BRITBOX, NETFLIX, SKY/NOW, APPLE TV+, DISNEY+ & AMAZON
Hotel Portofino
In this six-part new drama, Downton Abbey meets Enchanted March. Romance, politics and criminality are all combined in one heady mixture.
Hotel Portofino was filmed in Croatia and on the Riviera. It offers undemanding sun-drenched escapism.
Natascha MacElhone portrays Bella Ainsworth. This is Bella’s father, a rich industrialist.
It’s a quintessentially British hotel for upper-class travellers but Bella quickly finds that well-to-do guests can be troublesome, as can the locals and, indeed, her own family.
The film is shot on the Riviera in Croatia. BritBox is available starting Thursday
The woman in the house across from The girl in The Window
This title is hilarious and lets you see exactly which thriller it’s making fun of.
Anna Bell (Kristen Bell) is seated at her home sipping red wine in fishbowl size when she believes she has witnessed a crime in the house of her handsome neighbor.
Anna (Kristen Bell), an artist gifted, has been grieving the loss of her three-year-old daughter.
As she watches the world go by, her husband pours red wine into fishbowl glasses and gazes out from the windows until a man named Tom Riley arrives at the home across the street. The lake home was where his wife drowned. Drowned, apparently.
Then Anna thinks she witnesses a murder in his house… Netflix, starting Friday
The Sinner
The fourth season of the nail-biting crime drama “Whydunnit” begins with a possible suicide. Harry Ambrose, played by Bill Pullman), sees a woman fall off a cliff.
Harry begins to question the truth of Harry’s assertions when he discovers no body and witnesses claim that they saw her driving off. Netflix available starting Wednesday
Red Elvis, The Cold War Cowboy
Chances are you’ve never heard of Dean Reed, but his story, explored in this documentary, is an astonishing one.
Chances are you’ve never heard of Dean Reed (above), but his story, explored in this documentary, is an astonishing one
Reed, an American singer, defected in 1970s to the USSR and became a Soviet superstar. His devoted followers were enthralled by his exaltation of the virtues communism and packed the stadiums near the Iron Curtain.
He also talked poetry and plotted revolution along the way with Che Guevara. However, he was not praised by Nikita Khrushchev. Sky/NOW, starting Sunday
Afterparty
There’s a high school 15-year reunion and at the afterparty, at the home of 33-year-old celebrity Xavier, he ‘falls’ to his death. We get different perspectives when the investigating detective interview the party goers.
This is a very ‘meta’, self-referential comedy that sends up romcoms and Knives Out-style murder mysteries. The humor has some cult potential but it is very broad.
Starring Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson, Zoë Chao and Jamie Demetriou from the Channel 4 sitcom Stath Lets Flats. Apple TV+ available starting Friday
High Fideliity
In Nick Hornby’s comic novel and the film adaptation, Rob, the music-obsessed record store owner, is a man. In this excellent ten-episode TV version, Rob is a woman played by Zoë Kravitz.
It’s funny and charming, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph is an absolute hoot as Rob’s employee and fellow music snob, Cherise. Disney+, starting Wednesday
The Invisible Man
Elisabeth Moss’s performance in this intense retelling of H.G. is outstanding. Wells tale with modern gaslighting twist.
Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss. above) is really being stalked and abused by her ex-boyfriend, the abusive inventor? Is it just all in her head?
Cecilia Moss is being stalked and manipulated by an ex-boyfriend, an abusive inventor who found a way of making himself invisible. It all just a figment of her imagination. There are some great shocks in the film. Netflix available starting Saturday
Maxwell
Ghislaine Maxwell has become a notorious figure of late, but here it’s her equally controversial father, newspaper magnate Robert, who is the centre of attention.
David Suchet (above), who won an Emmy for his performance, takes the lead role while the plot focuses on Maxwell Sr’s final months
David Suchet, who won an Emmy for his performance, takes the lead role, while the plot focuses on Maxwell Sr’s final months, when cracks began to appear in both his private and professional lives ahead of his mysterious death in 1991.
