22 May 2022 39THE BEST TV FROM IPLAYER AND BEYOND... TUESDAY 24 MAY
When it was announced last
week that the Leeds-born
scriptwriter and director had
died suddenly at the age of 71
the news was met with shock
and sadness. Mellor was a
loved fixture within the world
of TV drama and seeing
her name on the credits
was a kitemark of quality, a
guarantee the show would be
written with wit, humanity
and vivid sympathy for its
working-class and female
characters. It’s a shame her
biggest hit, Fat Friends isn’t
currently streaming, but her
gritty 2018 drama Girlfriends
is available on ITV Hub, while
Britbox has her breakthrough
1989-2000 teenage drama
Children’s Ward (co-created
with Paul Abbott), mid-1990s
crime drama Band Of Gold
and four seasons of her deftly
realised state-of-the-nation
lottery drama The Syndicate.
Andrew MaleSicario (Film4, 9pm)
Playing a gun-toting FBI agent
in this thriller, Emily Blunt
seems credibly tough, and
this is very much what the
film requires of her. A realistic
movie by Denis Villeneuve
(who more recently switched
to fantasy for Blade Runner
2049 and Dune), it prides itself
on taking a dour, sceptical view
of America’s war on Mexican
drug cartels. This dark-toned
approach is quite oppressive,
but the fierce action scenes
add brightness, as do the
charismatic performances.
Blunt’s law-enforcement
colleagues include Josh
Brolin, Benicio Del Toro and
Daniel Kaluuya. (2015)The Magic Roundabout
(Sky Cinema Animation,
12.20pm/11pm)
This CGI revival of the gently
psychedelic television show is a
cheap, cheerful effort with Ian
McKellen, Kylie Minogue and
Joanna Lumley (as Ermintrude)
in its voice cast. Co-dirs: Dave
Borthwick, Jean Duval, Frank
Passingham (2005)
Edward PorterUnited we sit? (BBC2, from 10pm) Tough idealist: Blunt (Film4, 9pm)FILM CHOICE
ON DEMAND
Barry (Sky/Now)
Five episodes into its third
season and Bill Hader and Alec
Berg’s pitch-black comedy
continues to impress. The
premise remains the same,
that of a Midwestern hitman
(Hader) who longs to become
a Hollywood actor, but the
subplots are wilder, the set
Weeds (All4)
From 2005 to 2012, over seven
seasons this black comedy
about a widowed suburban
mom (Mary-Louise Parker)
supporting her family by
selling marijuana sailed from
giggly highs to aimless lows.
Ten years on, it is surprising
how easy it is to drop back
into individual episodes.
The run from season one to
three remains its peak.
Andrew MaleLovestruck High (Amazon)
Set in a facsimile of an American
high school, this reality dating
show follows overconfident
singles hoping to become
prom king or queen and win
$100,000. The voiceover host is
Lindsay Lohan (possibly a nod
to her 2004 high-school comedy
Mean Girls) but coupled with
the show’s attempts to force
contestants into toxic high-
school cliques, it’s a choice that
feels cruel rather than clever.Rhino
(Buy as stream/download)
The Ukrainian film-maker
Oleg Sentsov, who was
imprisoned in Russia from
2015 to 2019, has proved his
patriotism, but he took an
unsentimental view of his
country in this gangster
movie. Set mainly in the
1990s, it provides a forceful
account of a hoodlum (Serhii
Filimonov) building a career
in the underworld. (2021) EPpieces more surreal and the
humour both sharper and
darker. This season is all about
Sarah Goldberg’s amazing
turn as Barry’s acting partner,
Sally Reed, and if subsidiary
characters such as Anthony
Carrigan’s effusive Chechen
mobster, NoHo Hank,
sometimes feel a little too much
like comic relief, remember
that they are there to relieve
you from the show’s moments
of absolute moral darkness.Magical transformation: the businesslike Lucy Worsley hunts witches (BBC2, 9pm)Lucy Worsley Investigates:
The Witch Hunts
(BBC2, 9pm)
The first of four films about
dramatic chapters in British
history looks into the case of
Agnes Sampson, a Scottish
folk healer forced by torture
to admit to being part of a
coven. After meeting historians
and studying Sampson’s trial
transcript and confession,
Worsley sees her execution
in 1591 (which “triggered a
craze for witch-hunts”) as
being driven by misogynistic
paranoia and the need of her
chief accuser, James VI (later
England’s James I), to prove
himself a righteous king.
Calling these stories detective-
style “investigations” feels a
bit phoney, but this series
sees a different Worsley: less
amused by history, more
serious and business-like,
and perhaps more feminist.
John DugdaleState Of The Union (BBC2,
10pm/10.10pm/10.20pm)
Director Stephen Frears and
writer Nick Hornby return with
more scenes from a marriage.
The first series, with Rosamund
Pike and Chris O’Dowd as a
couple meeting up pre-therapy,
was rewarded with a clutch of
Emmy awards. This one, filmed
in London but set in America,
finds Brendan Gleeson
meeting his insufferable wife
(Patricia Clarkson). She’s not
sure if she wants to remain
married, he (faced with an
obnoxiously smooth non-
binary barista) isn’t sure he
wants to remain on the planet.
“I’m retired, I think Bernie
Sanders is a lunatic and I don’t
see anything wrong with milk,”
he says. Viewers may wish
them urgently to divorce.
Helen Stewart
The Chernobyl Disaster
(C5, 9pm)
Narrated by Ben Fogle, this
sobering series tells the story
of the 1986 nuclear accident
over three nights. From the
build-up to the disaster to the
recent danger caused by the
Russian invasion of Ukraine,
it is a meticulous account of a
catastrophe that still resonates.
Continues tomorrow.Liam Gallagher —
48 Hours At Rockfield
(Sky Arts/Sky Max, 9pm)
Ahead of his new record,
C’Mon You Know, the former
Oasis frontman heads to
Rockfield studios in Wales
with his sons, Gene and
Lennon. He discusses his life
and music, as well as turning
in intimate performances
of old and new songs.Gentleman Jack Changed
My Life (BBC1, 10.40pm)
Anyone believing Sally
Wainwright’s drama was just
unusual Sunday-night costume
fun will be surprised by this
delightful film about its fans.
Every woman here deserves a
documentary, especially the
62-year-old Mormon affected
by her Anne Lister epiphany.
Victoria SegalCRITICS’ CHOICE
Fondly recalling
Kay Mellor