Joe Orton Laid Bare, BBC Two review - charming look at theatre's irresistible upstart

★★★★ JOE ORTON LAID BARE Charming look at theatre's irresistible upstart

Talent and personality shine through the BBC's celebration of Orton's life and work

Laid Bare – it has a lurid implication which is all too suitable for Joe Orton’s work. During a time where the straight-laced British struggled to ease into sexual liberation, Orton stretched acceptability to its very limits. Salacious acts had been going on behind closed doors long before the Sixties, but everyone hid behind a modest front. In his brief career, Orton’s plays challenged this hypocrisy with razor wit and poetic eloquence.

Peaky Blinders, series 4, BBC Two review - new threats, same thrills

PEAKY BLINDERS, SERIES 4 Another helping of violence and shocks

Opening episode brings another helping of violence and shocks

BBC Two’s flagship crime drama Peaky Blinders returns for another guilty dose of slo-mo walking, flying sparks and anachronistic soundtracks. In the opening episode “The Noose”, we’re served a familiar course of family disputes, sinister threats and violent outbursts – but when the delivery is this exciting, who cares if it’s not anything new?

Newsnight: Grenfell Tower - The 21st Floor, BBC Two review - a simple, moving reconstruction

A powerful Newsnight special keeps the dead and the survivors in the public eye

The streets around Grenfell Tower on the morning after it was consumed by fire heaved with people. A stream of donors brought food, clothes and toiletries, while news crews and journalists came in vans or on foot as if arriving in a war zone. Not half a mile from the smouldering sarcophagus, I cycled past a primary school with children playing as normal in the playground, and wondered if this was what the Blitz was like. An unfathomable disaster on the doorstep.

Chris Packham: Asperger's and Me, BBC Two review - 'like an alien from another planet'

★★★★ CHRIS PACKHAM: ASPERGER'S AND ME, BBC TWO How the nature broadcaster copes with life on the spectrum 

How the nature broadcaster copes with life on the spectrum

Chris Packham, who devises and presents programmes about nature and animals, has described himself as "a little bit weird". This autobiographical documentary about himself explained what being on the autistic spectrum meant to him in particular in daily life and beyond.

Lucy Worsley's Nights at the Opera, BBC Two review - there's anti-elitism, and there's infantilism

★★ LUCY WORSLEY'S NIGHTS AT THE OPERA, BBC TWO There's anti-elitism, and there's infantilism

The poshies' art form explained by use of the dressing-up box and the toy box

The first thing to say about Lucy Worsley’s Nights at the Opera (BBC Two) is that it is laser-aimed at those who have not enjoyed many nights at the opera. Enjoyed in the sense of attended; also, probably, in the sense of enjoyed.

Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution, BBC Two review - words stronger than pictures 100 years on

★★★ RUSSIA 2017: COUNTDOWN TO REVOLUTION, BBC TWO Words stronger than pictures

Historians compete to tell their version of events, while dramatic reconstructions add little

It’s getting to that time of the century. A hundred years ago to the month, if not quite the day, the Winter Palace was stormed, and the Russian Revolution came to pass. To commemorate the communists’ accession, Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution (BBC Two) pieced together the narrative for those who haven’t read all or indeed any of the books on the Bolsheviks.

Billion Dollar Deals That Changed Your World, BBC Two review - Big Pharma gets a diagnosis: it’s sick

★★★ BILLION DOLLAR DEALS THAT CHANGED YOUR WORLD, BBC TWO Jacques Peretti's look at the pharmaceutical industry was a bitter pill to swallow

Jacques Peretti's look at the pharmaceutical industry was a bitter pill to swallow

“What if the way people understand the world is wrong? What if it isn’t politicians that shape the way people live their day-to-day lives, but secret business deals?” This is the question at the heart – and at the start – of Jacques Peretti’s new three-part documentary series. 

Top of the Lake: China Girl, BBC Two, series finale review - torpor not trauma

★ TOP OF THE LAKE: CHINA GIRL, BBC TWO Top of the lake? More like bottom of the barrel...

Top of the lake? More like bottom of the barrel...

So who killed Cinnamon? Six weeks ago we saw the strangled sex-worker – packed in a pink suitcase – pushed into Bondi Bay. The finale of Top of the Lake: China Girl withheld enlightenment. Puss, the chief suspect, denied responsibility. Why would the baby-farmer destroy such a valuable (pregnant) asset?

Man in an Orange Shirt, BBC Two review - soft-focus view of 1940s gay love affair

★★★ MAN IN AN ORANGE SHIRT, BBC TWO Soft-focus view of 1940s gay love affair

Patrick Gale's debut TV screenplay flirts with Mills & Boon

As chat-up lines go, “I can’t do my fly up single-handed” is pretty full on – even if it is true. Thomas March (James McArdle) is speaking to James Berryman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who not only went to the same public school but has also just saved his life on the Italian front during World War Two. Furthermore, the come-on works. The wounded soldiers are soon sucking face.