First Dates

Tuesday 19 January 

Channel 4, 10pm 

Despite the pandemic making it harder to find love, the First Dates team are back to help singletons find the joy in dating again. 

The series has moved to Manchester to The Refinery restaurant in Spinningfields and due to stringent safety measures, the daters have the freedom to hold hands or kiss if they wish to. 

To meet the safety standards, there was a strict self-isolation and bubble system, and the restaurant was closed to the public. 

Maître d’ Fred Sirieix will be joined by regular staff Merlin Griffiths, CiCi Coleman and Grant Urquhart, with new members David, Fiona and Daniella joining the team. 

Bulletproof: South Africa 

Wednesday 20 January

Sky One, 9pm 

Cop duo Pike (Ashley Walters) and Bishop (Noel Clarke) are back and headed to Cape Town, South Africa, for a much-needed holiday. 

Unfortunately, things don’t go to plan when Bishop, Pike and his family get mixed up with the kidnapping of a young girl whose parents they had befriended. 

With the kidnappers demanding an unreasonable ransom, the pair decide to help get the girl back safely, and they won’t let anything get in their way.

Back

Thursday 21 January

Channel 4, 10pm

The first series of Back saw Stephen (David Mitchell) set to take over the family pub following the death of his father, when the unexpected arrival of Andrew (Simon Webb), his alleged foster brother, threw everything off track.

Now, three years later, the second series sees Stephen return from a stint in a psychiatric facility to the John Barleycorn pub, where Andrew has started to feel too tied down by the duties of being a pub landlord.

When a rival pub down the road begins advertising for a new manager, the jostling brothers fall back into old ways.

It’s A Sin

Friday 22 January

Channel 4, 9pm

Russell T Davies’ new drama follows a group of queer friends who have all left home to find a new life in vibrant 1980s London.

Years and Years singer Olly Alexander leads the series as Ritchie, an 18-year-old from the Isle of Wight who meets the indomitable Jill (Lydia West), the party boy Roscoe (Omari Douglas), the shy but sweet Colin (Callum Scott Howells), and the devastatingly handsome Ash (Nathaniel Curtis).

In this series opener, the friends enjoy their vivacious party lifestyle, while a deadly unknown virus begins to wreak havoc on the fringes of their community.