Channel 4

After an unparalleled and challenging year, the BBC leads the way with 23 nominations across the 19 categories including ‘News Channel of the Year’, and ‘Breaking News’ for the coverage of Boris Johnson being rushed to hospital with Covid-19. ITV and Sky News follow garnering 10 nominations each, both including ‘Scoop of the Year’ and ‘Television Journalist of the Year’, for which the nominees are Alex Crawford for Sky News, Clive Myrie for BBC News, and Robert Moore for ITV News.

Ramy Youssef (Mr Robot) stars as the eponymous millennial Egyptian American caught between the two cultures of his politically divided New Jersey neighbourhood.

At once morally tested by his Muslim community and freed from consequence by his generation, Ramy explores the realities of first-generation Muslim immigrants in modern America juggling work, dating and faith.

Lightning

Monday

BBC Two, 6.30pm

A new “electrifyingly fast” quiz show presented by comedian Zoe Lyons sees six contestants compete across six speedy rounds.

Mitchell is Stephen, a man who has failed as a husband, a lawyer and at running his late father’s pub. Worse, he’s been usurped in his family’s affections by the charismatic Andrew (Webb), supposedly a former foster child of Stephen’s parents.

“I like to pay the comic mattress on which people jump up and down – there’s a lot of comedy and fun acting to be had from the character that things are happening to,” said Mitchell.

He described Stephen as “disappointed and self-loathing and endlessly self-doubting, also intelligent and little bit angry.”

First Dates

Tuesday 19 January 

Channel 4, 10pm 

Despite the pandemic making it harder to find love, the First Dates team are back to help singletons find the joy in dating again. 

The three-part series includes I Am Maria, I Am Victoria and I Am Danielle, with Savage collaborating with the lead actors to create stories with personal resonance and improvised dialogue. 

Manville stars in I Am Maria, which uncovers the cracks that can appear in long-term relationships and the dilemma of being at a crossroads in life and navigating the opportunities and doubt that can bring. 

The award-winning series follows a group of friends and family whose comfortable lives are upended when an outsider arrives at their wealthy oceanside community of Newport Beach in Orange County.

Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie) is taken in from the streets of Chino by Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher), a public defender, and his wife Kirsten (Kelly Rowan). The Cohen’s lives are transformed by Ryan’s arrival and integration into their family.

Series 11 will once again see comedic minds put together all their skills and wit to master the absurd and wacky tasks presented to them, in the hope that they will be crowned Taskmaster champion. 

Greg Davies will preside from his throne determining the scores given to the comedians, joined by his sidekick and show creator Alex Horne. 

On the eve of the publication of Ofcom’s much-­anticipated review of public service broadcasting (PSB), big names from the BBC and Channel 4, past and present, discussed whether British broadcasting was in crisis. 

Ofcom warned that PSB is unlikely to survive in the online world without an overhaul of broadcasting regulation. It said that the public service broadcas­ters – the BBC, ITV, STV, Channel 4, S4C and Channel 5 – could also fulfil their obligations online, and that the public service remit could be extended to the big streamers. 

Google the words “public service broadcasting” and you’ll see that the first few links relate to a well-known band that has played at Glastonbury, the Royal Albert Hall and Brixton. Its first album was called Inform – Educate – Entertain. 

Only after that will you find links to Ofcom’s page on public service broadcasting and the Government’s new Public Service Broadcasting Advisory Panel.