From The Celebrity Traitors, to Netflix’s Victoria Beckham documentary, to Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker in ITV1 drama Frauds, and cosy crime drama Murder Before Evensong, here’s what to look forward to, and catch up on, this week.
What’s on TV tonight?
Frauds
ITV1, 9pm; all episodes will be available on ITVX
One of the big new autumn dramas gets underway, complete with exotic locations and an appealing cast of well-known faces. Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker play old friends Bert and Sam, who we gradually discover were also partners in crime about a decade previously, when they worked as big-time con artists. We first meet them as Bert (Jones) is being released on compassionate grounds (she’s supposedly got terminal cancer) from doing a 10-year stretch in a Spanish high-security prison. There to meet her, and take care of her in her final days, is Sam (Whittaker), who’s apparently gone straight in the intervening years and living in reduced circumstances, although it’s obvious from the outset that they are both keeping big secrets from each other.
What follows is a highly entertaining buddy-movie-cum-crime-caper, as Bert sets about convincing Sam to return to their bad old ways and go all in with her on one last career-defining swindle in Madrid. To do that, though, they’re going to need to get the rest of the old team together and meticulously plan the heist. If that all sounds like familiar territory, it is, in parts. But it’s great fun, too.
Rob Brydon’s Honky Tonk Road Trip
BBC Two, 9pm; all episodes will be available on iPlayer
Country music is having “a moment”. What better excuse for Rob Brydon to jump into an oversized pickup and head out on the road in Kentucky and Tennessee in search of the roots of country music? The first stop is a no-brainer, Nashville, where he tries on outfits, does some line-dancing and meets country stars such as Luke Combs, Marty Stuart and, er… Gary Barlow.
24 Hours in Police Custody
Channel 4, 9pm
First in a two-part special following one of Bedfordshire Police’s biggest murder enquiries. After a brutal killing, detectives have a suspect in custody. But they’re shocked by revelations that what occurred was far more disturbing than they realised. Concludes tomorrow.
King & Conqueror
BBC One, 9.05pm; all episodes are already available on iPlayer
It’s all been too stiff and unconvincing, not helped by the casual attitude to history. All that’s left to see in this concluding part is whether Harold (James Norton) gets one in the eye when his army does battle with William’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) invading Normans.
Later… with Jools Holland
BBC Two/iPlayer, 10pm
Rocker Robert Plant performs with his new band. Also on hand are London singer-songwriter Olivia Dean (who performs with Holland), plus French actor-singer Jehnny Beth, James Yorkston & Nina Persson, and spoken word artist Joshua Idehen.
Saturday Night Live
Sky Comedy/NOW, 9pm
It’s not Saturday and it’s not live, but, ahead of Sky’s plans to launch Saturday Night Live UK (a British version of NBC’s iconic satirical sketch show) early next year, here’s the latest, and 51st, season of the show that’s been entertaining American audiences since 1975. Tonight, the guest host is Puerto Rican popstar Bad Bunny, who’s just been announced as the half-time performer at next year’s Super Bowl. GO
What’s on TV this week?
Monday 6 October
Joe Wicks with his new protein bar, Killer – Channel 4
Joe Wicks: Licensed to Kill
Channel 4, 8pm
Health fanatic Joe Wicks has developed an unhealthy new protein bar called Killer. True to its name, the ultra-processed chocolate orange snack is packed so full of additives that it increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer. The thing is, says Wicks, not only is this protein bar perfectly legal, but it is no different to most ultra-processed food on the market. The only difference is its packaging. Unlike other protein bars, which present themselves as healthy snacks, Killer is honest about its harmful ingredients.
The stunt is intended to pressure the government into changing the way ultra-processed food is made and marketed in the UK. This colourful documentary follows Wicks as he begins to have doubts about the idea of putting his name on such a toxic product. His partner in crime, Dr Chris van Tulleken, thinks it is the only way to grab attention. Wicks’s wife, Rosie, is aghast at the prospect of selling Killer in shops.
