Helen McCrory: 'If there's one interesting thing about acting it's trying to lose your ego'

HELEN MCCRORY Three encounters with the great actor who has died at the age of 52

Three encounters with the great actor who has died at the age of 52

Each generation is given an actress who can do everything – be intimate with the camera but also coat a back wall in honey from 100 paces. There was Judi Dench, and then there was Imelda Staunton, both loved by all. Helen McCrory – who has died at the age of 52 – was the next in line, and she was destined to be as great for as long.

Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty, BBC Two review - when crime paid handsomely for corrupt officers

★★★★ BENT COPPERS: CROSSING THE LINE OF DUTY, BBC TWO Astounding history of how the Met went rotten from within

Astounding history of how the Met went rotten from within

As Line of Duty aficionados debate the identity of H and wonder who DCI Joanne Davidson shares her DNA with, this new three-part series from BBC Two investigates the history of real-life corruption in the Metropolitan Police.

Too Close, ITV review - capable cast struggles with unrewarding material

★★ TOO CLOSE, ITV Capable cast struggles with unrewarding material

Unconvincing TV treatment of Natalie Daniels novel

What may have happened here is that an intriguing book has been turned into a not so great TV series. Too Close was Natalie Daniels’s well-received first novel, and she has adapted it for this ITV three-parter under her real name of Clara Salaman. She used to play DS Claire Stanton in The Bill 20 years ago.

This is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist, Netflix - the last word (for now)

★★★ THIS IS A ROBBERY: THE WORLD'S BIGGEST ART HEIST, NETFLIX Three decades on and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum mystery is still hot

Three decades on and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum mystery is still hot

It’s no surprise that 30 years on, the individuals most closely connected to the world’s biggest art heist are showing their age. Anne Hawley was a young woman just months into her directorship of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston when thieves made off with 13 works of art, including a Chinese vase and drawings by Degas, a Vermeer and Rembrandt’s only seascape.

Intruder, Channel 5 review - implausible but watchable

★★★ INTRUDER, CHANNEL 5 Implausible but watchable

The death of a home invader opens a can of worms

Channel 5 is rather partial to its four-night dramas, though recent effort The Drowning seemed to have sneaked unseen past the quality control department on its way to the screen. It pulled in the viewers though, and Intruder will probably do the same.

Queen Elizabeth and the Spy in the Palace, Channel 4 review - how the Fourth Man burrowed deep into the British Establishment

Did Anthony Blunt uncover secrets which threatened the survival of the house of Windsor?

Director of the Courtauld Institute, Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures and a particular expert on the art of Poussin, Sir Anthony Blunt spent decades at the epicentre of the royal family and the British Establishment. He was, as the so-called “Fourth Man” of the Cambridge espionage ring, also a spy for the Russians who handed over countless documents and nuggets of top secret information during and after World War Two, including super-sensitive details about the D-Day landings.

Messiah highlights, English National Opera, BBC Two review – short-cut sorrow and redemption

★★★★ MESSIAH , ENO, BBC TWO Fine performances, but why this brutally truncated Handel?

Fine performances: but why this brutally truncated Handel?

Well, it wasn’t quite Messiah, but it was a source of joy. In ENO’s end-of-lockdown staging, BBC Two’s transmission of Handel’s resurrection song delivered a scant 54 minutes of music from the Coliseum on Easter Saturday. In contrast, two ancient Poirot movies, staples of Bank Holiday line-ups roughly since the Pleistocene Era, had hogged fully four hours of the channel’s afternoon schedule.

Keeping Faith, Series 3, BBC One review - is the drama turning to melodrama?

★★★ KEEPING FAITH, SERIES 3, BBC ONE Last orders for the Carmarthenshire-based family saga

Last orders for the Carmarthenshire-based family saga

After arriving with a bang in 2018, Keeping Faith (BBC One) disappointed many (though not all) of its fans with 2019’s second series. It’s had a bit of a breather before this third – and final – series, first seen in its Welsh version Un Bore Mercher on S4C last November. So, how is it shaping up?

The Flight Attendant, Sky One review - first-class entertainment

★★★★ THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT, SKY ONE Kaley Cuoco excels as a hard-drinking air stewardess

Turbulence, murder and one-night stands: Kaley Cuoco excels as a hard-drinking air stewardess

“I get to see all these beautiful places and look passengers right in the eye and say the word trash.” Meet Cassie Bowden (the excellent Kaley Cuoco), flight attendant on Imperial Atlantic Airways. In firm denial about her alcohol problem, she knocks back myriads of vodka miniatures onboard, parties hard in cities the world over, has one-night stands after black-out benders (“Thank you for the effort.

Line of Duty, Series 6, BBC One review - fasten your seatbelts, it's back

★★★★ LINE OF DUTY, SERIES 6, BBC ONE Fasten your seatbelts, it's back

Attention-grabbing return of Jed Mercurio's dark and knotty police corruption thriller

Jed Mercurio’s tangly police corruption thriller Line of Duty has become one of the jewels in the BBC’s drama crown, and this sixth (and possibly last) series has finally arrived on BBC One after a steadily growing crescendo of pre-publicity. Can it live up to the hype?