BBC

The Secrets She Keeps

BBC One

Monday 6^th and Tuesday 7^th July, 9pm 

Two women who seem to have nothing in common form an unlikely friendship when they bond over their pregnancies, with them both due at the same time.

Over three series, The A Word has been widely praised for its honest portrayal of autism and the tensions this unleashes on a family. But The A Word is also laugh-out-loud funny and joyful – and, given its Lake District setting, beautiful to look at.

The BBC One drama, which finished its third series in early June, tells the story of Joe, a young boy with autism, and his fractious, larger-than life extended family.

Some BBC director-generals are a reaction to their predecessor. After the remorseless strategising of the John Birt years, Greg Dyke was chosen to bring the human touch to staff who felt unloved. When Dyke turned out to be a little too populist and freewheeling for some, the governors opted for a more cerebral traditionalist in the form of Mark Thompson.

Fran Unsworth used her recent conversation with the RTS to support incoming Director-General Tim Davie’s statement of 5 June, when he stressed the need for impartiality across the organisation, regardless of whatever battles between the BBC and government might be going on behind the scenes. “The more valuable we are to audiences, the greater our standing is going to be with the Government,” the BBC’s director of news and current affairs said firmly.

Here are the 20 celebrities taking part.

Judy Murray

Judy Murray is well known for her tennis coaching skills, but how will her cooking skills hold up?

Niall O’Sullivan recorded the location sound, which Steve Fanagan mixed in post-production – along with added dialogue, Foley sounds, music and sound effects – to create the final sound.

Fanagan described his task as one of “creating a world soundwise that feels truthful to the world portrayed on screen”.

Two clips illustrated the work of the sound specialists. The first – Marianne and Connell’s first romantic encounter in the former’s family home – was recorded by O'Sullivan with two boom microphones.

Insecure

Sky Comedy

Tuesday 30^th June, 9pm

The fourth series of the LA based comedy once again explores the complexities of friendship, dating and adulthood.

Whishaw will play the on-screen version of Kay, who also adapted the memoir for TV, which will explore what it means to be a good doctor in a system that is buckling under pressure from all angles.

Kay created the memoir using his diaries which were written in secret after sleepless nights and hectic days, giving the honest truth of what it means to be a doctor working in obstetrics and gynaecology.

The series sees Whishaw playing Kay, a doctor suffering from 97-hour work weeks, while making life and death decisions and dealing with surmounting pressure and responsibility.

Anna Mallett, CEO of ITN for the past 12 months, could be forgiven for looking a little wearied. Even before coronavirus struck, the news organisation was working full tilt, covering such seismic events as Brexit, the Conservative Party leadership contest and a particularly fractious pre-Christmas general election. And now this.

Michaela doesn’t skirt issues – she goes straight at them.” Executive producer Roberto Troni is talking about Michaela Coel’s fearless new drama I May Destroy You, which explores sexual consent in contemporary London.

The 12-part BBC One/HBO series is, to an extent, based on personal experience – like her character, Arabella, Coel was sexually assaulted after her drink was spiked, an experience she revealed two years ago while giving the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International TV Festival.