How the stunt plays out is uncertain. The final section of the documentary has not been made available to previewers because Wicks’s launch of Killer had not yet been filmed. Here’s hoping no one actually eats it.
Richard Hammond’s Workshop
Discovery+
Top Gear alumni Richard Hammond has turned to social media to drum up business for his classic car restoration business. Hence why today’s return features stunts involving a Land Rover parade, a stab at panto and Hammond riding a camel. Elsewhere, work continues on Debbie McGee’s water-damaged Mercedes.
Family Guy Halloween Special
Disney+
Not content with ripping off The Simpsons’ characters and general milieu, Family Guy has recently begun to ape its Halloween specials. Today’s episode follows Brian and Stewie as they set about trying to write a hit Halloween song; while Peter gets into trouble trick-or-treating.
Blue Lights
BBC One, 9pm; all episodes are already available on iPlayer
Most crime dramas would struggle to muster a scene half as gripping as the one in tonight’s Blue Lights involving a traumatic car crash. And that isn’t even the best sequence in the episode. That would be its nerve-shredding climax, in which our plucky band of peelers are caught in a terrorist trap.
Conquistadors: The Rise and Fall
PBS America, 9pm
The Spanish Empire’s colonisation of the Americas was notorious for its breadth and brutality. This absorbing six-part documentary charts the conquistadors’ rise and fall, beginning tonight with Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the New World, followed by the destruction of the Aztec and Inca empires.
Social Media Monsters
Channel 4, 10pm; all episodes will be available to stream
This disturbing 10-part documentary explores the role of social media in serious crime. Tonight’s opening episode tells the story of 15-year-old Holly Newton, whose social media accounts were hacked by ex-boyfriend Logan MacPhail before he killed her. The challenge for the police is to prove the murder was premeditated. SK
Tuesday 7 October
Amanda Redman and Matthew Lewis star in Richard Coles’s cosy crime drama – Robert Viglasky/AcornTV
Murder Before Evensong
Channel 5, 9pm
What a treat as the nights draw in to settle down to this cosy crime drama based on the first novel in the Canon Clement Mysteries by the Reverend Richard Coles (who has a blink and you’ll miss it cameo in the first episode). It’s set in the late 1980s and, over six episodes, we see how Canon Daniel Clement, the dachshund-owning rector of the fictional Champton, turns sleuth as he investigates a murder spree in the sleepy English village, which is picture-postcard pretty but home to a serial killer.
Matthew Lewis plays the long-suffering rector, who has to cope not only with an unfathomable number of guilty secrets his parishioners have been keeping and which come tumbling out after the first death, but also an array of formidable women in his life – not least his widowed mother Audrey (Amanda Redman) and bossy parishioner Stella Harper (Tamzin Outhwaite). Amit Shah is DS Neil Vanloo, the detective assigned to the case, while Adam James is Bernard De Floures, the local squire. While the drama is played straight, Nick Hicks-Beach’s scripts reflect Coles’s wry humour, much in evidence in the source material, and the cast are clearly having fun.
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Ozzy: No Escape From Now
Paramount+
Tania Alexander’s affectionate documentary was completed in the months before Ozzy Osbourne died in July, a fortnight after performing a farewell gig in his beloved Birmingham. The Black Sabbath frontman reflects on his life and career and living with Parkinson’s, while his family and bandmates also contribute.
Murder: Buried Alive – True Crime Presents
ITV1/ITVX, 9pm
Part of the Evidence of Evil series, this film examines the shocking case of the 1992 kidnapping of estate agent Stephanie Slater and the painstaking investigation to find her attacker, Michael Sams.
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Sky Max/NOW, 9pm
The music quiz returns with a Madchester versus Britpop special. Joining Britpop captain Noel Fielding are actress Patsy Kensit and Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey; in the Madchester corner are Inspiral Carpets’ keyboardist Clint Boon and Jamali Maddix, handing over captaining duties to Happy Mondays’ Bez, the personification of the Madchester era.
