TV'S SPRINGING TO LIFE: From a spy as dishy as Poldark to a wacky comedy with a mermaid, the new TV season is blooming with treats
The sun may be here at last, but there are plenty of reasons to stay glued to the telly over the coming weeks.
From Napoleonic magicians to garden wizards, and marine predators to Biblical secrets, viewers have got a hatful of spring surprises lined up — with stars such as Sheridan Smith, Bertie Carvel and Christopher Eccleston leading the casts.
Here, CHRISTOPHER STEVENS previews the best of the treats in store...
It is Tom Hughes as the darkly handsome Joe Lambe (above) who captured everyone’s attention when The Game was shown in the U.S. last year
SEXY SEVENTIES SPOOKS - THE GAME
Images of foggy London in the Seventies, with Soviet murderers stalking the streets wielding poison-tipped umbrellas, inspired writer Toby Whithouse to create The Game — described by some critics as Mad Men with spies.
Brian Cox stars as the paranoid head of the Secret Service, who learns from a KGB defector that a Moscow plot is activating sleeper agents across London... led by a mastermind known only as Odin.
The series co-stars Judy Parfitt — Sister Monica Joan in Call The Midwife — Victoria Hamilton and Paul Ritter.
But it is Tom Hughes as the darkly handsome Joe Lambe who captured everyone’s attention when The Game was shown in the U.S. last year. Drawing comparisons to Michael Caine in The Ipcress File and Cillian Murphy as gangster Tommy in Peaky Blinders, Hughes possesses eyes like ice-chips and cheekbones that could slice bread.
The success of Aidan Turner as Poldark shows that audiences have an appetite for sulky young men with a romantic streak, and this series could make Hughes an international star: the U.S. critics likened him to another British actor who made the transition from TV breakthrough to Hollywood in a single bound — Benedict Cumberbatch.
Hughes has praised the period detail of The Game, set in 1972. He says: ‘I just have to put my suit on, and my sideburns, smoke a cigarette and walk on to the set — and I’m immediately transported to that time.’
BBC2, Thursday April 30, 9pm.
IMMACULATE COMEDY - JANE THE VIRGIN
Based on a Venezuelan soap, this comedy-drama stars Gina Rodriguez as a 23-year-old hotel worker artificially inseminated by accident at the doctor’s who decides to keep the baby... even though she has never had sex. Naturally, the donor turns out to be her boss.
It might sound daft, but Rodriguez won this year’s Golden Globe for the best actress in a TV comedy.
E4, Wednesday April 22, 9pm.
Based on a Venezuelan soap, Jane the Virgin stars Gina Rodriguez (above) as a 23-year-old hotel worker artificially inseminated by accident at a doctor’s
GOING WILD IN THE PACIFIC - HUNTERS OF THE SOUTH SEAS
Explorer Will Millard spent three months living in remote Pacific island villages while filming this documentary.
BBC execs believe they’ve found a new star: fluent in Indonesian, he has a similar presenting style to African trekker Levison Wood, who walked the length of the Nile last year.
In fact, Millard and Wood are good friends.
In this three-part series, Millard learns the traditional hunting techniques of the Indonesian tribes, starting at the stilt villages perched over the water, where hunters catch their meals by spearing the fish below.
Then, he visits the village of Lamalera to observe their ancient whale-hunting methods. ‘The people here lead fascinating lives, completely dependent on the sea,’ says producer Steve Robinson.
‘This is a place of astonishing cultural diversity — but the world is changing around them.’
BBC2, Sunday April 19, 9pm
KILLER COPS - SAFE HOUSE
Christopher Eccleston stars as a former detective, Robert, running a Lake District guest house with his wife, played by Marsha Thomason, in this four-part drama.
The couple are persuaded by police to use their B&B as a hideaway for witnesses. But this isn’t the first time that Robert has had to protect police informants — and the last occasion ended in tragedy, with the witness dead.
With the old trauma reawakened, Robert realises that he must have been betrayed... but he isn’t ready for the web of lies he uncovers.
Writer Michael Crompton says: ‘All of us have at least one secret.
‘It’s what people hide and don’t want us to know that is almost the most compelling.’
ITV1, Monday April 20, 9pm.
Christopher Eccleston (left) stars as a former detective, Robert, running a Lake District guest house with his wife, played by Marsha Thomason (centre), in this four-part drama
DARK DELIGHT - TATAU
This New Zealand drama, filmed in the spectacularly beautiful Cook Islands, stars Joe Layton and Theo Barklem-Biggs as a couple of mates whose gap-year travels are halted when one of them discovers the body of a young woman while snorkelling in a lagoon. They report the find to police, but when they go back to the spot, the body has gone.
Suspecting a cover-up, the pair investigate and uncover a sinister and intriguing mixture of corruption and black magic.
BBC3, Sunday April 12, 10pm.
Susannah Clarke’s colossal novel has been a long time coming to the small screen but with Eddie Marsan (right) and Bertie Carvel (left) as the rival magicians it should be worth the wait
HARRY POTTER FOR THE GROWN UPS - JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL
Susannah Clarke’s colossal novel, set in England at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, has been a long time coming to the small screen — work began on filming more than 18 months ago.
But with Eddie Marsan and Bertie Carvel as the rival magicians — one darkly charismatic, the other dry as dust — it should be worth the wait. The book has been described as ‘Harry Potter for grown-ups’.
Carvel, who played Nick Clegg in last month’s political drama Coalition, says he read it ten years ago, and immediately wanted to play the enigmatic Mr Strange.
‘I’ve been casting spells to win the part ever since,’ he jokes. ‘It is a considerable surprise to find that some of them worked.’
