DISNEY+, NETFLIX, BRITBOX & ACORN TV

 

TThe Beatles: Come Back

Peter Jackson spent three decades restoring 60 hours footage and 150 hours audio from John, Paul and George. 

It is January 1969. This was when the Beatles recorded Let It Be, their final album. 

The three-part, six-hour result also features – in its entirety – the iconic rooftop concert. You will find arguments and larks in the film, which was made 50 years ago. Disney+, available from Thursday

Peter Jackson spent three years restoring 60 hours of footage and 150 hours of audio of John, Paul, George and Ringo (above)

Peter Jackson spent three decades restoring 60 hours footage and 150 audio files of John, Paul and George (above).

 

Bruised  

Halle Berry’s directorial debut features Jackie Justice as a fighter in mixed martial arts who quit the sport. After competing in a brutal underground fight to make some money, she’s offered the chance to get back into the game. Netflix available starting Wednesday

 

Hawkeye 

The Marvel Universe has become increasingly complicated for the casual viewer to follow, but you don’t need in-depth knowledge to enjoy this seasonal offering. Jeremy Renner, Hawkeye is on a mission for his family to see him again in Christmas. Hailee is working to assist him. Disney+, Wednesday  

 

The Sunset Selling 

This addictive reality television show, which was a surprise success last year, focuses on the luxury real estate company The Oppenheim Group in Los Angeles and its glamorous agents. Netflix available starting Wednesday

The Oppenheim Group features insanely glamorous real estate agents, including Christine Quinn (above), in Los Angeles

Christine Quinn (above) is one example of insanely glamorous agents in real estate at The Oppenheim Group.

  

tick, tick… boom! 

Andrew Garfield’s all-singing and all-dancing musical adaptation is a great success. Garfield is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton director, while Garfield plays Larson. 

Jonathan? Larson’s final musical was the box-office sensation Rent. New Yorker, age 35, was killed the same day Rent opened. Netflix now

 

The True Story 

A new thriller from the creator of Narcos, critically-acclaimed Narcos. Eric Newman’s latest follows a comedian called Kid (Kevin Hart) who wakes up to learn he is the suspect in a murder case alongside his brother Carlton (Wesley Snipes). 

In Hart’s first serious role, will his character be able to clear his name overnight before he loses everything he has worked for? Netflix available starting Wednesday

 

Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em 

Michael Crawford was so perfect as the disaster-prone Frank Spencer that it’s hard to believe he was third choice for the role after Norman Wisdom and Ronnie Barker. 

Audiences were mesmerised by man-child Frank’s blunders and Michele Dotrice as his ever-patient wife Betty, subject of his famous catchphrase ‘Ooh, Betty!’

Michael Crawford (above) was so perfect as the disaster-prone Frank Spencer that it’s hard to believe he was third choice for the role

Michael Crawford (above) was so perfect as the disaster-prone Frank Spencer that it’s hard to believe he was third choice for the role

Crawford’s Buster Keatonesque routines were a highlight of the show. One famous moment was when Crawford made roller-skating an extreme sport. Britbox is available starting Thursday

 

Crime 

Author Irvine Welsh’s first TV series stars Dougray Scott as Ray Lennox, an Edinburgh detective who is battling demons. 

That cliche aside, this is a dark, gripping crime drama with quotable dialogue and terrific performances, particularly Scott’s. Lennox, obsessed about catching the paedophile serial murderer Mr Confectioner is determined to catch him. This killer has been active for many years and now has struck again. Britbox, Now

 

All Creatures Great & Small 

The popular reboot of the show is charming and well worth the effort. It also features an emotional performance by Nicholas Ralph, who plays James Herriot as vet. Also Jessica Clark and Patricia Hodge are featured. 

The show's second series features a touching performance from Nicholas Ralph as vet James Herriot, as well as Jessica Clark and Patricia Hodge (above)

In the second season of The Walking Dead, Nicholas Ralph plays James Herriot (above), and Jessica Clark and Patricia Hodge are featured in touching performances.

The second series sees him struggling with a dilemma – should he remain in Yorkshire or take a job with a forward-looking practice in his native Glasgow? Perhaps the woman he loves, Helen, will help him decide… Acorn TV, starting Monday

 

Hanna 

This is the third and last season of action/coming-of age drama about the teenage assassin. 