Worlds Apart
Channel 4, 9.15pm
This enjoyable new series has strong Race Across the World vibes but its USP is that six young Britons are each paired with a pensioner for a treasure hunt in Japan. The hitherto strangers have to find complementary skills to land the £50,000 prize, or go home early.
Film Club
BBC Three, 10pm & 10.30pm; all episodes will be available on iPlayer
A double episode to introduce this comedy drama – funny and touching by turns – written by Ralph Davis and Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus). The fragile Evie (Wood) has a weekly film club in her mum’s (Suranne Jones) garage where she spends time with her best friend and fellow movie buff, Noa (Nabhaan Rizwan). It’s her safe space, but then Noa delivers some upsetting news. VL
Wednesday 8 October
The first edition of Celebrity Traitors UK begins – BBC
The Celebrity Traitors / The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked
BBC One, 9pm & BBC Two, 10.15pm
Of all the reality shows still standing, perhaps only I’m a Celebrity… could attract the calibre of line-up gathered together in the Scottish Highlands. This, of course, is the first iteration of The Traitors to feature the famous. Are they any better at lying and deception than the average person? Will their actions be quite so ruthless if the prize pot is going to chosen charities rather than into their pockets? Who will look best in the cloak? And whose murder will bring the greatest gaiety to the nation?
The potential Traitors and Faithfuls run the gamut from comedy (Alan Carr, Lucy Beaumont) to sport (Tom Daley, Joe Marler), from music (Charlotte Church, Paloma Faith) to acting (Celia Imrie, Mark Bonnar), from presenters (Clare Balding, Jonathan Ross) to public intellectuals both official (David Olusoga) and honorary (Stephen Fry). Throw in seven more celebrities of wildly varying provenance – plus Claudia Winkleman, presiding as ever – and you have 20 good reasons to stay in on Wednesdays and Thursdays for the next few weeks. Ed Gamble will once again be picking up the pieces on BBC Two with Uncloaked.
Lost Station Girls
Disney+
This routine true-crime six-parter dramatises the 20-year investigation into the disappearance of a young woman and the murder of three others in Perpignan, France, in the late 1990s, with all the red herrings, odd-couple pairings and clichéd dialogue common to the genre.
Is It Cake? Halloween
Netflix
Those familiar with the American obsession with Halloween won’t be surprised that the always-watchable showcase for baking illusions has not just a special but a whole series devoted to it: nine bakers are bidding to impress celebrity judges with their tricks and treats.
Nero the Assassin
Netflix
This punchy new eight-parter from the team behind Kabul Kitchen tells the tale of Nero (Pio Marmaï), an orphan and street hustler-turned-assassin in 16th-century France who is forced to reconsider his cynical, not to say homicidal, way of life when he learns that he has a daughter – who, Leon style, is considering the same line of work. If the narrative sometimes resembles window dressing for the many bloody fights, Dardenne brothers regular Olivier Gourmet adds heft as Nero’s priest.
Uefa Women’s Champions League
Disney+, 5.45pm & 8pm
The second night of Disney’s first foray into live women’s football features more of the tournament’s big guns starting their campaigns, as Real Madrid face Roma and Chelsea travel to FC Twente in the early kick-offs, while Manchester United host minnows Vålerenga later on.
Killing Hitler
National Geographic, 8pm
While Operation Valkyrie is the best known, it is believed there were over 40 plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler. This comprehensive three-part series details the different attempts and motives behind them, beginning with the resistance fighters and disenchanted army officers who acted alone. GT
Thursday 9 October
Victoria Beckham opens up about her career and relationships – Netflix
Victoria Beckham
Netflix
Back in 2023, Netflix’s Beckham, the four-part docuseries chronicling footballer David Beckham football career and his life in the public eye with his wife Victoria, was a huge critical success – even winning an Emmy for Outstanding Documentary. Two years on, it’s time for the spotlight to shift onto Victoria, whose own stellar journey from Spice Girls pop icon to fashion mogul is just as interesting, taking us from the hugely exposing realms of global pop superstardom to the rarefied – and skin-scrapingly bitchy – world of catwalks and haute couture.
