Drama

Top TV picks: 30th December

Jean Valjean (Dominic West), Fantine (Lily Collins) and Javert (David Oyelowo) (Credit: BBC/Lookout Point/Mitch Jenkins)

Dragon’s Den: Pitches to Riches

BBC Two, 8.00pm


Peter Jones and Steph McGovern (Credit: BBC)

Ever wondered what happened to the budding entrepreneurs once they shook hands with their new investors?

Journalist and presenter Steph McGovern finds out when she meets with successful entrepreneurs from Dragons Den from the past three years.

Top TV picks: 29th December

(Credit: BBC)

The Secret World of Emily Brontë

Channel 4, 6.05pm


(Credit: Channel 4)

Emily Brontë superfan Lily Cole hosts a one-off documentary, The Secret World of Emily Brontë, exploring the Yorkshire landscape that influenced Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.

Cole also makes her own film in this special, Balls, which reimagines Heathcliff’s early life in Liverpool.

Himesh Patel and Ewen Leslie join BBC Two’s new drama The Luminaries

(Credit: BBC)

Set in New Zealand during the 1860s, the series follows British adventurer Ana Wetherell (Eve Hewson) who falls in love with fortune hunter Emery Staines (Himesh Patel), and is plunged into a world of tragedy, mystery and revenge.

The couple must overcome numerous barriers put in their way, particularly from the spiteful Lydia Wells (Eva Green) and rich boy Francis Carver (Marton Csokas).

Bill Malone delivers Dan Gilbert Memorial Lecture

Adrian Dunbar (Jim Hogan) & Carolina Main (Cat Hogan) in Blood (Credit: Channel 5)

Virgin Media Television’s director of programming said: “We’re constantly being told that linear TV is dead, but the facts actually present a different picture.”

In Ireland, Virgin Media is “bucking the trend and showing continual growth in audiences”, a result, he claimed, of a “notable step up in [the] scale, ambition and quality” of programming.

RTS Student Masterclasses: Drama with Sophie Petzal

Sophie Petzal (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

She shared the pleasure and pain of writing drama with EastEnders boss John Yorke at this year’s RTS Student Programme Masterclasses. 

Script editing “was an invaluable way to learn about television production and writing … Having that ‘production head’ gave me an advantage in writing [my] first episode [of Wolfblood) …but I was still very much learning the ropes.”

A TV Christmas Carol: Lord Grade, Kate Phillips, Kate Russell and Anita Singh join the RTS for a seasonal take on Christmas TV

Do you remember waking up to Noel Edmonds on Christmas morning, as you searched for a tangerine in your stocking? The Queen’s SpeechThe Sound of MusicChristmas Celebrity Squares and over 20 million people watching Eric and Ernie?

Or what about today, with Doctor Who, Strictly Come Dancing, The Alternative Queen’s Speech, Coronation Street and EastEnders but also perhaps a box set.

Is the future of Christmas TV a barren land of declining audiences as we all spend Christmas day asking Alexa?