Pick of the week
Doctor Thorne, today, ITV, 9pm
Less than three months after the boarding-up of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes returns to reclaim his Sunday-night drama crown with an adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s third novel in the Barchester Chronicles series. Fans of Downton will feel at home among the country houses, period costumes and paths to happiness blocked by social and financial obstacles. Rebecca Front, Tom Hollander and Ian McShane lead the cast — all are on form in this promising opening episode — but the central figures are a couple played by the comparative newcomers Stefanie Martini and Harry Richardson.
Martin James
Four-legged friends
Crufts, from Thursday, More 4 and C4
Clare Balding this week helms four days of coverage of the world’s biggest dog show, but there are more pets than you can throw a stick for in the schedules, beginning with The Story Of Cats (Today, ITV, 8pm), which will have to go some to uncover more insight than “sleep, eat, clean, stretch, sleep”. Sadly, Channel 5 dropped one of the prospective highlights of its week: Budgies Make You Laugh Out Loud.
Comedy of the week
The Phil Silvers Show, Monday, British Forces TV, 4.55pm
Now 61 years old, the CBS sitcom originally titled You’ll Never Get Rich, but better known as Bilko, was voted the best comedy of all time in Mark Lewisohn’s Guide to TV Comedy. Some viewers to Forces TV might prefer to classify it as a documentary, but there are precious few shows that qualify for a bus pass and still make you laugh out loud. The channel can be found on Sky 264, Freesat 652 and Virgin 277.
Film of the week
American Hustle, today, C4, 9pm
A starry cast act their flares — not to mention hairpieces — off in David O Russell’s vibrant 2013 crime caper, which wallows in its 1970s setting and features two bottom-rung con artists strong-armed into an FBI sting. The immaculately re-created milieu comes furnished with an overinvolved plot, and while the film has style and chutzpah to burn, what precious little soul it possesses is on the soundtrack.
Trevor Lewis
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TV on demand
Your guide to some of the best shows and films on catch up
COMEDY
Father Ted
All 4
Frank Kelly, who died last week, had much more to his bow, but a binge on the comedy that made Fr Jack a household name seems in order. The perfect drink to accompany it? Ah, that would be an ecumenical matter.
Flaked
Netflix, from Friday
Since playing GOB Bluth in Arrested Development, Will Arnett has spent years being the next comic who is going to break big. Might this be the series to do it at last?
DRAMA
Threads BBC Store
The best single drama winner at the 1985 Baftas, Barry (Kes) Hines’s docudrama asked what would happen in Sheffield after a nuclear war. Made in 1965, but banned by the BBC for 20 years, The War Game is also available.
Sleeper Cell/Brotherhood
Sky Box Sets, from Friday
A chance to catch up with two Showtime series that ended before their time. Sleeper Cell followed an FBI agent inside a terrorist cell in LA; Brotherhood, with Jason Isaacs, looked at the fortunes of fraternal Irish-Americans in mafia-ruled Rhode Island.
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Bosch
Amazon Prime
There is a full preview of the second series of this crime drama on Friday. For anybody unimpressed by the first run about “a detective who lives by his own code”, co-creator Eric Overmeyer thinks he knows why the new season will impress: “There’s more excessive nudity and violence.” Just as long as it is excessive.
MUSIC
What happened, Miss Simone?
Netflix
Last week, Culture reviewed the companion book to Liz Garbus’s biopic. Far be it for us to say telly is better than books, but in this instance, and with all the archive footage, it really is.
Playing catch up
Free services
BBC iPlayer (bbc.co.uk/iplayer)
ITV Hub (itv.com/hub/itv)
All 4 (all4.com)
Demand 5 (channel5.com/demand5)
UKTV Play (uktvplay.co.uk)
Subscription services
Sky Box Sets (sky.com/SkyBoxSets)
Netflix (netflix.co.uk)
Amazon Prime (amazon.co.uk/piv)
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Pay as you go
BBC Store (bbcstore.com)