Nolly – Thursday, ITVX
A huge star in her day, Noele ‘Nolly’ Gordon ruled Crossroads for almost twenty years. She was affectionately known as Queen of the Midlands. But in 1981, she was sacked without any warning or rational explanation. Gordon was bereft, Crossroads was her life. A public outcry ensued. Why had she been treated this way? This stellar drama from Russell T. Davies teases that peculiar mystery until the very end. Told with his characteristic wit, warmth and verve, Nolly is a heartfelt paean to the people who make soaps and the viewers who love them. Helena Bonham Carter and co deliver pitch-perfect performances in simpatico with Davies’ sparkling material. A labour of love, the whole thing is delightful.
Putin vs the West – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm
This absorbing three-part series from that estimable documentarian Norma Percy tells the story of Vladmir Putin’s tumultuous march towards war. It begins in 2014 when Putin first attacked Ukraine and seized the Crimean peninsula. As always, Percy examines a complex political situation with acuity. She never fails to populate her projects with big name contributors, all of them keen to provide their insider version of events. On this occasion we hear from the likes of David Cameron, Francois Hollande, former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and, in later episodes, Boris Johnson. Those world leaders were divided with regards to how to best deal with Putin, who in turn succeeded in exploiting that tension for his own powerful gain.
Emily Atack: Asking for It? – Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm
Every day without fail, the actor, presenter and comedian Emily Atack is, like so many women, sexually harassed online. She’s bombarded by a torrent of men sending her unsolicited explicit images and messages. In this thoughtful documentary, Atack asks why so little is being done to protect women and girls from such abuse. Why do some men behave in this way? Because they think they’ll get away with it. Most of them do. Their disgusting behaviour leaves women feeling fearful and ashamed. Atack’s interviewees include psychologists, activists, her own parents, and a group of schoolgirls who confirm that the authorities – and by extension society at large – aren’t doing enough to either understand or confront this issue.
The Magical World of Moss – Wednesday, BBC Four, 9pm
I felt a bittersweet pang of nostalgia when I spotted this programme in the listings. It’s not a repeat, but it harks back to the days when BBC Four showcased esoteric documentaries as a matter of course. Three years ago, the BBC announced that Four would gradually cease to originate new programmes, becoming instead a repository for archive content. I can only assume that The Magical World of Moss was one of the last new shows to slip through the net. As you’ve doubtless already gathered, it’s a charming study of mosses and their many remarkable properties. Various moss-obsessed scientists pop up to explain why this fuzzy green plant is so important to our ecosystem.
Eat the Town – Thursday, BBC Scotland, 8:30pm
Darren ‘Dazza’ Dowling and Natalie Erskine are the affably irreverent hosts of this culinary travelogue, in which they discover what various Scottish towns have to offer food and activity-wise. First stop, Forfar. They enjoy a healthy café breakfast, a sizeable bridie lunch, and some dinner at a pan-Asian restaurant. They also visit a sheep and alpaca farm, before embarking upon a cocktail-making challenge at a local distillery. Dowling and Erskine are clearly having fun with this gentle deconstruction of standard TV conventions. Nothing too radical, you understand, but they sometimes acknowledge the crew and the script they’re all working from, a bit like a pair of young, sober Keith Floyds. If you can imagine such a thing.
Bill Gates: Amol Rajan Interviews – Friday, BBC Two, 7:30pm
Famously, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has pledged to donate much of his fortune to urgent global causes. Poverty, disease, gender inequality and climate change being chief among them. BBC journalist Amol Rajan meets up with him in Kenya. Mild highlights include Gates airing his concerns about social media’s deleterious impact on nuanced discourse, and the ways in which it incubates dangerous conspiracy theories. He’s a diplomatic pro, but he obviously has no time for Trump and Musk. Rajan also asks Gates about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. “In retrospect I would’ve been much smarter to never even talk to him at all,” he says, clearly discomfited by the subject. “I only met him a few times…”
Hotel Portofino – Friday, STV, 9pm
ITV are clearly hoping to replicate the success of Downton Abbey with this glossy new period drama. Set in 1926, it revolves around the owners and guests of a luxury hotel on the Italian Riviera. This fine establishment is run by a thoroughly modern and awfully decent Englishwoman. While taking care of business, she expresses concerns about her son, a physically and psychologically scarred World War One veteran. She’s also shackled to a philandering husband. Hotel Portofino is an entirely middling affair, it doesn’t make much of an impression. Pretty hats, pleasant scenery, no substance. It’s one of those shows you just gaze at idly from afar while thinking about how nice it would be to go on holiday.
