effortlessly amusing and it would have taken a heart of stone to deny them a series. As we begin here, Vic and Bob disrupt a couple’s dinner date with a song-and-dance routine, and there’s a guest appearance from “Tom Cruise”.
Wednesday 28 November, 10pm, BBC Four
Headlong: Surviving Y2K
Missing Richard Simmons creator Dan Taberski returns with a new podcast on a far bigger scale: he meets people who prepared for the millennium bug to bring forth the apocalypse, then looked a little daft when it didn’t. Among those swept up in Y2K panic, we learn, was Taberski himself.
Podcast
F is for Family
Vying with Big Mouth for the title of most profane cartoon on Netflix, Bill Burr’s 70s-set comedy returns for a third series of F-words and familial angst. This time around, disillusioned dad Frank Murphy is engaged in his own bromance with his new war-hero neighbour. Laura Dern, Justin Long and Sam Rockwell round out an impressive voice cast.
From Friday 30 November, Netflix
Jazzology With Soweto Kinch
With three decades in the biz, saxophonist Kinch is an ideal guide for a history of jazz. This personal take on the genre sees him perform with musicians from New Orleans, London and New York, as he explores the complex racial politics of the genre, and looks at its influence on grime and dubstep.
Sunday 25 November, 8pm, BBC Four
A War
Tobias Lindholm’s heartfelt war film opens with a nerve-shattering account of the experiences of a Danish company in Afghanistan, where IEDs are a constant threat and soldiers teeter on the edge of breakdown. For decent commander Pedersen (Game of Thrones’s Pilou Asbæk), the stress of combat results in a war-crime charge, and a new conflict in the courtroom.
Saturday 24 November, 1.15am, BBC Two
Enterprice
After last year’s well-received Comedy Slice (BBC Three’s answer to Channel 4’s Blaps, if you were wondering), #HoodDocumentary creator Kayode Ewumi’s surreal sitcom about a pair of young entrepreneurs returns for a full series. Kazim and Jeremiah are still trying to get their home-delivery service off the ground, but a host of shady characters stand in their way.
From Thursday 29 November, BBC Three
Kidding
Jim Carrey reunites with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry for a deeply strange dramedy about an unravelling kids’ TV presenter. Expect Gondry’s inventive touches coupled with an unusually internalised performance from Carrey.
Thursday 29 November, 10.40pm, Sky Atlantic
Vikings
The second half of season five of the bloody historical drama picks up as the embers settle on the site of shieldmaiden-badass Lagertha’s almighty dust-up with her creepy stepson, Ivar the Boneless. As the dead are counted, various dishes-best-served-cold are rustled up. Still a worthy salve to Game of Thrones’s absence, if a fair bit sillier than it once was.
From Friday 30 November, Amazon Prime Video
Ministry of Justice
After the activist satire of BBC Three’s The Revolution Will Be Televised, which took aim at corrupt one-percenters, Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein turn their attention to Britain’s crime problem with this new hidden-camera show. The first episode promises a Purge-like setup for mugging, while Rubinstein’s Twitter feed hints that one Donald Trump may make an appearance.
Friday 30 November, 11,05pm, Channel 4
Mrs Wilson
Ruth Wilson takes the unusual step of playing her own grandmother in this intriguing period drama mined from her family history. She is Alison Wilson, whose postwar life is upturned first when her husband dies and she learns of some unpalatable truths about his past.
Tuesday 27 November, 9pm, BBC One
