WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND with Emily Darlow

Your weekend streaming guide

Disney+ Subscription Rivals — Season 2
TV SERIES · 12 EPISODES · NEW EPISODES WEEKLY · PERIOD DRAMA

One of the most talked about British dramas in years is back and it promises to be even bigger and brasher than before. Based on Dame Jilly Cooper’s beloved 1988 novel, Rivals is a gloriously soapy period drama set in the cutthroat world of 1980s commercial television, where shoulder pads are enormous, ambitions even larger and absolutely nobody plays fair. The first season ended on a dramatic cliffhanger. Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) was left in a very uncertain state after Cameron (Nafessa Williams) hit him over the head with a television award and Season 2 picks up right where we left off. The battle for the Central South West television franchise is still raging, with ex-Olympian and notorious womaniser Rupert Campbell Black (Alex Hassell) going head to head with Baddingham while romantic entanglements, illicit affairs and long buried secrets threaten to detonate everything. The expanded 12 episode season launches with three episodes on May 15, followed by new episodes weekly. Hayley Atwell and Rupert Everett join the already stellar cast, which also includes Aidan Turner, Katherine Parkinson, Danny Dyer and the luminous Bella Maclean. If you haven’t seen Season 1 yet, start there. You won’t want to stop.

ABC iview Free – Patience
TV SERIES · 6 EPISODES · BRITISH CRIME DRAMA · FREE TO STREAM

If you enjoy a good British crime drama – think Beyond Paradise or Vera – this one is well worth adding to your list. Patience is a charming and compelling detective series set against the beautiful historic backdrop of York, England. At its centre is an unlikely but brilliantly drawn partnership. Patience Evans (Ella Maisy Purvis) is a young autistic woman who works in a clerical role in the basement of the City of York police station, filing records. She is an enigma, a profoundly intelligent, self-taught criminologist who can spot connections and clues that others walk past. Her remarkable talent goes entirely unnoticed until a chance meeting with Detective Inspector Bea Metcalf (Laura Fraser) changes everything. Bea recognises Patience’s extraordinary deductive instincts and takes her under her wing and together the two form one of television’s most unlikely but winning crime solving duos. Across six episodes, the pair tackle everything from a mysterious death linked to fossil smuggling at a museum, to a bestselling crime writer found dead behind locked doors, to a body that vanishes from the morgue. The series handles Patience’s autism with genuine care and sensitivity and the chemistry between the two leads is a real joy. All six episodes are available now for free on ABC iview.

SBS On Demand Free – Rick Stein’s Australia
TV SERIES · 6 EPISODES · FOOD & TRAVEL DOCUMENTARY · FREE TO STREAM

This one is particularly special for Australian viewers. The much loved British chef Rick Stein has returned to Australia, a country with deep personal significance for him after first visiting as a 19-year-old recovering from a family tragedy, for a six-part culinary road trip that is warm, revealing and beautifully filmed.
Spanning more than 5,000 kilometres across New South Wales, the series takes Stein from the vibrant multicultural food scene of Sydney, where he recently opened a new restaurant at Coogee Beach, through the Central Coast, up the NSW North Coast and deep into inland regions including Moree, Bourke and the Riverina. Along the way he reconnects with old friends, meets the chefs, farmers and producers shaping the future of Australian food and explores how the country’s extraordinary landscape and cultural diversity have produced one of the world’s most exciting culinary scenes. If you loved his series on India or Spain, this is every bit as good and for Australians there is the added delight of seeing your own country through fresh, admiring eyes. All episodes are free to stream on SBS On Demand.

Netflix Subscription – Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
MOVIE · PERIOD DRAMA

After six beloved television series and two successful films, the Crawley family of Downton Abbey take their final bow and what a farewell it is. The Grand Finale arrives on Netflix having already grossed more than $100 million worldwide at the box office and earned a 91 per cent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it soothing as a cup of tea while still providing a satisfying amount of closure. Set in 1930, the film finds the household at a moment of significant change. Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) is at the centre of a scandalous divorce, making her a social outcast in the rigid class world she inhabits. At the same time, the beloved Mr Carson and Mrs Patmore are both preparing to retire and the family faces fresh financial pressures when Cora’s brother Harold (Paul Giamatti) arrives from America with very bad news about the family fortune. All the familiar faces return, including Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Joanne Froggatt, Penelope Wilton and the full ensemble, alongside a delightful cameo involving Noel Coward. The film also pays a poignant tribute to the late Dame Maggie Smith, whose presence as the inimitable Dowager Countess is deeply felt even in her absence. A fitting, generous and deeply satisfying send off for one of television’s great dynasties. Even if you haven’t seen the series before, this film works beautifully on its own.

Amazon Prime Video Subscription – The Grand ish Tour
TV SPECIAL · COMEDY/MOTORING ·

Clarkson’s Farm fans will already know that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have officially retired from The Grand Tour after a decade long run. Before handing the keys to an entirely new presenting trio, the three of them have gathered, tongue firmly in cheek, to look back at their finest and most ridiculous moments. Framed as a cosy reunion of three elderly gentlemen in a nursing home who cannot quite remember everything, The Grand ish Tour is a series of warm, funny retrospective specials revisiting epic adventures across California, Morocco, Colorado, Scandinavia and beyond. Expect explosions, epic pranks, Hammond’s many crashes, Clarkson’s mechanical incompetence, a waxwork of Nigel Mansell and a genuinely heartfelt farewell to old friends. Even if motoring is not really your thing, there is something genuinely lovely about watching three people who have clearly had the time of their lives doing something utterly daft together for the last time. The perfect watch for a lazy weekend afternoon.

10 Play Free – The Traitors UK — Season 3
TV SERIES · REALITY · GAME SHOW · FREE TO STREAM

If you have not yet discovered The Traitors, you are in for an absolute treat and there has never been a better time to catch up. This British reality series has become a genuine cultural phenomenon, combining the tension of a murder mystery with the psychological warfare of a strategy game, all set in the moody grandeur of Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands. The format is deceptively simple. A group of strangers arrive at the castle with the chance to win up to £120,000. A handful are secretly chosen as Traitors while the rest are Faithfuls. Each night the Traitors secretly murder one Faithful. Each day the whole group sits around a round table and votes to banish whoever they believe is a Traitor. If the Faithfuls root out all the Traitors, they split the prize. If even one Traitor survives to the end, they steal the lot. Season 3, hosted by the magnificent Claudia Winkleman in her finest knitwear, started on New Year’s Day 2025 with 25 contestants, new twists and some truly extraordinary moments of deception, paranoia and unexpected humanity. It has been described as real life Cluedo and once you start, you genuinely cannot stop. Start from episode one and prepare to lose your weekend entirely.

All shows available now unless otherwise stated. Happy viewing.