Gentleman Jack, Series 2, BBC One review - the queer Victorian heroine swaggers back in style

★★★★ GENTLEMAN JACK, SERIES 2, BBC ONE The queer Victorian heroine swaggers back in style

Suranne Jones’s performance as Anne Lister is as engaging as ever

Into the BBC One Sunday slot just vacated by Tommy Shelby of the Peaky Blinders returns Suranne Jones’s Anne Lister, another costume-drama maverick with striking headgear, definite leadership qualities and a way with a pistol. “They’re all a bit scared of you,” her younger sister Marian (Gemma Whelan) tries to explain to her after she has given an insubordinate servant 20 minutes to pack up and leave. “Why?” demands Anne, uncomprehendingly, as she loads her gun.

Hacks, Prime Video review - what's so funny about a career in comedy?

★★★★ HACKS, PRIME VIDEO What's so funny about a career in comedy?

Jean Smart sizzles in caustic Sin City drama

Acidic showbiz drama Hacks premiered on HBO Max in the States a year ago, and subsequently won a hatful of awards including three Emmys. Now, here it is on Prime Video, so we can get to see what all the fuss is about.

Bridgerton, Season 2, Netflix review - power politics and love triangles as Regency fantasy returns

★★★ BRIDGERTON, SEASON 2, NETFLIX No Duke of Hastings and not much sex doesn't bode well

No Duke of Hastings and not much sex doesn't bode well

The first series of Bridgerton (Netflix) became a ratings-blasting sensation because of the way it thrust a boldly multiracial cast into the midst of a Regency costume drama, and because of the camera-hogging presence of Regé-Jean Page as the swashbuckling Duke of Hastings. Above all, it had countless astonishingly graphic sex scenes.

The Last Kingdom, Season 5, Netflix review - Danes-and-Saxons saga hurtles towards an epic climax

★★★★★ THE LAST KINGDOM, NETFLIX Danes-and-Saxons saga hurtles towards an epic climax

How much longer can the heroic Uhtred keep riding to the rescue?

Two years ago, the fourth season of The Last Kingdom (Netflix) found the Saxon saga not quite hitting peak form, possibly reeling from the fallout of the haunting death of King Alfred (David Dawson). Happily, any doubts are blown away with the arrival of 5, in which the show’s trademarks of knotty dynastic rivalry, anguished romantic entanglements and horrifying eruptions of bloodthirstiness are all roaring ahead at full blast.

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.

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.

Chloe, BBC One review - good start, weak finish

Identity-swapping drama runs out of steam in the final furlong

Suddenly bogus-identity stories are all the rage. Netflix has been scoring big with Inventing Anna, the story of fake heiress Anna Delvey, as well as the The Tinder Swindler, a cautionary tale about a high-rolling conman who scams money from women he meets online.