ITV

Sir Lenny Henry admitted he was unusually nervous before the Midlands premiere of his latest TV drama, because his family was in the audience.

Cary Grant was the ultimate Hollywood star, the suavest man on the silver screen during cinema’s golden age.

Whatever the role – from the unscrupulous newspaper editor of His Girl Friday to ordinary-man-on-the-run in North by Northwest – he was always Grant: charming, urbane, the epitome of cool.

Surely, then, only the vainest of actors would sign up to play him in Archie, ITV’s new four-part drama about Grant, written by Jeff Pope?

Rhod Gilbert: A Pain in The Neck

Monday

Channel 4, 9.00pm

In 2022, comedian Rhod Gilbert was diagnosed with stage four head and neck cancer. Now, in a one-off documentary for Stand Up to Cancer, Gilbert will be revealing his journey from diagnosis to recovery through a series of personal video diaries.

It’s quite a shopping list, but it’s a flavour of what broadcasters are looking for in factual programming, a panel of commissioners told an audience at an RTS East event in Cambridge last month. 

Louisa Compton’s investigations unit at Channel 4 needed no more introduction than a brief clip of her recent Dispatches film on Russell Brand, but she stressed that, as well as seeking high-level, impactful investigations, she is looking for subjects to get people talking, such as Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me. 

The past few years have been eventful for most, but the highs and lows of ITV’s fortunes have been particularly pronounced. Its advertising revenues were hit hard by the pandemic, but the broadcaster bounced back to achieve record advertising in 2021-22. At the end of 2022, there was another watershed moment: it launched ITVX, its heavyweight streaming service to replace ITV Hub with a combined 26,000 hours of ITV and Britbox content. But, this year, its advertising ­revenues have again slumped.

The hit format sees the wholesome role-reversal of a group of twenty-something children overseeing their single parents as they take their first tentative steps back into the world of dating.

With such cross-generational appeal and reality TV icon Davina McCall as host, the debut series received an average of 2 million viewers across all devices.

Inspired by his mother and all those who braved the leap to Britain in search of a new life, Henry has written a "spirited, moving, funny and utterly heartfelt" series that celebrates immigration, community and Black womanhood.

Opening in 1957, the clip introduces Rochelle Neil's Leah and Saffron Coomber's Chantrelle, two gregarious sisters who are seen persuading Yazmin Belo's Hosanna to join them in emigrating from Jamaica to Britain.  

This year’s contestants include an array of personalities and regional accents – from DJs, to bingo-callers, to butchers, get ready to meet the participants of the ultimate social experiment.

Jenkin

Bridgend

25