Esmé Creed-Miles is in the title role as the highly trained killer now trying to destroy Utrax, the organisation that created her. Mireille Enos, a former CIA agent is now a friend. Amazon starting Wednesday

 

Robin Robin 

A charming Christmas short by the Aardman Studio. Robin was raised by mice. She struggles to identify herself as a mouse when she gets older. 

Robin (above), who has been raised by a family of mice and suffers an identity crisis, is voiced by Bronte Carmichael

Robin, above, was raised by mice. She has an identity crisis and is voiced here by Bronte Carpenter

Bronte Carmichael plays Robin, Adeel Ashtar is Dad Mouse, and Gillian Anderson is Cat the villain. Netflix available starting Wednesday 

 

Why are there so many people talking about..

Shrink Next Door (Apple TV+) 

A eight-part comedy series starring Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and other Anchorman actors is sure to make you laugh. 

Well, there are laughs in The Shrink Next Door but they’re of the distinctly nervous variety because this is a disturbing series – based on a true story.

The new show, based on a true story, stars Paul Rudd (above) and Will Ferrell

This new series, which is based on an actual story, features Will Ferrell (above) as well as Paul Rudd.

Ferrell plays Marty Markowitz, a well-off New Yorker, who, in 1982, struggles to cope after his parents’ deaths.

His sister Phyllis (Kathryn Hahn) persuades him to see psychotherapist Dr Isaac Herschkopf (Rudd, above), an unthreatening-looking chap in a pink argyle tank top.

However, Herschkopf the predator is a master of passive aggression and Marty learns from him how he has managed to seize control over Marty and make his life miserable. 

Georgia Pritchett from Britain, a veteran of Succession (and Veep), serves as showrunner.

 

BBC iPLAYER & ALL4

 

Partisan  

If you enjoyed – or perhaps ‘admired’ would be a better word to describe such an odd film – the folk-horror movie Midsommar, then this offbeat Scandi noir from Sweden should also appeal.

Partisan stars Sofia Karemyr and Ylvali Rurling (above) as Nicole and Maria, two foster girls in a gated community in Sweden

Sofia Karemyr, YlvaliRurling and Ylvali Rurling star as Partisan.

Kent and his wife own a successful organic farm in a gated community. Johnny, a new arrival in the area, is responsible for picking up Nicole and Maria (Sofia Karemyr or YlvaliRurling), foster daughters who will join them.

However, he begins to suspect that beneath the community’s seemingly wholesome veneer lies something far darker, especially when one of the girls tries to escape and he’s asked to dig a grave. 

But Johnny himself also appears to have something to hide… All4, starting Sunday 

 

Dolly, The Sheep That Transformed The World

Created in 1996 from a single cell in a mammary gland (hence the name Dolly, after the chesty country singer Parton), Dolly the white-faced Dorset sheep was the world’s first successful cloned mammal, living for six years and producing six lambs. 

In a strange way she also achieved immortality. She was displayed at Edinburgh with her stuffing. BBC iPlayer, starting Tuesday

  

All The President’s Men 

Outstanding political thriller starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post journalists who broke the Watergate scandal that resulted in US President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974. 

Robert Redford (above) stars alongside Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in this outstanding political thriller

Robert Redford (above) stars alongside Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in this outstanding political thriller

It’s directed by Alan J. Pakula from an Oscar-winning screenplay by William Goldman. Jason Robards won an Oscar as editor Ben Bradlee. BBC iPlayer available from Thursday

 

Malory Towers 

For its second term, the series is based upon Enid Blyton’s famous books. Darrell Rivers is once again the main focus of this series as she navigates her life at an all-girls board school in post-second world war Britain. Pranks, midnight meals and even the occasional ghost are all part of daily life at Darrell Rivers’ all-girls boarding school. BBC iPlayer, starting Monday

Strike 

J. K. Rowling wrote each of the Strike novels, and it was adapted by Robert Galbraith into a fascinating mini-series starring Tom Burke & Holliday Grainger.

Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger (above) are business partners in Strike, based on the best-selling novels panned by J. K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith

Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger (above) are business partners in Strike, based on the best-selling novels panned by J. K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith

Burke plays Cormoran Strike, a war veteran turned private detective operating out of a tiny office in London’s Denmark Street, who solves cases that have eluded the police, along with his assistant, and later business partner, Robin Ellacott (Grainger). BBC iPlayer available now