A Year of British Murder

Monday: Channel 4, 9.00pm

Filmed over one year, A Year of British Murder is a harrowing documentary that addresses the hundreds of people killed in Britain during 2017.

Having recently been taken over by the Valley Trust, new deputy head teacher Martin Evershed (Robert James-Collier) and director of behaviour Sue Carp (Charlie Hardwick) are called in to put the school to rights.

Ackley Bridge’s upcoming third season will also see Jo Joyner return as headteacher Mandy Carter, along with Poppy Lee Friar and Amy-Leigh Hickman who play school friends Missy and Nasreen.

 “I am thrilled to be asked to play the part of Martin Evershed, the new Deputy Head at Ackley Bridge,” said Robert James-Collier on his new role.

The six-part series stars the show’s writer, Jamie Demetriou, as Stath, the UK’s worst letting agent.

After the chaos of the previous series, which included Stath setting fire to a property, the well-meaning lettings agent has been denied a promotion at his own family’s business.

Now under the management of Stath’s nemesis Julian (Dustin Demri-Burns), the hopeless estate agent must re-think what he wants out of life, just like his sister Sophie (Natasia Demetriou), who has failed her exams at Dance College.

Kicking off in February, the deal has landed the public broadcaster an array of shows, including an exclusive premiere of the fourth season of the award-winning sci-fi cartoon Rick and Morty on Channel 4.

The premiere will mark the show’s first ever broadcast on free-to-air television in the UK.

“Rick and Morty is one of the most anarchic, ingenious and original shows around and the breakthrough animated hit of recent years,” commented Ian Katz, Channel 4 Director of Programmes.

From award-winning director Dan Reed (This World), Leaving Neverland (w/t) documents the accounts from James Safechuck and Wade Robson as they describe the sexual abuse they went through as children by Michael Jackson.

At the time of the allegations, Safechuck was 10 years-old and Robson was seven as they were befriended by Jackson during the height of the music star’s career.

Brexit: The Uncivil War

Monday: Channel 4, 9.00pm

Created by James Graham (A Brilliant Young Mind), Brexit: The Uncivil War explores the inside story behind one of the most divisive campaigns in British politics, Vote Leave.

The announcement that Channel 4 will be coming to Leeds literally lit up the city. Social media went mad. Leeds City Region’s #4Sparks campaign had prevailed, and Leeds University floodlit its iconic Parkinson Building in celebration.

Friends and neighbours with no connection to the media were talking about it as a good thing. A new wave of prosperity, jobs and creative pride was on the way.

Moreover, we had been the underdog and beaten off the challenge from the two Andies (mayors Andy Street, heading the Birmingham bid, and Andy Burnham, in Manchester).

Luther

BBC One, 9.00pm

Crime drama Luther makes a thrilling return on New Year’s Day.

Opening with protagonist DCI John Luther tied to a chair, having been tasered and tortured, the detective must quickly recover to bring a psycho-sexual killer to justice.

Take That: We’ve Come a Long Way

BBC One, 7.00pm

A one-off documentary that commemorates 30 years of one of the country’s longest-running boy bands, Take That.

The Queen and I

Sky One, 6.00pm

A comedic dramatisation of the novel by Sue Townsend, The Queen and I is set in the early 1990s and imagines Britain as a republican state.