What’s on TV tonight: Shardlake, Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion and more

Wednesday 1 May

Shardlake
Disney+
Having been established by Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose as crucibles of faith and fanaticism, virtue and vice, medieval monasteries make ideal settings for murder mysteries. By turns brooding psychological thriller and rollicking adventure yarn, this long-awaited adaptation of CJ Sansom’s bestselling whodunit Dissolution begins with Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean) dispatching Matthew Shardlake (Arthur Hughes, so arresting in Then Barbara Met Alan) to a remote abbey where his emissary has been murdered. 

Shardlake, a brilliant lawyer with scoliosis, has a two-pronged mission: catch the killer and provide the pretext to close the institution and seize its assets. Hughes and Anthony Boyle (Masters of the Air) make an engaging odd couple as the perceptive, honourable Shardlake and Jack Barak, Cromwell’s shifty underling who, complete with “distracting codpiece”, is sent to assist or perhaps spy on his companion. A supporting cast including Babou Ceesay (defiant abbot), Paul Kaye (deranged monk) and Peter Firth (the scheming Duke of Norfolk) add plenty of interest. All four episodes are available today. GT

The Motorway
Channel 5, 8pm
The fourth series follows the rescue teams as they help out stranded motorists, beginning with a rogue lorry wheel that has destroyed a family car.

Race Across the World
BBC One, 9pm
The four teams join the well-trodden backpacker trail for their fourth leg, travelling from Phnom Penh, Thailand, to the border with Myanmar. As ever, conflicts between competition and experience, speed and budget prove painful and plentiful, but the backdrops (including Angkor Wat) are breathtaking.

Professor T
ITV1, 9pm
Working with a precision the punctilious professor (Ben Miller) would doubtless appreciate, tonight’s series finale involves a mysterious body found at the site of a car crash: a case that causes Jasper to examine his own relationship with his ailing mother (Frances de la Tour) as the real circumstances around his father’s death are finally, shockingly revealed.

A Very British Sex Scandal: The Love Child & the Secretary
Channel 5, 9pm
Positively tame compared to the steady stream of scandals involving Conservative MPs these days, Cecil Parkinson’s long affair with his secretary was political dynamite in its day, blowing up his professional ambitions as he spent years in court trying to block publication of details about their daughter. Private Eye’s Ian Hislop, former MP Edwina Currie and commentator Matthew Parris are among the well-informed pundits looking back on the whole farrago.

Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion
Sky Documentaries, 9pm
Oscar-winning film-maker Eva Orner uncovers the sordid story behind Brandy Melville, the fast-fashion retailer beloved of teenage girls that has been dogged by persistent allegations of racism, sexism and exploitation. 

Boxing, Belief and Me
BBC One, 10.40pm; Wales, 11.10pm
The BBC’s wide array of religious programming extends to Sikhism in Walsall, West Midlands. This documentary follows one Bupinder “Pops” Singh as he tries to expand his Midland Langar Seva Society Boxing Academy, a refuge for young men and women trying to avoid the dangers of bullying and crime. With promising amateur Junior about to turn pro, the future of the club may hinge on victory in his first fight. 

The Remains of the Day (1993) ★★★★★
Film4, 6.20pm  
This wonderful adaptation of the most significant novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro stars Anthony Hopkins as James Stevens, a butler whose dedication to his role is challenged – both by his master’s flirtations with Nazism and by his love for the new housekeeper, Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson). This is an elegiac masterpiece, pairing two leads each nearing the peak of their powers.

The Invisible Woman (2013) ★★★★
BBC Four, 10pm  
Ralph Fiennes’s biographical film casts writer Charles Dickens in a complex new light. It benefits from Fiennes’s powerful presence as Dickens, which is bustling and authoritative, but the film’s main character is the sadder Nelly Ternan (Felicity Jones), the aspiring actress whose 13-year affair with Dickens ended his marriage. Tom Hollander and Kristin Scott Thomas bring heft to the support.

Cape Fear (1991) ★★★★
BBC One, 11.40pm  
Martin Scorsese’s remake of the 1962 classic is a disturbing portrayal of a family torn apart. Ex-con Max Cady (a terrifying Robert De Niro) torments his former attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) for betraying him during his trial for a sex crime years before. It isn’t as slick as the original, but Scorsese directs with trademark bravura. Juliette Lewis and Robert Mitchum (who appeared in the first film) co-star.

Thursday 2 May

The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Sky Atlantic, 2.05am & 9pm
This immensely moving six-part drama is based on Heather Morris’s bestselling novel, inspired by the story of Holocaust survivors Lale and Gita Sokolov who met while prisoners in Auschwitz. It’s a remarkable story of love triumphing over evil, with Jonah Hauer-King (World on Fire) sensitively portraying the young Lale. His job was to ink identification numbers on fellow prisoners’ arms – a job that he took, with great regret and shame, because “I was 26 and I wanted to live” – and is how he crossed paths with Gita Furmanova (Baptiste’s Anna Próchniak). That they survived was a miracle, and here the forces that combined against them are represented in the form of volatile SS officer Baretzki (Jonas Nay).

