White House Plumbers

Tuesday

Sky Atlantic, 9.00pm

Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux star in this 1970s satirical comedy drama. The pair make up the White House Plumbers, Richard Nixon’s political saboteurs tasked with “preventing leaks” and defending his administration.

Based on a real-life story, the former CIA and FBI agents carry out a series of covert operations, breaking into government buildings and intercepting information in an attempt to get Nixon re-elected. This being a comedy drama, their schemes don’t always go to plan. White House Plumbers zooms in on the ‘fixers’ at the very heart of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandals. 

 

The Gallows Pole

Wednesday

BBC Two, 9.00pm

Based on the eponymous book by Benjamin Myers, The Gallows Pole dramatizes the true story of David Hartley and the Cragg Vale Coiners. Set in 18^th century West Yorkshire, Hartley – played by Michael Socha – forms a gang of local weavers and land-workers to create counterfeit coins and bring money into his destitute community.

One of the biggest criminal enterprises of its time, the Georgian period drama delves into the history of the story, and the characters who risked their lives to pull their Yorkshire community out of poverty.

 

Changing Ends

Thursday

ITVX

Alan Carr’s new sitcom is based on his experiences growing up as a gay teenager in 1980s Northampton. Changing Ends stars Ollie Savell as young Alan, with Carr himself narrating the journey into a time when inclusivity was not top of the societal agenda.

The show follows young Alan through childhood, adolescence and self-discovery, with Nancy Sullivan and Shaun Dooley playing his mother and football manager father. Expect light tragicomedy and plenty of innuendo. “No one ever mentions Northampton,” Carr told the RTS, tongue firmly in cheek. “I would love this to become Northampton’s answer to The Crown.”

 

Ancient Egypt by Train with Alice Roberts

Saturday

Channel 4, 9.10pm

Anthropologist and historian Alice Roberts guides viewers on a historical journey through Egypt in this Channel 4 travelogue. With the help of working archaeologists, she’ll travel the length and breadth of Egypt, go underground in search of Cleopatra, and discover how the Greeks and Romans transformed the ancient civilisation. Starting in Alexandria, she’ll also visit Cairo, Luxor and Aswan in search of answers.

“I want to understand how the tombs, temples, and pyramids came to be made,” Roberts says in the trailer, “digging even deeper to understand what life was like for the ordinary people that made them.” Roberts will delve into fascinating individual stories from this era, learning how one slave transformed into a Sultan and built his own castle.

 

The Idol

Sunday

HBO Max

The Idol tells the story of Jocelyn, a woman on a mission to reclaim the crown of Hollywood’s greatest pop star after recovering from a mental breakdown. Played by Lily Rose-Depp, Jocelyn will have to navigate a cutthroat music industry whilst igniting a romantic relationship with enigmatic cult leader and night club owner Tedros, played by Abel Tesfaye, known by his now former musical alias The Weeknd.

The series is an entertaining voyage into the hedonism hard wired into the music industry. “I wanted to make a dark, twisted fantasy about the music industry,” Tesfaye said at Cannes film festival. “To take everything I know about it and heighten it.”