Monday: Harlots

ITV Encore, 10pm

Set in 1763 London, a time it was difficult for women to make climb the economic ladder without marrying into wealth or selling her body for money.

The week of content will be a mixture of comedy, drama, music and documentary, featuring some of the best new and emerging talent in the industry.

The season will tackle issues and topics that affect young audiences, telling modern and diverse stories of young British people. 

“There's a part of me in every aspect of this season; comedy, drama, documentary, sport all made by a truly diverse team both on and off screen," said Idris Elba.

Monday: Pointless

BBC One, 5:15pm

It's the 1,000th episode of Pointless! This time the hosts do a switcheroo, so Richard Osman takes centre stage and Alexander Armstrong is at the desk with much needed back-up.

The six-part drama series takes place in 1970s London and focuses on a couple who form a radical underground cell with their friends and fellow political activists.

The tension-building trailer gives a first glimpse of the central couple Jas (Freida Pinto) and Marcus (Babou Ceesay) tangled in a dangerous opposition with a racist police force, who are determined to oppress the social and political activism of the black movement.

Writer Matthew Kirton won the competition, which bagged him a paid development option with Lionsgate and Idris Elba’s production company Green Door Pictures to develop his script into a full TV series.

Kirton was one of three finalists whose work made it past a panel of industry experts, including The Wire star and Green Door CEO Elba, Lionsgate UK’s Zygi Kamasa, literary agent Amanda Davis, and a number of others.

Kamasa, CEO of Lionsgate UK and Europe, told the RTS that the final three scripts had all shown originality beyond those of their competitors.

Olivier Award winner Rory Kinnear (Spectre, Penny Dreadful), Daniel Mays (Line of Duty) and Zawe Ashton (Fresh Meat) have all been announced to be joining Golden Globe winner Idris Elba in the thriller.

The six-part series will air on Sky Atlantic next year, and Elba will co-star and executive produce the series through his company Green Door Pictures.

The Write To Green Light competition aims to develop a major new television series from the winning entry.

The competition is being run in conjunction with Lionsgate UK & Europe and seeks to address a “huge shortage of undiscovered television writing talent”, said Lionsgate UK & Europe CEO Zygi Kamasa.

With some stellar names attached to write, act and direct the shows, Sky is building on the game-changing successes of the BAFTA-nominated The Last Panthers and the Enfield Haunting, and fan favourite Stan Lee’s Lucky Man

Back in the late 1990s, Ade Rawcliffe was working on Ainsley Harriott’s show, Party of a Lifetime. They were in Teesside, filming with children from a housing estate. They all had a question: was Rawcliffe Harriott’s wife or was she his “girlfriend”?

Ade (pronounced Addy) thinks that they were not used to seeing two black people in the same place at once. They might, it occurs to me, have been equally puzzled by the spectacle of two black people working on the same television programme.

Monday

Back in Time for Christmas

BBC Two

9pm