The devastating events of the 1940s are interwoven with that of the older Lale (Harvey Keitel), by now in his eighties and living in Melbourne, who is plagued by horrific memories. Yet when he recounts his tale to Morris (Melanie Lynskey) he starts by saying: “This is a love story.” It sounds incongruous, but we see why – and the title song, Love Will Survive by Barbra Streisand, is a stunning fit. Available as a boxset. VL

A Man in Full
Netflix
A new drama series from David E Kelley (Big Little Lies) is always good news, even better when it stars Jeff Daniels and is based on a Tom Wolfe novel. Daniels plays Charlie Croker, an Atlanta tycoon whose property empire is about to come crashing down, with foes including banks, local politicians and ex-wife Martha (Diane Lane).

Secrets of the Neanderthals
Netflix
A delve into the mysteries surrounding the Neanderthals and what their fossil record tells us – and, more intriguingly, their disappearance. Patrick Stewart lends his stentorian tones to narrate this one-off documentary about our Eurasian ancient ancestors who roamed from Russia to the Atlantic coast more than 300,000 years ago.

Wildlife Rescue
Channel 4, 8pm
More from the South Essex Wildlife Hospital, as the team attempts to return injured animals back to the wild. This week they have to teach an orphaned fawn how to feed, because she was abandoned before her instinct to suckle kicked in, while a grey seal pup refuses to eat after being attacked by a dog.

Instagram’s Worst Con Artist
ITV1, 9pm
The equal parts fascinating and infuriating two-part documentary about Australian health influencer Belle Gibson concludes, as we learn how her lies about being cured of a cancer she didn’t have were unearthed by sceptical journalists, while family members talk about her childhood and the possible origins of her compulsive lying.

Joe & Katherine’s Bargain Holidays
Channel 4, 10pm
The odd-couple travel show continues in Bulgaria as bargain lover Joe Wilkinson attempts to show fellow comedian Katherine Ryan that affordable doesn’t mean unenjoyable. Their trip to the Black Sea resort of Sozopol is threatened off the bat by Ryan’s meltdown over a delayed economy flight.

Johnson & Knopfler’s Music Legends
Sky Arts, 10pm
Sam Fender meets fellow Geordies Brian Johnson (AC/DC) and Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) to discuss what made him want to be a musician. The 29-year-old “saviour of British rock” discusses his tough upbringing in North Shields, what inspires his lyrics, and his all-time favourite gigs from Glastonbury to St James’s Park. 

Galaxy Quest (1999) ★★★★
Film4, 4.30pm  
“By Grabthar’s hammer, by the Sons of Warvan, you shall be avenged!” You don’t have to be a Star Trek fan to appreciate the sublime silliness of Dean Parisot’s spoof sci-fi, as a bunch of washed-up actors (played by Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman) from a cancelled TV space opera find themselves beamed, for real, into the Klaatu Nebula by friendly aliens who need their help against a race of reptilian warmongers.

The Browning Version (1951, b/w) ★★★★★
Talking Pictures TV, 5.35pm  
Let’s pretend that Mike Figgis never remade The Browning Version and stick with this flawless adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s play instead. It follows an ageing Classics master (Michael Redgrave) whose life begins to fall apart: he must retire early, his wife has been having an affair and the pupils all hate him. It’s easy to see how the film influenced Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers.

Film of the Week: The History Boys (2006) ★★★★★
BBC Four, 10pm
Alan Bennett’s timeless play about precocious grammar-school boys pushing for Oxbridge is now best remembered for two things: the hilarious refrain “How do I define history? It’s just one f---ing thing after another” and its brilliant cast of young Britons, who would go on to become some of our favourite stars. Above all, it remains a truly British ode to youth, hardwork and meritocracy. The play, which was a smash-hit for the National Theatre under Nicholas Hytner (who directs the film) and won Olivier and Tony awards, is celebrating its 20th anniversary next month, with a revival of the show touring the UK later this year. So settle down and fall in love with Richard Griffiths’s kind but corrupted English teacher, intent on inspiring and getting the best out of his boys. The NT production’s original cast all reunite for the film, making it even more of a treat: there’s James Corden’s class clown Timms, Dominic Cooper’s smooth-talking Stuart and Samuel Barnett’s timid David, who is grappling with his sexuality. It’s a truly generation-defining cast that just brims with charm and purpose. Frances de la Tour and Penelope Wilton are stellar in support, too. 

A Beautiful Mind (2001) ★★★
Sky Showcase, 10.05pm  
Russell Crowe piles on the mannerisms as John Nash, the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician who contended with schizophrenia. Ron Howard’s biopic won the Best Picture Oscar, though it underestimates the audience’s intelligence by suggesting that the efforts of a good wife (played by Jennifer Connelly) are far better than actual medication. Still, it’s entertaining fare, and with a dynamite twist as well.

