Holding, ITV review - Graham Norton’s novel moves seamlessly to the small screen

★★★★ HOLDING, ITV Graham Norton’s novel moves seamlessly to the small screen

A fine Irish cast does justice to a gentle but dark whodunnit set in West Cork

The terrain Holding occupies is well travelled, but this new ITV four-part drama travels over it really well. The landmarks are familiar: a quiet rural community, a cop with an unhealthy lifestyle and a secret sorrow, a feud between rival lovers of the local lothario, a long-buried trauma that’s suddenly unearthed. We could be in any rural location in the primetime drama of the past half-century.

Drive to Survive, Season 4, Netflix review - bitter rivalries on and off the track

Ratings-grabbing F1 docuseries revisits the explosive 2021 campaign

Netflix’s fly-on-the-pitwall series has rapidly established itself as a vital ingredient in the tapestry of Formula One coverage, and is credited with giving the sport a huge boost in visibility and popularity, not least in the USA. This fourth outing (now featuring even more undeleted expletives than ever) takes a look back at 2021’s dramatic racing season, which ended in uproar and controversy in Abu Dhabi last December.

Shane, Amazon Prime review - the outsized life and times of cricket's King of Spin

★★★ SHANE, AMAZON PRIME The outsized life and times of cricket's King of Spin

Much-lamented Aussie legend tells the story of his remarkable career

Tragically, Shane Warne’s sudden death at age 52 means that Amazon’s new documentary about him has suddenly become an obituary as much as a celebration.

The Ipcress File, ITV review – adaptation of Len Deighton thriller fires on all cylinders

★★★★★ THE IPCRESS FILE, ITV Adaptation of Len Deighton thriller fires on all cylinders

Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander light up this Cold War classic

Sidney J Furie’s 1965 film The Ipcress File is a much-loved benchmark of its period. Stylish, sinister, witty and depicting a determinedly un-swinging London, it was conceived as the flipside to the absurdly glamorous James Bond movies and pulled it off with panache. It also had Michael Caine playing the lead role of Harry Palmer, and a superb John Barry soundtrack famously featuring that mysterious instrument, the cimbalom.

Killing Eve, Series 4, BBC One review - has Villanelle found God?

★★★ KILLING EVE, SERIES 4, BBC IPLAYER The final series may be hard-pushed to sustain glamour or momentum

The final series may be hard-pushed to sustain glamour or momentum

“I’ve killed so many people. I don’t want to do it any more, any of it.” So said Villanelle (Jodie Comer) to Eve (Sandra Oh) in the last episode of the third series of Killing Eve, soon after she’d pushed Rhian Bevan, an assassin hired by the Twelve, under a train. Yeah, right, you may have thought, yawning cynically.

Peaky Blinders, Series 6 review, BBC One - have we reached peak Peakies?

★★★ PEAKY BLINDERS, SERIES 6, BBC ONE Brummie bandits approach the final curtain

Steven Knight's Brummie bandits approach the final curtain

They say this will be the final series of Peaky Blinders (BBC One) and its documenting of the tumultuous progress of the Shelby family, though creator Steven Knight promises there’s a feature film in the works.

Inventing Anna, Netflix review - fake heiress saga outstays its welcome

★★ INVENTING ANNA, NETFLIX Fake heiress saga outstays its welcome

Rambling dramatisation of the Anna Delvey story never finds its focus

Con artists in film or TV need to be clever, charming, mysterious or at least entertaining (for instance Leo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can or Michelle Dockery in the much-underrated Good Behaviour). Bafflingly, Anna Delvey, the notorious fake heiress whose story has been fictionalised by Shonda Rhimes’s Shondaland company in Inventing Anna (Netflix), is none of these things.

This Is Going To Hurt, BBC One review - hospital drama with a realistic difference

★★★★ THIS IS GOING TO HURT, BBC ONE Hospital drama with a realistic difference

Ben Whishaw is supremely nuanced as the screen alter ego of obstetrician Adam Kay

Painful more often than funny, this is not This Is Going To Hurt, the laugh-one-moment-rage-the-next book by obstetrician turned comedian Adam Kay. He’s written the script so essential truths remain. But the on-screen Adam Kay, national treasure Ben Whishaw – how happy Kay must have been about that – does relatively few lines to camera and what was essentially a diary has been shaped into a seven-part drama.

It just about manages to balance horrors with human warmth and springs a few shocks even on those who’ve read the book or seen Kay’s show.