The competition’s first elimination weekend is here. Plus: a night of irresistible soul music with Jools Holland. Here’s what to watch this evening

BBC One, 6.15pm

Continue reading...

This three-part documentary paints a powerful portrait of the Hollywood trailblazer. Plus: Demi Moore on Graham Norton. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC TwoWhen Elizabeth Taylor was 12, she put herself on a protein-rich diet in an attempt to gain enough inches to be cast in National Velvet. This story speaks of a single-mindedness that is evident throughout this three-part series, executive produced by Kim Kardashian. From taking on the sleazy Louis B Mayer to bridling at being screen-kissed by adult men at 16, this is a portrait of a woman who always fought her corner and knew her own value. Phil Harrison

Continue reading...

The plight of revellers hit by the 7 October terror attack is highlighted in this moving documentary. Plus: 12 new queens in RuPaul’s werk room. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC Two

Continue reading...

A puzzle-setter turns detective when his twin brother goes missing. Plus: how does the Parole Board makes decisions? Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC One

An amusing comedy drama from Mark Brotherhood (Mount Pleasant, Benidorm) about a reclusive and socially inept puzzle-setter, John “Ludwig” Taylor (David Mitchell, doing his familiar young fogey thing). John is called on to impersonate his identical twin brother, a detective named James, after he goes missing. When James’s wife, Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), asks John to pick up some documents from James’s station, the inevitable happens: John finds himself investigating a murder. Phil Harrison

Continue reading...

Paul Hollywood and pals return for the show’s 15th series. Plus: an Aussie interior designer tries to transform an apothecary on the Outer Hebrides. Here’s what to watch this evening

8pm, Channel 4In recent years, Bake Off has started to feel like a show on borrowed time. But here we are again with a new batch of keen and charming bakers attempting to impress the increasingly demanding judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, with Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding returning as jocular, empathetic ringmasters. We begin, sensibly, with cakes – specifically, the loaf cake.Phil Harrison

Continue reading...

Journalist Mobeen Azhar’s gripping but bleak investigation. Plus: Mozart sticks two fingers up to the establishment. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC Three

Continue reading...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20603742

U.S. version of the venerable British news/comedy show, #HIGNFY.

Who is the traitor onboard the hijacked train? Plus, a new series of Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse’s lovely fishing show. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC One

Continue reading...

Nile Rodgers and Chaka Khan speak frankly about money and music. Plus, Sam Neill and Annette Bening star in a glossy mystery drama. Here’s what to watch this evening

9.25pm, BBC Two

Continue reading...

The ruthless villain takes no prisoners in this gripping eight-part drama. Plus, Monty Don on essential autumn garden jobs. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky AtlanticAnother journey to Gotham, this time in the company of the Penguin – one of the Batman universe’s most compelling villains and played here by a prosthetics-laden Colin Farrell. It’s a moody and sinister affair – after the death of a mob boss, the Penguin attempts to infiltrate his family. Farrell’s Penguin is ruthless but with a certain submerged warmth, too, as evidenced by his decision to take stammering street hood Victor (the excellent Rhenzy Feliz) under his wing. Phil Harrison

Continue reading...

All Creatures Great and Small is a warm antidote to the autumn chill. Plus: Olly Murs explores his family origins. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Channel 5Back to the lovely fictional Yorkshire village of Darrowby as the bucolic veterinary drama returns. It’s spring 1941 and Siegfried is struggling to keep the surgery going in the absence of James and Tristan. However, he might be in luck as uncertainty surrounds James’s RAF deployment. As ever, the success of this reboot hangs on its entirely reasonable reluctance to depart too radically from the vibes and values of the original. Phil Harrison

Continue reading...

Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos robustly defended Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd while speaking at the Royal Television Society (RTS) London conference today, announcing the streamer has just agreed a multi-year first-look deal with Gadd for scripted series.

...

“Baby Reindeer is his true story… it is not a documentary. And there are elements of the story that have been dramatised. We’re watching it performed by actors on television. We think it is abundantly clear that there is dramatisation involved.”

Sarandos also said that “it’s a fairly British debate – this debate is not happening anywhere else in the world.”

