Sky

Multi-award-winning actress Helen Mirren will star in new four-part drama Catherine the Great. The  series will explore the politically tumultuous and sexually charged court of the most powerful female monarch in history.

She wielded supreme power throughout Russia for nearly half of the 18th century. “She rewrote the rules of governance by a woman, and succeeded to the extent of having the word Great attached to her name, Catherine the Great,” said Mirren.

Gender inequality is a global problem which has dominated the headlines in 2018. The film and TV industry in particular has been the source of much discussion. 

The RTS Futures Careers Fair is back with all the advice, help and information to kick start your career in television. 

Don't miss this fantastic opportunity on Tuesday 6th February to take part in interview masterclasses, have your CV improved by professional employers and talk to the most influential creatives in the industry to help you get your first foot in the door in TV.

From Blue Planet II to Stranger Things, here's what's coming up this week

The three-day Convention featured keynotes from James Murdoch, Ofcom chief Sharon White and the Secretary of State Karen Bradley MP, as well as some lively panel discussions.

Watch highlights from the event below, or scroll down to watch the sessions in full. You can read more about this year's RTS Cambridge in the October issue of Television magazine.

When, each morning at 7.30am, Andrew Griffith arrives at his office at Sky’s impressive new central block in Osterley – the one in the background on Sky News – he does not slump in his chair. He does not have a chair.

This is not a case of fanatical hot-­desking, although he is one of the few senior execs to have his own defined space in the new building. Sky’s 45-year-old chief operating and chief financial officer prefers to stand: better energy levels, shorter conversations.

The Chernobyl disaster took place in April 1986, when a nuclear power plant exploded on a catastrophic scale. The drama will explore why and how it happened, as well as the people who risked their own lives to save others.

Jared Harris (The Crown, Mad Men) will play Valery Legasov, the Soviet scientist chosen by the Kremlin to investigate the accident.

Phil Edgar Jones, Sky’s Head of Entertainment, promised that the shows would “make Sky 1 even bigger, bolder and better by bringing… three epic entertainment shows to the channel. There’s something to get everyone either on the edge of their seats or dancing around the living room.”

Monday 

Love Island

ITV2, 9pm

Host Caroline Flack will introduce a fresh batch of singletons all looking for love... or victory at least.

Bennett is a Sky News lifer, having joined the news organisation 28 years ago before it had even begun broadcasting. Now, he is taking the chair for a seventh time to direct the broadcaster’s election night coverage.

Working alongside Executive Producer Nick Phipps – the man who decides on how the story will be told – Bennett is tasked with making his vision a reality. “We represent the two sides,” Bennett explains. “His is the editorial and mine is the production. He is the one I don’t want to let down.”