Adele at the BBC, BBC One

ADELE AT THE BBC, BBC ONE Reclusive singer announces new album '25' with BBC special

Reclusive singer announces new album '25' with BBC special on Friday

As you all know by now, Friday is D-Day for Adele's new album 25, and part of the all-media Adelathon is Friday night's show on BBC One, Adele at the BBC. It's a mix of live performances and taped sequences linked together by chunks of interview with Graham Norton, and makes the perfect relaunch package for the reclusive superstar. It opens, aptly enough, with her performing "Rolling in the Deep".

Imagine: The Last Impresario, BBC One

MICHAEL WHITE: THE LAST IMPRESARIO, 1936-2016 Snapshot of the man who backed Oh! Calcutta! and The Rocky Horror Show

A celebratory snapshot of Michael White, who backed Oh! Calcutta! and more

Nearly 20 years ago the West End was in a lather of excitement about a show called Voyeurz. A "musical revue" set in a nightclub on Manhattan, it was all about a young girl venturing into the uncharted caverns of her own sexuality, and it was opportunistically crammed with hot sapphic action. It tanked. Its producer and co-director was Michael White, known to his legion of chums as Chalky.

River, BBC One

RIVER, BBC ONE Stellan Skarsgård plays a bereaved detective in a meandering script by Abi Morgan

Stellan Skarsgård plays a bereaved detective in a meandering script by Abi Morgan

Crime drama is a bit like the wheel. There’s only so much scope for reinvention. People try to come up with novelties all the time, then you turn on the telly and realise everyone else has had the same idea. Rumpled cops in macs, ex-cops haunted by the past, cops with overbearing bosses descended from Jane Tennison – they’re all out there, all the time. Even the casting department is running on empty. It’s been precisely five days since Unforgotten unveiled a chirpy detective played by Nicola Walker.

Doctor Foster, Series Finale, BBC One

DOCTOR FOSTER, SERIES FINALE, BBC ONE Gripping melodrama reaches its conclusion

Gripping melodrama reaches its conclusion

Revenge dramas are such a guilty pleasure - there's a vicarious thrill in watching a baddie being taken down in a way that we might wish to, but never would, in real life. And boy, but did Gemma take down cheating husband Simon in the closing episode of Mike Bartlett's Doctor Foster. Senior GP Gemma and hip property developer Simon's perfect life, with their perfect house and their perfect son was, of course, anything but - and finally it all came crashing down.

From Darkness, BBC One

FROM DARKNESS, BBC ONE Is there room for another TV cop tormented by the past?

Is there room for another TV cop tormented by the past?

This is the first of two new TV series this week to feature a female police officer investigating the discovery of long-buried skeletons (the other one is Thursday's Unforgotten on ITV). The two shows are different in tone, but still reminiscent of numerous noir-ish policiers of recent vintage. It makes you wonder whether commissioning editors are trying hard enough. We hear a lot of earnest talk about "diversity", but it doesn't seem to apply to themes and subject matter.

Cider with Rosie, BBC One

CIDER WITH ROSIE, BBC ONE Amiable visit to the innocent yesteryear of Laurie Lee's Cotswolds youth

Amiable visit to the innocent yesteryear of Laurie Lee's Cotswolds youth

For the final instalment of its season of 20th-century classics, the BBC left the world of fiction behind and took a Rosie-tinted amble along the leafy byways of Laurie Lee’s youth. The first part of Lee’s autobiographical trilogy is much the most read. Sales of six million means Cider with Rosie has a lot of fans who will have watched this dramatisation anxiously fearing the worst.

Ripper Street, Series 3, BBC One

RIPPER STREET, SERIES 3, BBC ONE Pungent Victorian crime drama returns to network television    

Pungent Victorian crime drama returns to network television

Axed by the BBC at the end of 2013 after its second series, ostensibly because of poor viewing figures, Ripper Street found a new home on Amazon Prime, where the third series began streaming in November last year. With a fourth and fifth series already commissioned by Amazon, the BBC is making up for lost time by airing Series Three. Perhaps the Top Gear bunch will be back on the Beeb yet.

Imagine... Jeff Koons: Diary of a Seducer, BBC One

IMAGINE... JEFF KOONS: DIARY OF A SEDUCER, BBC ONE Just what is it that makes the kitsch-meister American artist so different, so appealing?

Just what is it that makes the kitsch-meister American artist so different, so appealing?

Feelings. Whoa whoa whoa feeeelings. Just like that Morris Albert hit of the Seventies for star-crossed lovers everywhere, I lost count of the number of times I heard that word in this Alan Yentob meets Jeff Koons love-in. Or, more precisely, “feeling” singular, since Koons, one of the most bankable artists in the world, was talking about the “feeeeling” aroused when you looked at one of his art works. 

The Interceptor, BBC One

New crime caper introduces an all-action complicated cop hero

The Interceptor began as it didn’t mean to go on. A young boy of mixed race walked home through an estate and saw two men in a violent altercation. One, who was white, shot the other, who was black, presumably dead. “Dad!” called the boy. The murderer pointed the gun, realised he was aiming at his son, and scarpered.

The Truth About Your Teeth, BBC One

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR TEETH, BBC ONE Grim tour of the nation's unlovely gnashers

Grim tour of the nation's unlovely gnashers

Teeth. Who’d have them? This documentary about the state of the nation’s gnashers came along at a timely moment for your reviewer. Earlier in the week I suffered my first ever extraction. Didn’t feel a jot of pain, of course, but by Christ you know all about it when the dentist is fiddling about inside your mouth, attempting with a variety of utensils to pluck out the culprit.