Sarandos also used his RTS platform to praise the UK as a home for producing film and TV series.

He said the streamer’s top four rating shows worldwide from the first six months of 2024 were produced in the UK: Fool Me Once, Baby Reindeer, Bridgerton and The Gentleman. The four shows were watched a combined total of 360 million times, he said.

Sarandos said: “I’ve always thought of the UK as the birthplace of prestige television. It’s why Netflix invests more here in the UK than anywhere else outside of the United States.”

...

He said Netflix had invested $6bn in the UK creative industries since 2020, and had worked with over 30,000 cast and crew. “Today, we have over 100 productions active in the UK,” he said, citing Bridgerton and Thursday Murder Club and features My Oxford Year and Wake Up Deadman: A Knives Out Mystery.

He said the roots of UK creative industry success lay in its “great public service broadcasting system” and institutions for nurturing a wealth of talent, as well as regulation that supports creativity, investment in arts education and the UK’s ‘highly competitive tax incentive.”

Superb series following Ukraine’s leader comes to an end. Plus: John Major chats with by Amol Rajan. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC Two

Continue reading...

It’s been almost 20 years since the pastel-hued houses in the picture-perfect harbour village of Balamory appeared on television screens.

On Tuesday, the BBC has announced it had commissioned two new series of the beloved CBeebies show to return in 2026.

Originally produced between 2002 until 2005, it is expected that the new series will once again be set in the Scottish village of Balamory where coloured houses nestle round a charming harbour with stories centred on a nursery school and teacher.

Balamory’s first run attracted millions of viewers across the world, spawned a live show and won best pre-school live action series at the 2004 Bafta children’s awards.

The show will once again be filmed in Scotland, the broadcaster said, either in the original location of Tobermory or another Scottish location such as Rothesay.

The BBC presenter Jay Blades has been charged with engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour against his wife. The Repair Shop presenter appeared at Kidderminster magistrates court on Friday, West Mercia police said.

The Guardian understands that the BBC took steps to remove a programme featuring Blades from its Friday evening schedule after the charge, and that no programmes with the former furniture maker would be shown in the foreseeable future.

Blades, 54, was charged with one count of engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship. The presenter will appear at Worcester crown court for a plea and trial preparation hearing on 11 October.

...

According to court documents, the charge relates to his fitness instructor wife, Lisa Zbozen, who announced on her Instagram page on 2 May that their relationship was over.

Blades has become a well-known figure thanks to the BBC restoration programme The Repair Shop, in which members of the public take damaged but treasured family heirlooms to be restored by a team of experts. A source at the broadcaster said Blades was not a BBC employee and the charge was unrelated to his work at the BBC.

Blades’ rise from furniture maker to TV celebrity has been meteoric since he first featured on the show in 2017. In August Channel 4 broadcast Dame Judi and Jay: The Odd Couple, which charts the friendship between Blades and Dench, who he first met on The Repair Shop two years ago.

On Friday the BBC removed the seventh episode of the first series of David & Jay’s Touring Toolshed, Blades which was first shown by the broadcaster in January and features Blades and David Jason touring the UK meeting master crafters and hobbyists.

In 2022 Blades featured in the BBC documentary Jay Blades: Learning to Read at 51, which followed his journey of learning to read and write, having not been taught to do so in childhood.

The Ilford standup delves into the murky world of American vigilantes. Plus: could another White House coup attempt be on the cards? Here’s what to watch this evening

Continue reading...

Huw Edwards has been spared jail for accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.

The former BBC presenter was sentenced at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London after he pleaded guilty to three counts of "making" indecent images of children.

The court heard how he paid up to £1,500 to a paedophile who sent him 41 illegal images between December 2020 and August 2021, seven of which were of the most serious type.

Of those images, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, but one was aged between seven and nine.

...

As part of his sentence, the 63-year-old must attend a sex offender treatment programme and 25 rehabilitation sessions.

He is also required to sign the sex offenders' register for seven years and pay £3,128 in costs and a victim surcharge.

...

The court heard that Edwards had told his probation officer that his offending arose out of his fixation on online communications of a sexual nature, his poor mental health, using alcohol and the deterioration of his marriage.

