Outrageous, U&Drama review - skilfully-executed depiction of the notorious Mitford sisters

★★★★ OUTRAGEOUS, U&DRAMA Skilfully-executed depiction of the notorious Mitford sisters

A crack cast, clever script and smart direction serve this story well

If somebody submitted a treatment for a new costume drama series set in the 1930s in which not just one but two fictitious sisters from a fading aristocratic family pair off with leading fascists, while the cousin warning them off these liaisons is a future British PM, the pitch meeting probably wouldn’t last that long. 

Prost, BBC 4 review - life and times of the driver they called 'The Professor'

★★★★ PROST, BBC 4 Life and times of the driver they called 'The Professor'

Alain Prost liked being world champion so much he did it four times

With Brad Pitt’s much-trumpeted F1 movie about to screech noisily into the multiplexes, it’s not a bad time to be reminded of the career of one of the sport’s indisputable greats. Alain Prost doesn’t seem too fussed about bigging himself up on social media or reality TV (L’Île d’Amour perhaps), but he’s the only French racing driver to have won the Formula One world championship, a feat he accomplished four times between 1985 and 1993.

The Buccaneers, Apple TV+, Season 2 review - American adventuresses run riot in Cornwall

★★ THE BUCCANEERS, APPLE TV+, SEASON 2 American adventuresses run riot in Cornwall

Second helping of frothy Edith Wharton adaptation

Edith Wharton hadn’t finished her novel, The Buccaneers, when she died in 1937, but it was completed in 1993 by Marion Mainwaring. The result was not considered an unalloyed triumph, but there was certainly a lot more Edith Wharton in it than you’ll find in Apple TV+’s dramatisation.

The Gold, Series 2, BBC One review - back on the trail of the Brink's-Mat bandits

★★★★ THE GOLD, SERIES 2, BBC ONE Back on the trail of the Brink's-Mat bandits

Following the money to the Isle of Man, Spain and the Caribbean

The first series of The Gold in 2023 was received rapturously, though apparently it only told one half of the story of the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery at Heathrow airport. Now screenwriter Neil Forsyth has returned to the scene of the crime to reveal what happened – or might have happened, since there’s a fair bit of artistic licence at play here – to the missing portion of the £26 million quid’s worth of stolen gold.

Dept. Q, Netflix review - Danish crime thriller finds a new home in Edinburgh

★★★ DEPT Q, NETFLIX Danish crime thriller finds a new home in Edinburgh

Matthew Goode stars as antisocial detective Carl Morck

Netflix’s new detective-noir is a somewhat cosmopolitan beast. It’s written and directed by an American, Scott Frank, derived from a novel, Mercy, by the Danish crime writer Jussi Adler-Olsen, and set in Edinburgh (as well as other flavourful Scottish locations). There are plenty of Scots in the cast too, although it’s the very English Matthew Goode (Downton Abbey, The Crown etc) who takes the lead role of DCI Carl Morck.

The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone, BBC Two - boom and bust in the lingerie trade

★★★★ THE RISE AND FALL OF MICHELLE MONE, BBC TWO Boom and bust in the lingerie trade

Life in the fast lane with David Cameron's entrepreneurship tsar

As this two-part documentary vividly illustrates, it has been a wild ride for Baroness Mone of Mayfair, the self-made businesswoman who emerged from Dennistoun in Glasgow’s East End in the Nineties and created the Ultimo Bra. This revolutionary undergarment ingeniously enhanced the wearer’s cleavage, using a silicon gel to mimic the feel of real breast tissue.

Code of Silence, ITVX review - inventively presented reality of deaf people's experience

★★★ CODE OF SILENCE, ITVX Rose Ayling-Ellis maps out her muffled world in a so-so heist caper

Rose Ayling-Ellis maps out her muffled world in a so-so heist caper

In the guided tour of Britain’s cathedral cities that is the primetime TV detective series, the spotlight has now landed on Canterbury. Code of Silence frequently inserts a dramatic aerial shot of the city, its streets radiating out from the towering ecclesiastical landmark at its centre, to remind us where we are.

The Bombing of Pan Am 103, BBC One review - new dramatisation of the horrific Lockerbie terror attack

★★★ THE BOMBING OF PAN AM 103, BBC ONE New dramatisation of the Lockerbie terror attack

Six-part series focuses on the families and friends of the victims

The appalling destruction of Pan Am’s flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 was put under the spotlight in January this year in Sky Atlantic’s Lockerbie: A Search for Truth. This focused on the dogged and agonising search for truth by Jim Swire (played by Colin Firth), whose daughter Flora was killed in the attack, and raised a host of possibilities and theories about who did it and why.

theartsdesk Q&A: Zoë Telford on playing a stressed-out psychiatrist in ITV's 'Malpractice'

Q&A: ZOE TELFORD On playing a stressed-out psychiatrist in ITV's 'Malpractice'

She nearly became a dancer, but now she's one of TV's most familiar faces

If you compiled a list of favourite TV series from the last couple of decades, you’d find that Zoë Telford has appeared in most of them. The Thick of It, Foyle’s War, Ashes to Ashes, Sherlock, Silent Witness, Unforgotten, Grantchester, Vera… they all appear on her on CV, with many more besides.

The Trunk, Netflix review - stylish, noir-ish Korean drama wrapped around a beguiling love story

★★★★ THE TRUNK, NETFLIX Stylish, noir-ish Korean drama wrapped around a beguiling love story

Unusual psychological study of a stranger paid to save a toxic marriage

The trunk in the title is a luxury item, worth 50 million won – just north of £27,000 – shown sinking in deep water in the opening credits. It weaves through one of the classiest recent collaborations between Netflix and Korean TV, a haunting psychological drama that’s balm to the soul after the mob-handed violence on offer here at home.