Even if the suspicion lingers that what we’re seeing might not always be totally and utterly objective (as with Beckham, the Beckham’s Studio 99 production company is behind the series), it is the access that the name Victoria Beckham brings that really matters. Some of the world’s most famous and influential people are within her social circle. As such, director Nadia Hallgren gets face time with such fashion luminaries as Donatella Versace, designer Tom Ford and Vogue supremo Anna Wintour, as well as the multitude of stage, screen and music stars that the Beckhams count as friends, such as Eva Longoria, and, of course, old Goldenballs himself and the couple’s four sons.
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Boots
Netflix
A refreshingly unsentimental comedy about a closeted young man’s experience of a US Marine Corps bootcamp in the 1990s, when being gay in the US military was illegal. Miles Heizer is terrific as 18-year-old Cameron, who signs up to escape boredom only to find life in the forces is rather different than he imagined.
Live International Football
ITV1/ITVX, 7pm & BBC Two/BBC Scotland/iPlayer, 7.30pm
Two internationals tonight as, on ITV1, Wales take on England in a friendly at Wembley, while BBC Two has coverage as Greece take on Scotland at Hampden Park, in a World Cup Qualifier. Both kick-off at 7.45pm.
The Taste Test Restaurant
Channel 5, 7pm
What are the best and worst products on supermarket shelves? Tom Read Wilson opens the TV restaurant where diners get to try before they buy. First up, ready-made Italian food, with everything from carbonara to tiramisu, via arancini and garlic bread, on the tasting menu.
Great Estates from Above
More4, 9pm
This new series features drones that provide breathtaking views of Britain’s grandest big houses and parkland, while at ground level, we learn histories, meet the current owners and the staff who keep them running day to day. Today we visit Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire as a major restoration project gets underway.
Dreaming Whilst Black
BBC Three, 10.10pm; all episodes will be available on iPlayer
Adjani Salmon’s acclaimed comedy about an aspiring British Jamaican filmmaker trying to make his way in the privileged-access world of the British film and television industry returns for a much-anticipated second series. In the first of tonight’s opening triple bill, Kwabena (Salmon) discovers that being a “hot” property is no guarantee of integrity. GO
Friday 10 October
Nōksu owner Bobby Kwak in Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars – Apple
Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars
Apple TV+
A Michelin star can raise a restaurant’s reputation to the stratosphere, transforming its fortunes. Missing out on a star, however, or even worse, losing an established star, can lead a restaurant to ruin. This stylish eight-part documentary, executive produced by Gordon Ramsay, explores what it takes for a chef to win (and lose) the food world’s highest honour.
Michelin guide inspectors are like secret agents. They travel the world using different identities, forbidden from telling anyone what their job is. The inspectors themselves (their faces obscured) explain that this is so that they can judge a restaurant like any other customer. For restaurant owners, it means that every diner is a potential assassin.
In today’s opening two-parter, presenter Jesse Burgess travels to New York, the world’s most competitive restaurant scene. Nōksu, a fine dining Korean restaurant located in a subway station, is losing $20,000 a month. For owner Bobby Kwak, a Michelin star is the difference between boom and bust. Whereas at The Musket Room, which already holds a star, chef Mary Attea is in danger of spreading her attention too thin. Losing the star would be disastrous. Hence why her team lives in fear of the dreaded solo diner…
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The Last Frontier
Apple TV+
This pulpy 10-part thriller follows US Marshall Frank Remnick (Jason Clarke) as he contends with a plane full of dangerous prisoners that has crash-landed near his small Alaskan town. The first two episodes launch today, and are perfect for when you’ve had a long day and all you’re in the mood for is good old-fashioned rollicking nonsense.
The OJ Simpson Trial: 30 Years On
Channel 5, 9pm
This month marks 30 years since the sensational trial of American football star OJ Simpson for murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. The landmark case is re-examined in this retrospective, which analyses the key moments that led to Simpson’s shock acquittal.
How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)
BBC One, 9.30pm; all episodes are already available on iPlayer
Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) turns his attention to the minds of women this week, as he seeks to take the “men” out of mental. The gags are relentless. One of the funniest concerns is the cancellation of HS2. “Why would you want to get to the north quicker?”
Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping
Channel 4, 10pm; all episodes are already available to stream
The admirable hit-and-miss sketch show concludes with an underwhelming lack of hits. The only sketch of note tonight is a risqué riff on a child coming out to their parents, elevated by a hilarious appearance from Such Brave Girls’ Lizzie Davidson.
The Graham Norton Show
BBC One, 10.40pm
Another blindingly starry edition of the chat show staple. Tonight’s sofa includes Hollywood royalty Julia Roberts, big-name actors Colin Farrell and Benedict Cumberbatch, and Cuban singer Gloria Estefan. British pop icon Robbie Williams will also be performing a song from his new album. SK
Saturday 4 October
Grand Ole Opry Live: 100 Years of Country Music
BBC Two/iPlayer, 8.40pm
While BBC television makes regular forays into the past of country music through its archives (another rewarding trawl follows at 10.10pm, with Francis Whately’s excellent feature Rebel Country documentary at 11.40pm), the contemporary scene is less well represented, the slightly glutinous annual Country Christmas Nashville beanfeast notwithstanding. Tonight’s gig nudges the performers into the 21st century, if not always the songs. Recorded last week at the Royal Albert Hall and hosted by Vernon Kay and Kelly Sutton, the concert marks the American institution’s centenary and was the Grand Ole Opry’s first to be held outside the United States, bringing Opry regulars together with some counterparts from the British folk scene.
While much of the setlist leans heavily on respectful covers of oak-aged country standards (Always On My Mind, Folsom Prison Blues, 9 to 5), expect newer numbers from the likes of Luke Combs (Fast Car), Darius Rucker (Alright) and Carly Pearce (What He Didn’t Do), along with appearances from Marty Stuart, Mumford and Sons and contemporary Celtic band Breabach. The communal, arms-around-the-shoulders finale of Will the Circle Be Unbroken? is as joyous and life-affirming as it is inevitable. The show is also available to listen to on BBC Sounds.
Rugby League: Super League Live 2025
BBC Two/iPlayer, 5.15pm
Hull Kingston Rovers, on the comeback trail after a fine season, face St Helens in the second semi-final, after the Saints pulled off a stunning turnaround against Leeds last weekend. Kick-off is at 5.30pm.
The Celebrity Inner Circle
BBC One/iPlayer, 5.35pm
There are shades of Robert Kilroy Silk’s Shafted in this fun new game show as contestants can “split” their prize pot or “shaft” their opponents. Amanda Holden hosts this primetime spin (the daytime version launches on Monday at 4.30pm), pairing civilians with celebrities including Lou Sanders and Zara McDermott. Each twosome is assigned a secret stash of money which they must attempt to increase at others’ expense, while answering trivia questions.
The Trial of Paul Burrell
Channel 5, 8.40pm
Scraping the Burrell? This is schedule-filling tosh even by Channel 5’s Saturday night standards, reconstructing the case in which Diana’s former butler was charged with theft of royal property. More publicity for a man who scarcely merits it.
The Essex Murders: Who Killed Goldfinger?
Sky Documentaries, 9pm; all episodes will be available on Sky and NOW
The big villain through both series of The Gold, Brink’s-Mat smelter John Palmer was shot in his garden in 2015. The killer has never been found, but this gnarly, entertaining three-part documentary attempts to crack the case with contributions from Palmer’s associates, family and a team of private investigators.
Twisted Metal
BBC One, midnight; all episodes will be available on iPlayer
The latest video-game adaptation (first shown on Paramount+) is a comedic take on the titular demolition derby as a milkman and a thief (Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz) must cross a post-apocalyptic wasteland to deliver a mystery package. Creepy clowns, religious zealots and vehicular carnage abound in a silly, slight and spectacular entertainment. GT
Television previewers
Stephen Kelly (SK), Veronica Lee (VL), Gerard O’Donovan (GO), Vicki Power (VP) and Gabriel Tate (GT)
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