FAMILY DRAMA
Ray Donovan From Monday, Sky Box Sets
The fifth series arrives soon, but the first four turn up on demand this week. Liev Schreiber is the Los Angeles fixer who can make everybody else’s problems disappear; his own just multiply, mostly caused by his habitual bad-boy dad (Jon Voight has never been better), his brothers (led by Eddie Marsan in painfully fine form) and his wife (played by Northern Ireland’s Paula Malcolmson, with an accent JFK would have been proud of).
TOUGH ON CRIME
A Stab In The Dark iTunes
Every Wednesday, Mark Billingham and two guests unleash another crime wave from UKTV in podcast form. It is currently on its second series and recent interviewees have included Ian Rankin, David Simon and Mark Gatiss. Older editions are still available, with Patricia Cornwell, Val McDermid and Ann Cleeves among the names that jump out.
GAME FOR A LAUGH?
The Standups Netflix
One series, six specials, in which America’s most promising comedians take the spotlight. The names Deon Cole, Beth Stelling, Nate Bargatze, Dan Soder, Nikki Glaser and Fortune Feimster might mean nothing on this side of the Atlantic, yet, but Netflix promises 2,395 jokes (that’s 400 per episode!), so the chances are pretty good that you are going to smile at some point.
ARCHIVE FUN
A Mass Of Meades
meadesshrine.blogspot.co.uk
You Sayer Clare Hill (a self-confessed “full-on Meadehead” — isn’t everybody?) has discovered a treasure trove of Jonathan Meades’s television essays, from Bunkers, Brutalism and Bloody Mindedness to Victoria Died in 1901. Quick, before somebody realises they are not supposed to be there.