One face to look out for will be the veteran actor Peter Bowles, the charming cad Richard DeVere in Eighties sitcom To The Manor Born.
He’s making a rare appearance as Lord Liverpool, the 19th-century Prime Minister.
BBC1, May.
CELEBRITIES IN THE WORKHOUSE - 24 HOURS IN THE PAST
Telly viewers do like to see celebrities suffer — and this show is doing it in the name of education. TV presenter Miquita Oliver, former politician Ann Widdecombe and impressionist Alistair McGowan, are among those discovering the grim truth about the Victorian era, under the watchful eye of historian Ruth Goodman.
They are set to work in some of the toughest 19th-century environments, including a rubbish dump and a workhouse.
The celebs wear period clothes and eat the food their ancestors would have survived on, in a bid to make the experiment as authentic as possiblenot to mention unpleasant.
BBC1, May.
Celebrities - including Ann Widdecombe (third from left) - are set to work in some of the toughest 19th-century environments, including a rubbish dump and a workhouse
WHOLE LOTTO TROUBLE - THE SYNDICATE
Money might not buy you happiness, and a giant lottery win could just ruin your life — but we all like to dream of what we would do if we scooped millions.
Bafta-winner Kay Mellor has written a third series of her complex drama The Syndicate, and this time it’s staff at a stately home who find themselves millionaires overnight.
C stands for ‘cancer’ and this drama, starring Sheridan Smith (above), is based on a blog by Lisa Lynch, who was diagnosed with the disease seven years ago
Lenny Henry plays a gardener whose obsession with maths helps him devise a formula to pick the winning numbers. For the ‘downstairs’ servants, it’s a life-changing event, but the toffs upstairs might not be so pleased. The lord of the manor, played by Brideshead Revisited’s Anthony Andrews, is doddery, but his second wife and her dissolute son (Alice Krige and Sam Phillips) are determined to spend his cash before it gets eaten up by death duties.
‘It is all about new money,’ explains Mellor, ‘downstairs becoming instantly wealthier than upstairs. I’m able to explore how greed has a devastating effect, and how a sudden change in fortune can bring about its own problems.’
BBC1, June.
TALE OF COURAGE - THE C-WORD
Sheridan Smith rocketed to success in the biopic Cilla last year, and she hasn’t put a foot wrong since — as anyone who saw her in a recent episode of the mini-dramas Inside No. 9 will agree.
C stands for ‘cancer’ and this drama is based on a blog by Lisa Lynch, who was diagnosed with the disease seven years ago: she was 28 years old and newly married.
Lisa wrote about her daily life with humour and candour, and helped thousands of other sufferers find the courage to do the same. She died in 2013 aged 33.
Lisa and Sheridan became friends. The actress says: ‘I couldn’t help but love her — her zest for life was infectious, and I was moved and inspired by her courage. I’m honoured and humbled that she wanted me to play her on the screen.’
BBC1, late spring.
SHOWS TO MAKE YOU GASP IN WONDER
INSIDE HARLEY STREET
One street in London is synonymous with private medicine. But it comes as a surprise to learn, in the first episode of this three-part documentary, that however well-off their clients might be, the doctors do not own the Harley Street houses where they run their practices.
The properties are almost all leased from the aristocratic Howard de Walden estate, worth more than £1 billion.
Not every client is rich, either. We meet a boy from Russia whose treatment is being paid for from the proceeds of a TV telethon — thousands of generous viewers donated a few roubles each by text.
The documentary is directed by Vanessa Engle, who caused a stir a couple of years ago with her exposé of slimming clubs, Welcome To The World Of Weight Loss.
BBC2, Monday April 13, 9pm.
SECRETS OF THE BIBLE
With more than a touch of Indiana Jones, archaeologists attempt to explain the origin of Bible stories.
First up is the possible science behind the plagues at the time of Moses, when the Jews were slaves in Egypt — first the Nile ran red with blood, then locusts swarmed over the land, an epidemic of boils broke out and the skies went dark.
Was this really the wrath of God? Or could the aftermath of a volcanic eruption be a more plausible explanation?
Yesterday, Wednesday April 22, 9pm.
For two years a team from the BBC’s natural history unit has been filming shark behaviour all over the oceans
SHARK
The world’s smallest shark glows in the dark and can fit on the palm of your hand; it’s called the dwarf lantern shark. The biggest is the whale shark, at more than 40ft long.
For two years a team from the BBC’s natural history unit has been filming shark behaviour all over the oceans. The record they have made is timely — commercial fishing kills nearly 100 million sharks a year, and a quarter of species are facing extinction.
As narrator Paul McGann explains, sharks are not mindless killers. They are highly intelligent and social, operating in complex groups.
Pointing out that it is nearly 40 years since Steven Spielberg’s Jaws taught the world to fear sharks, series producer Steve Greenwood says: ‘Sharks have never had their own programme. They are not undersea monsters, but fascinating and mysterious creatures.’
BBC1, May.
THE GREAT CHELSEA GARDEN CHALLENGE
We’ve seen competitive gardening before, with The Big Allotment Challenge. But this is decidedly more upmarket, with six contestants creating showpieces at some of England’s most beautiful stately gardens, including Wisley, Painswick and Sudeley Castle.
The prize is the chance to design and build a garden on the prestigious main avenue at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. Each week the gardeners tackle a new challenge: a cottage garden, a formal garden and so on. And, each week, the judges eliminate one candidate.
BBC2, May.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3032853/From-spy-dishy-Poldark-wacky-comedy-mermaid-new-TV-season-blooming-treats.html#ixzz3WvrrdYSV
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