Television
Fear City: New York vs the Mafia
New York in the 1970s and 80s was ruled by five newly united mafia families. This docuseries, featuring former mayor Rudy Giuliani alongside accounts from former gangsters, tells the story of the federal agents who eventually broke their stranglehold.
Wednesday 22 July, Netflix
The Young Offenders
Peter Foott’s oddly charming and hugely successful coming-of-age sitcom returns for a third season. Best mates and petty criminals Conor MacSweeney (Alex Murphy) and Jock O’Keeffe (Chris Walley) are coming to terms with the fact they might have outgrown their home town of Cork, while a newborn baby offers up extra responsibility.
Sunday 19, BBC Three; Friday 24 July, BBC One
Rodney P’s Jazz Funk
UK hip-hop stalwart Rodney P explores the often overlooked genre of jazz-funk in this fascinating documentary. He charts its origins as an early underground movement for the children of the Windrush generation in the 1970s, before rave took over.
Friday 24 July, 9pm, BBC Four
In the Long Run
We are back on the Eastbridge Estate for the third season of Idris Elba’s semi-autobiographical comedy based on his childhood in 1980s east London. There is drama as Walter’s mother arrives to stay from Sierra Leone and soon gets stuck in to the contested changes planned for the estate, while Valentine fights for her attention.
Wednesday 22 July, 10pm, Sky One
Miriam Margolyes Almost Australian
The filter-free actor and dream chatshow guest goes on a two-month road trip around her adopted home country – she gained citizenship in 2013 – in this eye-opening three-part docuseries. Meeting locals, she questions life outside of her “bubble”.
Friday 24 July, 9pm, BBC Two
Strasbourg 1518
Under the Skin director Jonathan Glazer returns with this short inspired by the involuntary mania that took hold of the titular city’s residents more than 500 years ago. Featuring some of dance’s best performers, and music from Mica Levi, it was created completely in lockdown.
Monday 20 July, 10pm, BBC Two
The Real EastEnders
The closure of the Isle of Dogs docks in 1980 gutted east London’s once-thriving trade hub. Decades later, however, the old way of life persists. This loving doc, soundtracked by local singer Hak Baker, follows the dreams of the kids growing up on its estates.
Tuesday 21 July, 10pm, Channel 4
Frankie Boyle Live: Excited for You to See and Hate This
Recorded at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow at the end of Boyle’s first Scottish tour in 12 years, this 45-minute standup special features the acerbic comedian musing “on what jokes you should and should’nae do”, as he put it on Twitter. It also unpacks his concerns about ageing and buying a dog.
Thursday 23 July, 10pm, BBC Two
Love on the Spectrum
Like Channel 4’s The Undateables, this Australian docuseries follows the dating lives of people with disabilities, the focus here being young adults on the autism spectrum. Expect awkwardness and tender glances, ie all the classic first-date dramas.
Wednesday 22 July, Netflix
Dear NHS Superstars
Sir Lenny Henry, Shirley Ballas, Amanda Holden and more join writer and former doctor Adam Kay in this timely tribute to the NHS. Each celeb offers up moving stories about their interactions with our enviable health service.
Thursday 23 July, 9pm, BBC One
Podcasts
Gurls Talk
Activist and model Adwoa Aboah returns with a new series of her wildly popular podcast featuring unfiltered discussions on everything from the unexpected fame of reality TV to disability and motherhood. Recent episodes have featured frank conversations with the journalist Afua Hirsch on biracial identity and Black Lives Matter’s Janaya Future Khan.
Weekly, widely available
The Guardian Books Podcast
Hosted by Guardian books editors Claire Armistead and Sian Cain, as well as writer Richard Lea, this just-finished series interviews leading authors such as Ben Lerner and Eoin Colfer on their latest releases, as well as discussing everything from the climate crisis in literature to internet virality. There’s a vast readerly archive, too.
The Guardian
Talk Art
Actor Russell Tovey and gallerist Robert Diament host this fascinating pod on the world of art, interviewing famous faces such as Ellie Goulding and Rose McGowan on their art likes and dislikes, as well as talking to curators about the best new shows to see. The perfect entry back into the art world as museums reopen.
Weekly, widely available
Heavy Medals: Inside the Karolyi Gymnastics Empire
This new docuseries from ESPN’s 30 for 30 podcasts stable looks at the Karolyis, gymnastics’s husband-and-wife power couple, whose programme dominated the sport for decades. But then came abuse allegations against US team doctor Larry Nassar, which led to difficult questions being asked about their coaching methods.
Widely available
The Pitchfork Review
Editor-in-chief Puja Patel hosts this new podcast from the enduringly influential music website. Each week, Patel will be joined by other Pitchfork writers and editors, plus special guests, to discuss new albums, old classics and music trends, with the first episode exploring TikTok’s hitmaking potential.
Weekly, widely available
Film
Clemency (No cert)
(Chinonye Chukwu) 113 mins
The big winner at Sundance last year, this features a towering central performance from Alfre Woodard as a prison warden cracking under the strain of overseeing death row in a US prison. A gut-punch of a movie that investigates the personal price paid for professional behaviour.
Digital platforms and in cinemas
Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (No cert)
(Salvador Simó) 80 mins
An intriguing animated film on the artistic crisis of surrealist director Luis Buñuel, as he tries to carve out a film-making identity with a documentary about life in rural Spain. Clips of this are intercut with stylish, magic realist visuals.
BFI Player
Cruel Intentions (15)
(Roger Kumble) 97 mins
This 1999 teen-movie update of Dangerous Liaisons, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon, was reissued last year in the US on its 20th anniversary; now it’s made it to the UK a year late. Smart, funny and clever, with astute use of Britpop on the soundtrack.
Amazon Prime Video, from Friday 24 July
The Fall (No cert)
(Jonathan Glazer) 7 mins
This intensely bizarre fable from the Under the Skin director gets a VOD outing eight months after its mysterious BBC debut. Masked humans seemingly lynch a man, who falls endlessly through the Earth … Brief but amazingly memorable.
Digital platforms
Saint Frances (15)
(Alex Thompson) 100 mins
This hipster variant on the empowerment movie was an audience award winner at SXSW. It’s a study of a drifting thirtysomething waitress (played by the film’s writer, Kelly O’Sullivan) whose life changes when she is hired to look after a six-year-old, Frances.
In cinemas
The Hitch-Hiker (12)
(Ida Lupino) 77 mins
Ida Lupino, the Brixton-born danger-woman in tough thrillers such as High Sierra and They Drive By Night, moved behind the camera here to excellent effect. Her taut and effective B-movie has two friends (Edmond O’Brien, Frank Lovejoy) travelling through sun-baked Mexico and stopping for a hitcher: armed-and-dangerous serial killer William Talman.
Wednesday 22 July, 2.10am, Talking Pictures TV
