Friday 2 February
Requiem
BBC One, 9.00pm
The glut of psychological suspense dramas on our screens makes it hard for new thrillers to stand out but do make time for the BBC’s haunting and unusual Requiem.
Smartly directed by rising star Mahalia Belo, who knows exactly what to do and when to raise the hairs on the back of your neck, this new six-part series melds horror with crime to tell the story of the highly strung Matilda (Lydia Wilson), a promising young cellist whose self-contained world is thrown into disarray by an unexpected and violent death.
After walking out on her long-dreamt-of US tour, Matilda and her faithful accompanist Hal (Joel Fry, excellent in a rare serious role) head to Wales, where grief and past secrets threaten to engulf both her and everyone she comes into contact with.
To say any more would be unfair but Australian writer Kris Mrksa (best known for crime drama Underbelly) plays a very clever game with the genre, referencing everything from Don’t Look Now to Rosemary’s Baby and ensuring that the audience is both on the back foot and desperate to find out more. Beautifully paced and intelligently told, the resulting story is worth staying in on a Friday night for. Sarah Hughes
Altered Carbon
Netflix, from today
“The first thing you’ll learn is that nothing is as it seems,” intones the solemn voice-over in this adaptation of Richard Morgan’s excellent novel from 2002. Netflix’s latest foray into hardcore science fiction follows a prisoner who, after 250 years in suspended animation, returns to life in a new body with one chance to win his freedom: solving a mind-bending murder. It’s stylishly shot, and features a strong cast, including James Purefoy, Joel Kinnaman, and Hamilton star Renée Elise Goldsberry.
Anglo-Welsh Cup: Northampton Saints v Harlequins
BT Sport 1, 7.15pm
Out-of-sorts Northampton, who’ve won just one of their last eight Premiership games, face Harlequins in the Anglo-Welsh Cup at Franklin’s Gardens. The last time these teams met, in December, Quins ran in seven tries, with Dave Ward, Danny Care and Tim Visser among the scorers, as Saints slumped to an embarrassing 50-21 defeat at Twickenham.
Super League: St Helens v Castleford Tigers
Sky Sports Main Event, 7.30pm
The Totally Wicked Stadium host the action as St Helens and Castleford Tigers get their seasons under way. These sides last met in the semi-finals of last year’s competition in September, with the Tigers winning a dramatic match at the Mend-a-Hose Jungle 23-22 after extra-time, setting up a Grand Final meeting with Leeds Rhinos.
Celebrity 5 Go Barging
Channel 5, 8.00pm
Last year, four celebrities gave us laughs as they took to the canals of England and Wales for the first run of this series. Now it returns with a new motley crew – Tom Conti, Diarmuid Gavin, Tessa Sanderson, Tony Christie and Penny Smith – and this time they are heading to France. So expect some crashes and fireworks.
A Vicar’s Life
BBC Two, 8.30pm; not Wales
The likeable series about vicars in Herefordshire continues with assistant curate Father Matthew Cashmore joining a relief effort taking aid to refugees in Calais, while his boss, the Reverend Ruth Hulse comes up with a novel way of boosting church attendance.
Nigel Slater’s Middle East
BBC Two, 9.00pm; not Wales
Nigel Slater is the sort of company you want on a food journey: enthusiastic, interesting and curious about the places he visits. This new series sees him heading throughout the Middle East, starting off in the food paradise of Beirut before moving on to the Beqaa Valley.
Hits, Hype & Hustle: An Insider’s Guide to the Music Business
BBC Four, 9.00pm
The music industry guide concludes with a focus on reunions, presented by PR man Alan Edwards. “It was supposed to be edge of the seat stuff but, in reality, it was end of the pier,” he says, with a wicked grin, of the Sex Pistols reunion he engineered. Elsewhere, we’re treated to footage of Debbie Harry performing with a giant pair of horns on her head. SH
Celebrity Big Brother: Live Final
Channel 5, from 9.00pm
This series of the reality show, which is celebrating the year of the woman, apparently, reaches its finale. Sadly, the all-female house was short lived and the series has been reduced to the usual mix of crude comments and bed-hopping. SH
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) ★★☆☆☆
Sky Cinema Premiere, 8.00pm
Guy Ritchie’s combat-heavy Camelot is a very silly place. It sets up Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) as a Moses figure who’s sent to Londinium when Vortigern (Jude Law) overthrows Camelot. What follows is a quick-witted caper, but the sword-pulling scene is sabotaged by a David Beckham cameo that saps the moment of its mythic excitement.
Sorcerer (1977) ★★★★☆
Film4, 10.45pm
Given the wild success that William Friedkin had achieved with The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973), the catastrophic failure of Sorcerer, a thrillingly downbeat action film about truck drivers, counted as the bitterest blow of his career: he’s always talked about it as his favourite film. Indeed, it’s far too technically accomplished and conceptually bold to have deserved such short shrift.
This Is 40 (2012) ★★★☆☆
Channel 4, 12.10am
Judd Apatow revisits two characters from his 2007 hit Knocked Up. Leslie Mann, Apatow’s wife, and Paul Rudd play a stressed-out Los Angeles couple whose 40th birthdays bookend the film. Apatow and Mann’s real-life daughters also play their children. It’s a perceptive comedy on middle-age and one that guarantees big laughs alongside some of Apatow’s most pertinent observations on love.
Television previewers
Toby Dantzic, Catherine Gee, Simon Horsford, Sarah Hughes, Clive Morgan, Gerard O'Donovan, Vicki Power, Patrick Smith, Gabriel Tate and Rachel Ward