BritBox is available starting Thursday
Shane
For cricket fans, Shane Warne is one of the greatest bowlers ever, while for others he’s that Aussie bloke who once dated Elizabeth Hurley.
For cricket fans, Shane Warne (above) is one of the greatest bowlers ever, while for others he’s that Aussie bloke who once dated Elizabeth Hurley
Whichever camp you fall into, there’s much to admire about this documentary, although its real star is Warne’s former colleague Merv Hughes, who delivers the best lines while looking like an ageing Viking warrior. Amazon, starting on Wednesday
BBC iPLAYER & UKTV PLAY
Taggart
This series, which ran between 1983 and 2010, was the first of three of the greatest episodes of this detective drama set in Glasgow. It featured Grand Guignol’s darkest moments before becoming a police procedural.
Mark McManus, (above), played the tough and uncompromising cop in this Glasgow-set drama detective drama up until his passing in 1994.
Mark McManus was the tough, no-nonsense cop until his passing in 1994. Such was his potent presence (knowing how to pronounce murr-der, the show’s trademark) that when he died, the show carried on for 15 years with its existing title.
UKTV Play, available now
The Other One
Lauren Socha and Ellie White star in Cathy Walcott and Cat Walcott. They are two strange strangers, who discover that they’re siblings when their father Colin dies suddenly.
Although both of them have wanted to be a sibling, they aren’t sure that the new member of their family is exactly what they were hoping for. Rebecca Front is also a star.
You can revisit the first series with the help of the second season. BBC iPlayer, available now
Christine Keeler’s Trial
James Norton and Sophie Cookson are the stars of this six-part comedy about the scandalous Profumo Affair in the early 1960s.
James Norton and Sophie Cookson are the stars of this six-part drama about the shocking Profumo Affair in the 1960s.
It chronicles how beautiful model Christine Keeler’s dalliance with the British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, helped to bring down the Government. BBC iPlayer, up to Wednesday
Shakespeare & Hathaway
Jo Joyner and Mark Benton star in this bingeworthy crime drama’s third series. The story begins with Frank and Luella being given the task of closing down an abandoned bingo hall.
Eddie Monmouth (Vic Reeves), an old enemy of Frank’s, works at the hall, and he naturally becomes the prime suspect when a murder takes place. UKTV Play, available now
Westworld
Yul Brynner is a chilling android gunslinger in Westworld’s 1973 theme park Westworld. It was where an unknown virus had infected all of the robots.
With his steely, impassive stare he begins to hunt down the park’s visitors, while the androids in the park’s Medieval and Roman quarters turn equally murderous.
Nowadays, of course, we know how to deal with malfunctioning computers: just turn them off and turn them on again… BBC iPlayer, available now
Andy Warhol’s America
This three-part BBC2 series can be streamed instead if you haven’t seen it yet. It will appeal to culture vultures as it provides a detailed look into the life of one of the greatest artists of 20th century, whose influence continues to be felt.
This three-part series charts Andy Warhol’s (above) rise to fame from his humble Pittsburgh roots to stardom in New York and across the globe
It charts Warhol’s rise to fame from his humble Pittsburgh roots to stardom in New York and across the globe. BBC iPlayer, available now
Ronnie Spector at The BBC
Veronica ‘Ronnie’ Bennett was the original bad girl of pop.
Ronnie Spector, the original bad girl in pop (above), died this month. These tributes include her appearances on Later… with Jools Holland, and The Old Grey Whistle Test.
The Ronettes leader, and also the singer for Be My Baby and Baby I Love You was killed earlier in the month. Her bouffant hairstyle and thick eyeliner embodied rebelliousness.
She made a terrible mistake by marrying Phil Spector, a gun-toting producer. But she managed to escape with her own life. This tribute includes her performances on Later… With Jools Holland and The Old Grey Whistle Test. BBC iPlayer, available now