Where Cate Blanchett’s life is falling apart in Disclaimer, things are only getting better for the Hardacres.
The Hardacres
Monday
Channel 5, 9.00pm
Downtown Abbey meets Poldark in this adaptation of CL Skelton’s novels.
When the eponymous Hardacres get tired of gutting herring in docks, they decide to smoke and sell the stuff themselves. Rags quickly become riches, and the family moves into both a mansion and the upper echelons of 19th century society.
Adjusting to their new lives proves difficult: their Yorkshire accents are out of place in the moneyed parts of, um, Yorkshire. Still, they’re determined to get it right.
Alma’s Not Normal
Monday
BBC Two, 10.00pm
Sophie Willan (Taskmaster) returns with the second series of her Bolton-set sitcom.
This time round, aspiring actor Alma (Willan) has finally landed an agent (Kenneth Collard, House of the Dragon), but the hard work isn’t over. If anything, it’s just beginning: soul-crushing jobs, first attempts at stand-up and witchcraft are all in her future. With her relationship with Anthony (James Baxter, Waterloo Road) in the past, though, it isn’t all bad.
The Menendez Brothers
Monday
Netflix
Hot on the heels of Monsters, which dramatized Lyle and Erik Menendez’s murder of their parents, the brothers give their side of their story in a new documentary.
The pair speak over the phone from prison, while the prosecutor in the original court case, Pamela Bozanich, appears as one of multiple talking heads. Netflix makes no claim that the documentary will provide all the answers, but it does promise a new perspective.
Dispatches: Barbie’s Dirty Secrets
Friday
Channel 4, 8.00pm
Journalist Isobel Yeung fronts this documentary featuring the first undercover filming of one of Mattel’s factories.
The dollmaker has enjoyed a surge in popularity after last year, when Barbie dominated the box office and your social feeds. Now, Channel 4’s investigative strand lifts the lid on how the company treats its workers.
Yeung has already tackled Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children, Chinese surveillance and the occupation of the West Bank. Her latest project looks to be just as unflinching.
Disclaimer
Friday
Apple TV+
Cate Blanchett (Tar) stars in Children of Men director Alfonso Cuarón’s TV debut.
When Catherine Ravenscroft wins an RTS Television Journalism award, things are looking pretty good. Then, a mysterious roman à clef novel appears. The book seems to divulge dark secrets from Ravenscroft’s past, threatening to upturn the journalist’s life. Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) appears as her soon-to-be beleaguered husband Robert.