Friday 3 May

Clarkson’s Farm
Amazon Prime Video
It’s all doom and gloom at Diddly Squat Farm as season three of Jeremy Clarkson’s unlikely – but all the more entertaining for that – agricultural odyssey gets under way. Not only has a closure notice been served on the farm restaurant, but the council has set its sights also on the farm-shop’s car park. Which means, somehow (loud as the howls of protest are, detail is not the series’ strong point), that half the cow herd must be dispatched. And to add to the pain, the dry weather – we’re still in 2022 as the series begins – is ruining the crops, the tractor needs a costly service, and the state of the world beyond the farm augurs only massive cost increases (rampant inflation, rocketing fuel prices) and ever-decreasing yields. 

Desperate to find new income streams, Clarkson’s brainstorming lands on “farming the unfarmed” – attempting to exploit the 500 acres of his estate given over to hedgerows and woodland – and launching new ventures including hoovering blackberries for jam, goat herding, deer hunting, mushroom growing and pig farming (“We could have Piggly Squat sausages – genius!”). The first four episodes drop today (Friday 3), with the remaining four on May 10. GO

Welcome to Wrexham 
Disney+
Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s purchase of Wrexham AFC in 2020 brought global attention to the struggling Welsh side, and saw the club scramble to promotion to the English Football League last year. As fans know, that turned into another wild ride – documented thrillingly in this third series, which kicks off with a double-bill following the team as they face their new pressures head on.

Granite Harbour 
BBC One, 8pm
The Scottish crime drama returns for a moody second series with the members of Aberdeen’s major investigation team – led by Bartlett (Hannah Donaldson) and Lindo (Romario Simpson) – investigating two murders that, initially at least, appear to be unconnected. Elsewhere, the city’s biggest crime family, the McFaddens, are making a bid for legitimacy. 

The Big Steam Adventure 
Channel 5, 8pm
Last year, newsreader John Sergeant fulfilled a lifelong ambition: chugging entertainingly from London to Scotland by steam power alone. Now he’s back again with steam enthusiasts Peter Davison and Paul “Piglet” Middleton, traversing various other parts of the country – starting tonight in the Lake District – in a multitude of steam-powered vehicles.  

Have I Got News For You
BBC One, 9pm
Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, and comedian Chloe Petts are Ian Hislop and Paul Merton’s guest panellists, while Martin Clunes takes on hosting duties. 

Gardeners’ World
BBC Two, 9pm
At Longmeadow, Monty Don continues planting up the mound, prepares the ground for the cottage garden’s summer display and finally gets some seed sown in the vegetable garden. Plus, Nick Bailey explores a Devon garden that combines historic charm with cutting-edge design. 

Michael Portillo’s Long Weekends
Channel 5, 9pm
The former politician enjoys a taste of living la dolce vita in Milan. Italy’s capital of fashion, design and industry presents him with a packed itinerary as he tries out everything from a ride on a vintage Lambretta to a dizzying tour of the historic Duomo, via a trip to the Leonardo da Vinci Museum. Food and drink is covered too, of course, with lessons in cooking risotto and mixing negronis. 

Unfrosted (2024)
Netflix   
The latest addition to the origin-movie sub-genre (think Air, Flamin’ Hot and BlackBerry) promises to be a good deal more fun, at least. Directed by and starring Jerry Seinfeld, it follows the corporate battle over America’s new king of breakfast in the 1960s: the humble Pop-Tart. With Kellogg’s and Post Cereals in uproar over the toaster-ready interloper, who will manage to buy the company and come out on top? Melissa McCarthy and James Marsden co-star.

Saint Maud (2019) ★★★★★
Film4, 10.50pm  
Rose Glass’s directorial debut is a terrific, terrifying psychological horror set in Scarborough, where nurse Maud (The Rings of Power’s Morfydd Clark) has been assigned a new patient. Her early career was blighted by trauma, and she’s now found religion – or, more accurately, a creepy spin on it. Beforehand, at 9pm, Kristen Stewart stars in action-horror Underwater; Glass and Stewarts’s superb new film, Love Lies Bleeding, is in cinemas now.

Kursk: The Last Mission (2018) ★★★
BBC Two, 11.55pm  
If only they’d prised it open a day sooner… This is the theory underlying Kursk, director Thomas Vinterberg’s clenched, mournful account of the 2000 submarine disaster which claimed the lives of all 118 Russian crew on board. Saving Private Ryan’s Robert Rodat wrote the script; the starry cast includes Colin Firth, Matthias Schoenaerts and Léa Seydoux (on fantastic form).

Man Up (2015) ★★★★
BBC One, 12.10am  
Ben Palmer’s oh-so-British romcom (that isn’t very romantic, but that suits) stars a sizzling Simon Pegg and Lake Bell. The latter plays Nancy, a Bridget Jones-type character, who, on the way to her parents’ 40th wedding anniversary, is mistakenly identified as the blind date whom Jack (Pegg, as hilarious as ever) has been waiting for at Waterloo station. Nancy goes along with it and they wind up having a ball.

Television previewers

Stephen Kelly (SK), Veronica Lee (VL), Gerard O’Donovan (GO), Poppie Platt (PP) and Gabriel Tate (GT)