Here are our top TV selections for this week, including a fantastical food show and a brand-new satirical sitcom.
Documentary: Diamond Dealers and Cockney Geezers
Channel 4, Monday 20th January, 10pm
Dani Dyer narrates this documentary taking a deep dive into a diamond shop in London’s East End.
The family-run business Trotters Jewellers in Bethnal Green has been passed on to 26-year-old Judd, who runs it with his friends Alex and Kallum. Customers for the big-ticket bling include boxers, bricklayers and apologetic boyfriends.
Food: Crazy Delicious
Channel 4, Tuesday 21st January, 8pm
Heston Blumenthal will be joined by fellow chefs Carla Hall and Niklas Ekstedt as the ‘Gods of Food’ in this psychedelic twist on the familiar food programme format, where even the set is edible.
Comedian Jayde Adams will present the series, as three contestants are challenged to turn everyday dishes into exciting new inventions which are both visually spectacular and mouth-wateringly tasty.
Some of the ingredients will be sourced from the ‘enchanted garden’ of the set itself, which includes a drinkable babbling brook, chocolate soil and edible blossom.
Comedy: Avenue 5
Sky One, Wednesday 22nd January, 10pm
Satire stalwart Armando Ianucci (The Thick of it, Veep) returns with this futuristic comedy set aboard a Saturn-orbiting spaceship that gets knocked off course, adding three years to the passengers’ journey time that was only meant to take a couple of months.
Hugh Laurie stars as the hapless captain Ryan Clark, while regular Iannuci collaborator Rebecca Front also features. The intergalactic sci-fi adventure takes on greedy mega-corporations and their inept leaders, with Josh Gad (Frozen) playing the infantile and incompetent billionaire Herman Judd.
Documentary: Inside the Crown: Secrets of the Royals
ITV, Thursday 23rd January, 9pm
Using documents from the National Archives and rarely seen footage, this series will explore the record-breaking reign of Queen Elizabeth II who has been on the throne for 67 years.
In this first episode of the four-part series, entitled ‘Love and Duty’, the difficulty of marrying into the Royal family, and balancing the duties that come with it, are put under the microscope.
Comparisons are drawn between Harry and Meghan’s struggle to balance the pressures of royal duties with their new marriage and Edward VIII’s abdication crisis in the 1930s, when the monarch gave up his title to marry his previously-divorced wife, Wallis Simpson.
The episode looks at how the Queen has enjoyed a stable royal marriage to Prince Philip, yet the marriages of family members around her have often not fared so well, with three of her four children getting divorced.
Drama: The Trial of Christine Keeler
BBC One, Sunday 26th January, 9pm
In this series finale, Stephen Ward (James Norton) must face his sentencing at the Old Bailey, as his life begins to crumble.
Having already been denounced as a prostitute, Christine Keeler (Sophie Cookson) faces trial for perjury after her lie about Lucky Gordon (Anthony Welsh) resurfaces.
Profumo (Ben Miles) attempts to rebuild his reputation through charity work, but Keeler is offered no such luxury and must deal with the backlash of being publicly deemed a prostitute and a liar.