The hearing was told of Edwards' "long-standing mental health struggles" and how he had been diagnosed with arteriosclerosis - a vascular disease which causes the gradual hardening of arteries - last December.

Mr Hope noted "the effect of these conditions includes impact on and impairment of mood, behaviour and judgement".

The court heard Edwards is an in-patient at a private hospital.

The writer is unsentimental about his devastating accident in a moving new film. Plus: Richard E Grant on Mozart the musical prodigy. Here’s what to watch this evening

10.40pm, BBC OneWriter Hanif Kureishi’s world changed on Boxing Day 2022 when a fall left him needing 24-hour care. In this moving film, he ponders his life before and after his accident. While he seems admirably unsentimental about almost everything, Kureishi is in reflective mood, talking about his new working practices, the paradoxes in his celebrated 80s work and being thrown out of a mosque for being friends with Salman Rushdie. Phil Harrison

Continue reading...

Ahead of a timely re-airing of Mick Jackson’s famously bleak, rarely seen docudrama, its director recalls why he unleashed a mushroom cloud on Sheffield in 1984, while our writer explores the film’s lasting legacy

Joe Cole stars in Nightsleeper, the BBC’s new adrenalised treat for Sunday nights. Plus, a harrowing look at the civilian cost of the conflict in Israel and Gaza. Here’s what to watch this evening

Sun, 9pm, BBC One

Continue reading...

Chris McCausland, Toyah Willcox and Punam Krishan are among the celebs braving the dancefloor. Plus: flag-waving mayhem at the Royal Albert Hall as the Proms conclude. Here’s what to watch this evening

BBC One, 7.20pm

Continue reading...

From Mark Elder’s final performance with the Hallé to the Kanneh-Masons covering Bob Marley, relive all of this year’s most epic Proms. Plus: Funny Woman is back. Here’s what to watch this evening

8pm, BBC FourMark Elder’s final Proms performance as music director of the Hallé; the Kanneh-Mason rendition of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song; Beethoven’s Ode to Joy climax on its 200th birthday. There are many beautiful Proms moments to catch up with on iPlayer, but here are the very best of the best in a joyous, poignant hour. Hollie Richardson

Continue reading...

Junk food TV advertisements are to be banned from airing before the 9pm watershed as part of the government’s drive to improve public health.

In addition, online ads for products that are high in fat, salt and sugar will be banned altogether, Andrew Gwynne, the public health minister, told the Commons on Thursday. Both measures will come into force on 1 October 2025.

Health campaigners welcomed the move as an overdue restriction on firms’ ability to bombard children with ads for their unhealthy food and drink products.

...

The previous, Conservative government pledged to bring in the TV watershed ban from January 2023. But a month before its introduction, Rishi Sunak decided to delay it until 2025, prompting a wave of criticism that he had put the interests of big business ahead of improving children’s health.

BBC Factual has announced that Sir David Attenborough will present Asia, a seven-part natural history series for BBC One and iPlayer about the wildlife of our planet’s largest continent. Covering the length and breadth of Asia, the series will reveal its most remarkable landscapes and animals, and feature dramatic, previously unseen behaviour.

Filmed over the course of nearly four years, this is the first time that Asia has been the focus of a major BBC wildlife series. From the vast Gobi Desert to the jungles of Borneo, and from the polar wilderness of Siberia to the coral seas of the Indian Ocean, this series will showcase the breath-taking variety of Asia’s wildest places.

Seven one-hour episodes will feature thrilling wildlife stories from each corner of the continent.

Fun antics as Alex Horne gets force-fed bubblegum in the new season of the TV challenge show. Plus: Jessica Ennis-Hill delves into her family history. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Channel 4TV’s greatest challenge show is getting a junior spin-off this autumn, but before that another cohort of game celebrities is taking on taskmaster Greg Davies: Andy Zaltzman, Babátúndé Aléshé, Emma Sidi, Jack Dee and Rosie Jones. In the first round, they have to search for a seal, throw yoga balls in a theme park and force-feed Alex Horne a bowlful of bubblegum. Nothing’s changed here then. Hollie Richardson

Continue reading...