There’s plenty to tempt you onto the couch this week, whether you prefer your drama served with international intrigue, an Italian sea view or something fresh from the oven. Keri Russell returns in The Diplomat, Nigella Lawson joins the Bake Off judging table, and two documentaries explore lives spent in front of the camera.
An attack on a British warship set The Diplomat in motion, and four seasons later, the consequences are still making life difficult for Kate Wyler. Keri Russell returns as the American ambassador whose ability to negotiate an international crisis is regularly tested by the people closest to her.
This time, President Grace Penn, played by Allison Janney, and Kate’s husband Hal, played by Rufus Sewell, give her ample reason to question where their loyalties lie. Bradley Whitford’s Todd Penn, the president’s husband, adds another complication as he takes a more active role.
The appeal lies in the overlap between political ambition and marital conflict, where a conversation between spouses can carry consequences well beyond the dinner table. If you’re behind, catch up before starting the new season: those earlier betrayals still matter.
Few television projects have allowed us to watch people grow older in quite the same way as the Up series. Beginning with Seven Up! in 1964, it introduced a group of British children and returned every seven years to see where life had taken them.
Now, its final instalment revisits those lives at 70, bringing decades of choices, relationships and changing circumstances into view. For viewers who have followed the participants over the years, there is the added familiarity of seeing faces first encountered as children.
This chapter also gives its subjects space to consider the experience of being filmed throughout their lives and the approach of Michael Apted, the filmmaker so closely associated with the series. It offers an absorbing opportunity to reflect on ageing, opportunity and how much of anyone’s future can be predicted at seven.
A summer in Capri sounds like a reasonable prescription for a difficult year, although television detectives rarely manage to leave work behind.
Warren Brown plays DCI Joe Mottram, a London detective who travels to the Italian island with his daughter following his wife’s death. Staying with his Italian in-laws offers the possibility of time together as they work through their grief, but local mysteries soon draw Joe back into investigating.
Created by Hotel Portofino’s Matt Baker, the series pairs its crime stories with an inviting Mediterranean setting and a strong interest in food. Family relationships give Joe’s visit a personal dimension, while the island’s darker secrets supply the cases. For anyone who likes a mystery with scenery worth admiring, Capri makes a persuasive backdrop.
There is considerable comfort in knowing what awaits inside the Bake Off tent: ambitious cakes, exacting pastry challenges and amateur bakers trying to keep their nerves, and their creations, intact.
Season 17 brings a significant change to that familiar setting, with Nigella Lawson replacing Prue Leith alongside fellow judge Paul Hollywood. Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond return as hosts, guiding a new group of bakers through the competition’s signature, technical and showstopper challenges.
Nigella’s arrival gives longtime viewers another reason to tune in, with her enthusiasm for food a natural fit for a programme built around the pleasure of making and sharing it. Whether you bake along or simply watch with a cup of tea and a shop-bought biscuit, this remains an appealing weekly appointment.
After 25 years in Los Angeles, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne begin planning a return to Britain in this documentary, which follows the final three years of Ozzy’s life.
Preparations for his farewell performance run alongside the prospect of coming home, giving the film both a musical and a family focus. The Birmingham-born performer’s public identity is familiar to generations of fans, but the documentary turns its attention towards the people supporting him through this last chapter.
At just under an hour, it is an accessible choice for viewers interested in the man behind the stage persona, as well as those who have followed the Osbournes since their reality television days. Expect a more personal perspective on a performer whose career was rarely short on spectacle.
If royal history and a look around a grand British estate are your idea of good viewing, put this three-part documentary series on your list for next week.
Each episode explores a historic property with royal connections, including Princess Diana’s family home, Queen Elizabeth I’s childhood estate and the Queen Mother’s ancestral castle. The focus is on the histories and traditions attached to these places, offering context for the people who lived within their walls.
It’s an appealing prospect for royal watchers, with the buildings themselves providing a way into stories spanning generations.
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