New documentaries follow world-leading surgeons and gardeners, Renée Zellweger has some fun in true crime docudrama The Thing About Pam and BBC Two lands Aussie ‘80s piece The Newsreader.
Super Surgeons: A Chance at Life
Monday
Channel 4, 10.00pm
A new documentary series made in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support following some of the world-leading surgical oncologists working at the technological forefront of medicine.
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust granted Channel 4 exclusive access to their cancer hospital, where surgeons routinely undertake operations of the highest-stakes and often on the rarest of cancers.
Kew Gardens: A Year in Bloom
Tuesday
Channel 5, 8.00pm
Channel 5 returns to the botanical haven of Kew Gardens, following the staff for another twelve months as they maintain the grounds and greenery.
We join them in early spring just as the daffodils, crocuses and magnolia are blooming and attracting visitors in search of the first colour of the year. We also meet Simon Toomer, the new head of living collections who has been employed to evaluate the nearly 17,000 species on site to decide what stays.
The Thing About Pam
Thursday
Paramount Plus
Originally a Dateline NBC true crime podcast, The Thing About Pam stars Renée Zellweger as the notorious murderer Pam Hupp in a darkly comic docudrama detailing her 2011 murder of Betsy Faria.
Betsy’s husband Russ was first found guilty only for his conviction to be overturned in 2015 when new evidence arose implicating Hupp. She was never considered a suspect despite being the last person to see Betsy alive, but when she’s finally questioned, she seemingly can’t get her story straight as she leads investigators down a diabolical series of twists and turns.
Christian
Friday
Sky Atlantic, 2.00am
A thuggish debt collector turns miracle healer in this Italian pop dramedy inspired by the 1999 graphic novel Stigmate.
Christian (Edoardo Pesce) grudgingly earns his living as a Roman henchman for the ruthless neighbourhood kingpin Lino (Giordano De Plano), but when his hands mysteriously grow stigmata in the form of two bloody holes, he is gifted the power of healing and a new shot at life.
The Newsreader
Sunday
BBC Two, 9.00pm
This award-winning Aussie newsroom drama takes us behind the scenes of a frantic TV news station in the 1980s.
Helen Norville (Anna Torv) is the station’s star anchor, but amid the industry’s rampant chauvinism she is often overlooked. When she’s partnered with an ambitious young reporter in Dale Jennings (Sam Reid), they form an unlikely bond as they take on some of the era’s most iconic stories and the power struggles of the world of journalism.