This week's TV promises some gripping drama to get your teeth stuck into, with Steven Moffat's dark, playful thriller Inside Man, Michael Winterbottom's exploration of the government's response to the pandemic with This England, and the long-awaited return of hit banking drama Industry.
Inside Man
Monday
BBC 1, 9pm
Created by Steven Moffat (Sherlock), this four-part thriller poses the puzzle of how the lives of four strangers, a prisoner on death row in the US, a vicar in a quiet English town, a journalist, and a maths tutor, are unexpectedly, fatally linked.
David Tennant plays a vicar who is pushed to his limit. After shocking developments in London, British journalist Beth (Lydia West, It’s A Sin) finds herself consulting prisoner Jefferson Grieff (Stanley Tucci), dubbed “the Death Row detective”, to help work out what has happened to her maths tutor friend Alice (Dolly Wells).
Make Me Prime Minister
Tuesday
Channel 4, 9:15pm
Lifting the lid on what it really takes to be Prime Minister, Channel 4's Make Me Prime Minister sends 12 ambitious candidates from across the political spectrum on the campaign trail. Adjudicating the host of prime ministerial tasks will be political heavy weights, former co-Chairwoman on the Conservative Party Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Labour's former king of spin, Alistair Campbell.
The candidates will be put through their paces to convince and persuade former politicians, experienced journalists and, most importantly, the public, that they have the political acumen, vision and charisma to lead.
Industry
Tuesday
BBC One, 10:40pm
After the critical success of the first series, BBC One returns to the drug dusted, sex-fuelled corridors of the pressure-cooker investment bank Pierpoint & Co., and the stakes have never been higher. With the threat of Pierpoint's New York office subsuming London, the young bankers must pull out all the stops to impress their superiors and ensure their survival.
Harper (breakout star Myha'la Herrold) courts multi-billionaire Jesse Bloom (Jay Duplass), Robert finds himself in a dangerous liaison with an older female client, and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) struggles to balance her taste for partying with the demands of a high-pressure job. Elsewhere, having failed to secure a permanent position at Pierpoint, Gus (David Jonsson) makes his bold first steps into the world of politics.
This England
Wednesday
Sky Atlantic, 9pm
Created by Michael Winterbottom (Greed) and Kieron Quirke (Cuckoo), This England explores the horror and chaos of the early pandemic while dissecting the British government's response to it. From skipped Cobra meetings to ill-timed holidays, the series reveals the chaotic goings-on inside the walls of Whitehall. Kenneth Branagh dons a face of prosthetics as he portrays former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with Simon Paisley Day (Gentleman Jack) as Dominic Cummings and Ophelia Lovibond (Feel Good) as the newly pregnant Carrie Symonds.
The Old Man
Wednesday
Disney+
Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski) and John Lithgow (The Crown) star in this gripping new thriller based on Thomas Perry's bestselling 2017 novel of the same name. Bridges stars as Dan Chase, a former CIA operative living as a fugitive in upstate New York, until an assassination attempt forces him out of hiding and on the run. Lithgow plays Harold Harper, the FBI's assistant director for counterintelligence who is hellbent on hunting down Chase.
