ScreenScribe

Lightbox will stream the latest seasons of Mr Mercedes and The Good Doctor weekly from mid-late September while Downton Abbey fans will be able to binge on all six seasons before seeing the movie. Season three of Mr Mercedes has Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) tracking down the killer of a beloved author. Whereas S1 of Mr Mercedes covered […]

Beecham House | SoHo2, 8.30 Wednesday ☆☆☆☆ “ITV’s new drama Beecham House is set in late 18th-century India where the British and French were still battling it out for supremacy … It’s just as well that the series is produced, directed and co-written by Gurinder Chadha, the maker of Bhaji on the Beach and Bend It […]

Grand Hotel | TVNZ OnDemand, from Monday ☆☆☆☆ “The first episode of ABC’s Grand Hotel is startlingly good. It’s glamorous, sexy and mysterious. In the first few minutes, a terrible storm hits Miami, sending the staff and guests at the fabulous Riviera Hotel scurrying for cover; it’s also the perfect cover for a crime when […]

The Crown | Netflix, from Friday ➢ “The Crown’s second season is captivating in a way that almost isn’t fair. The costume drama, which follows the early years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II (Claire Foy) … sounds like it should be a dry slog through the too-familiar territory of rich and famous people feeling sorry […]

The Halcyon (Prime, 8.30 Thursday) ➢ “They should have had the balls to call it Downton Hotel. C’mon, we’re all grown-ups here! But ITV has been coy and called their replacement for the late, lamented (especially by all the monkeys who typed the scripts) Downton Abbey The Halcyon instead. It is set – sensibly, given the […]

The Level (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Sunday-Thursday) “The shadow of Nordic noir continues to hang over British crime drama with The Level, the latest homegrown procedural looking to the gloomy far north for inspiration. Downton Abbey’s dashing Rob James-Collier is the marquee name here, though the reliably geezerish Philip Glenister is perhaps a more predictable fit for the gritty […]

Tutankhamun (Prime, 8.30 Tuesdays) “The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb may well be one of the 20th century’s great stories — but naturally that doesn’t mean a television drama won’t want to jazz it up a bit. Or, in the case of ITV’s lavishly produced but distinctly corny Tutankhamun, quite a lot. The programme gives us a […]

Good Behaviour (SoHo, 8.30 Wednesdays) “In the smartly played, agonisingly suspenseful Good Behaviour, Michelle Dockery plays Letty Raines, a con woman and thief newly on parole, but already back conning and thieving, and backsliding as well, in her attempts to stay clear of drugs and alcohol and reconnect with her young son. Terry Kinney plays her parole […]

Jericho (Prime, 8.30 Tuesday) “The weather has finally turned … Now we can … get down to … hunkering under a blanket in front of the telly with a bowl of thick soup and consuming dramas as hearty and satisfying as the food. Enter – with sturdy step, not flourish – Jericho, an eight-part series about people […]

Brief Encounters, a new desperate housewives comedy-drama set in 1982 Sheffield that’s been dubbed “The Full Monty with sex aids“, will screen 8.35 Wednesdays on TV One from August 10. “It is the story of the first generation of Ann Summers party hosts, a pioneering set of dildo-wielding women out to empower themselves and enrich Jacqueline Gold via the medium of split-crotch […]