Murder Is Easy, BBC One review - was this journey really necessary?

★★ MURDER IS EASY, BBC ONE Dame Agatha's tidy thriller gets ideas above its station

Dame Agatha's tidy thriller gets ideas above its station

Well at least they haven’t changed the identity of the killer this time around, but the BBC’s new version of Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel has been modified in other ways. Screenwriter Siân Ejiwunmi-Le Berre and director Meenu Gaur have opted to move the story into the mid-1950s, introducing themes of racism, class prejudice and capitalist exploitation. And you thought it was just a tidy little whodunnit.

Vigil, Series 2, BBC One review - DCI Silva swaps a submarine for deadly drones

It's borrowed from real life but doesn't feel lifelike

In its first series in 2021, Vigil delivered a claustrophobic though frequently absurd tale of murder and Russian spies aboard a British nuclear submarine. This time around it’s the RAF under the spotlight, though its name has mysteriously been changed to the British Air Force.

Kin, BBC One review - in Dublin's not-so-fair city

★★★ KIN, BBC ONE Superb cast and powerful writing fuel this gripping gangland drama

Superb cast and powerful writing fuel this gripping gangland drama

Folklore tends to depict Dublin as a convivial and picturesque city, with a bar on every corner full of revellers on wild stag weekends, but that’s not what we find in Kin. This is a chilly, menacing Dublin, full of modern but charmless architecture and gripped by organised crime.

Boat Story, BBC One review - once upon a time in Yorkshire

★★★★ BOAT STORY, BBC ONE Violent, far-fetched and extremely watchable

New Williams brothers thriller is violent, far-fetched and extremely watchable

It was as long ago as January last year that the prolific Williams brothers, Jack and Harry, delivered their absorbing Australian Outback thriller The Tourist. Hitherto, product seemed to have been pouring out of them almost hourly, whether it was Liar, The Missing and Baptiste or The Widow, Rellik and Angela Black.

Shetland, Series 8, BBC One review - same place but a different programme

DI Ruth Calder faces an uphill struggle to replace DI Jimmy Perez

The question they’re all asking is, can Shetland survive the loss of Douglas Henshall as DI Jimmy Perez? After all, it was Henshall’s shrewd and quietly anguished performance which gave the show much of its allure. And now there’s no Mark Bonnar either, who could always be relied on to add a soupçon of angst.

Reckoning with the Jimmy Savile legacy - Steve Coogan stars in BBC One's four-part 'factual drama'

RECKONING WITH THE JIMMY SAVILE LEGACY Suitable for prime-time entertainment?

Is Savile's career of evil suitable for prime-time entertainment?

Dramatisations of real-life crime have become all the rage on TV, as screenwriter Neil McKay and producer Jeff Pope are well aware. Their history of morbid collaborations includes See No Evil: The Moors Murders, the saga of serial killers Fred and Rosemary West in Appropriate Adult, and, in Four Lives, the story of serial killer Stephen Port.

Boiling Point, BBC One review - chef drama that's simmering nicely

★★★★ BOILING POINT, BBC ONE Chef drama that's simmering nicely

Terrific drama series has been whipped up from Stephen Graham's hit film

The problem facing any chef series is that its daily dramas are essentially rooted in the same small, sweaty space. It’s like one of the reductions prepared there, all the flavours compressed into an intense spoonful of sauce.

Wolf, BBC One review - a load of old...

★★ WOLF, BBC ONE Credulity-stretching adaptation of Mo Hayder's Jack Caffery novel

Credulity-stretching adaptation of Mo Hayder's Jack Caffery novel

Adapted by Megan Gallagher from one of Mo Hayder’s Jack Caffery novels (the seventh one, apparently), Wolf might be described as Welsh Gothic, spiced up with a splash of gratuitous sadism. Episode two, for instance, is titled merely “Torture”, which might apply to some of the acting as much as the dramatic content.

Best Interests, BBC One review - a family feels the unbearable strain of terminal illness

Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen star in Jack Thorne's hard-hitting drama

This is possibly not ideal viewing for a spell of sunny weather in June, but Jack Thorne’s drama about a family trying to cope with a terminally ill child is as compelling as it’s painful. Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen star as parents Andrew and Nicci, and Best Interests probes their private agony in piercingly intimate detail, but the focus also pulls out to encompass prickly issues of ethics, morality and the labyrinthine innards of the NHS.