This week’s TV picks include a new comedy from Martin Freeman and a potential Downtown Abbey successor.
Mrs Fletcher
Tuesday
Sky Comedy, 10.15pm
Both mother and son come of age in this new bawdy comedy series based on Tom Perrotta’s novel of the same name.
Eve Fletcher (Kathryn Hahn) is struck by a severe case of empty nest syndrome when her son Brendan (Jackson White) abandons her for college. But a text message from her friend Jane and a Google search of a term she uses peaks the divorcee’s curiosity and reawakens her sexuality.
Brendan’s left similarly bemused by the politics of his college campus. And as he’s awakened to the toxicity of his misogyny, he’s led down his own path of self-discovery.
Breeders
Thursday
Sky One, 10.35pm
Co-created by Martin Freeman and The Thick of It’s Simon Blackwell, Breeders is a hilarious portrayal of parenthood in all its pain and glory. But mainly pain.
Ally (Daisy Haggard) and her husband Paul (Freeman) represent every out of depth mother and father as they flounder, flare-up and fire profanity at their two kids Luke and Ava. Only to then apologise in the same breath.
The arrival of a third child in the form of Ally’s estranged father (Michael McKean) threatens to topple the already precarious balancing acts of their home and work lives.
Sport Relief
Friday
BBC One, 7.00pm
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Line of Duty and Killing Eve both receive the parody treatment in this year’s edition of Sport Relief.
Corrupt copper Jason Isaacs is under the microscope of the AC-12 unit of Arnott (Martin Compston), Fleming (Vicky McClure) and Hastings (Adrian Dunbar), and hampering his case is inept lawyer Lee Mack.
Killing Steves sees snooker legend Steve Davis, Corrie’s Steve McDonald and Olympian Sir Steve Redgrave in the crosshairs of an unidentified blonde assassin.
Steve Backshall, Michael Stevenson, Dr Ranj Singh, Cathy Newman, and Dermot Murnaghan are among the stars donning their lycra in The Clash of the Channels celebrity boat race, as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky do battle by oar.
Other segments include QI, A Question of Sport and Strictly Come Dancing, as well as the first ever All-Star Netball for Sport Relief featuring Jennifer Saunders and Oti Mabuse.
Belgravia
Sunday
ITV, 9.00pm
Secrets unravel and honour is lost in this new six-part period drama from the creator of Downtown Abbey, Julian Fellowes.
On the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, nouveau riche traders James (Philip Glenister) and Anne Trenchard (Tamsin Greig) attend a lavish ball in Brussels for the Duke of Wellington.
Their daughter Sophia (Emily Reid) has caught the eye of Edmund Bellasis (Jeremy Neumark Jones), the son and heir of one of the richest and most prominent families in England. But the night takes a dramatic turn that is still felt 25 years later.
The series follows the Trenchards as they strive to safeguard their status among the upper echelons in the affluent Belgravia district.