Television
Snowpiercer
This TV reboot of Parasite director Bong Joon-ho’s 2013 post-apocalyptic film about class warfare on a perpetually speeding train arrives for a second season just eight months after its first. Uprising and revolution has given way to a new world order, as well as the arrival of Sean Bean’s Mr Wilford, the train’s creator and billionaire overlord.
Tuesday 26 January, Netflix
Pls Like
Liam Williams’s pitch-black, Bafta-winning mockumentary exploring the world of vloggers returns for a third series. After helping some content creators escape the clutches of creepy manager James Wirm (Tim Key), Williams turns his attention to travel, culture and food vloggers.
Sunday 24 January, BBC Three
Euphoria: F*ck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob
Following December’s special focusing on Zendaya’s Rue, the celebrated teen drama returns with another standalone episode. This special, set over the Christmas holidays, follows Hunter Schafer’s Jules as she reflects on her year.
Monday 25 January, 9pm, Sky Atlantic
Incredible Journeys With Simon Reeve
The TV adventurer and author reflects on some of the more remote and remarkable destinations he has visited throughout his career. Marvel at the arctic glaciers, vast central Asian deserts and mind-bending tropical reefs from the “comfort” of your lockdown sofa in the bleak midwinter.
Sunday 24 January, 8pm, BBC Two
Reset and Rewind
This groundbreaking animated series sees musicians including singer Ray BLK and rappers Ms Banks and D Double E talk openly about mental health. Alongside mindfulness techniques, episode one sees rapper Konan talking about grief and trauma following the loss of his stepfather.
Out now, All 4
Celebrity Best Home Cook
A sedate take on the celeb cooking contest format as 10 hopefuls, including ex-Corrie star Shobna Gulati, comic Ed Byrne and former rugby player Gareth Thomas, plate up their dinner party showstoppers for judges Mary Berry, Angela Hartnett and Chris Bavin.
Tuesday 26 January, 9pm, BBC One
50m2
Engin Öztürk stars as Golge, a mysterious hitman with a heart, in this flashy Turkish crime caper. After fleeing his boss and surrogate father figure, Golge goes on the run in search of his real family, winding up living undercover in a small neighbourhood. But his past soon catches up with him.
Wednesday 27 January, Netflix
Katie Price: Harvey and Me
While most of Price’s life has been on full view, the model and reality star has kept her son, born with a rare genetic disorder, out of the spotlight. In this intimate doc, she opens up about the challenges they’ve faced and what the future holds.
Monday 25 January, 8.30pm, BBC One
Hip Hop: The Songs That Shook America
A celebration of the genre’s most formative tracks, produced by the Roots founders Questlove and Black Thought. Over the course of this entertaining series, the songs analysed by the experts include Kanye West’s Jesus Walks, Kendrick Lamar’s Alright, and Ladies First by Queen Latifah.
Friday 29 January, 10pm, BBC Four
Marcella
Season three of Anna Friel’s gasp-inducing crime drama finally arrives on UK television. Friel’s detective, who suffers violent blackouts, goes undercover in Northern Ireland to infiltrate a wealthy crime family. But the deeper she goes, the more comes to light about her past trauma.
Tuesday 26 January, 9pm, ITV
Podcasts
The Messenger
This fascinating series tracks the tumultuous path to Uganda’s 2021 elections, where the country’s biggest pop star, Bobi Wine, sought to overthrow corrupt leader Yoweri Museveni and break his 30-year rule. There is incisive detail on the background of both men, as well as almost real-time analysis, as Kampala breaks out into violence just days before the polls open.
All episodes available, Spotify
Who You Don’t See
The journalist Megan Lawton fronts this charming series interviewing the professionals who work behind the scenes with the stars, from makeup artists to camerapeople. Guests dishing the gossip have included Little Mix photographer Callum Mills, hairstylist Miles Jeffries and choreographer Suzette Brissett.
Weekly, widely available
How to Vaccinate the World
With misinformation swirling around the internet, you’d have thought that now would be a good time for someone to release a clear, authoritative podcast on the vaccine rollout. Thankfully, the BBC did, too: in this series, Tim Harford cheerfully quizzes experts on topics such as who gets their shot first and the spacing out of the second dose.
Weekly, BBC Sounds
Football Weekly
Thanks to Marcus Rashford, football has been in the headlines for more than just cup upsets recently. Max Rushden and his team of pundits are on hand to analyse it all, as well as the week’s biggest matches. Recent highlights have included a discussion on the impact of Brexit, as well as the charges of breaking gambling regulations against Kieran Trippier.
Weekly, The Guardian
Fifa PlayOn
Erstwhile 1D-er Liam Payne and sports broadcaster Jaydee Dyer co-host this new pod bringing together footballers and the musicians who inspired them: Croatian international Ivan Rakitić is joined by the Colombian folk band Morat. Other guests include footballers Carli Lloyd and Asisat Oshoala, and rapper Wretch 32.
Weekly, widely available
Film
The White Tiger (15)
(Ramin Bahrani) 125 mins
The latest combination of Hollywood and – if not exactly Bollywood – mass-appeal Indian cinema. Based on Aravind Adiga’s Booker-winning novel, this account of a villager turned servant-on-the-make in Delhi is like a south Asian answer to Parasite, dwelling on the interdependence of the globalised elite and the underclass around them.
Netflix
Quo Vadis, Aida? (15)
(Jasmila Žbanić) 102 mins,
A shattering account of the events surrounding the Srebrenica massacre from the Bosnian director Žbanić. Aida (Jasna Đuričić) is a US translator working for Dutch soldiers. As Bosnian Serb forces close in, her attempts to save her family become more desperate.
Curzon Home Cinema
The Rental (15)
(Dave Franco) 88 mins
Franco’s directorial debut is an effective horror movie that – if anything – crams a little too much in. Co-written by Joe Swanberg, this has two couples (Dan Stevens and Alison Brie, Jeremy Allen White and Sheila Vand) renting a fancy clifftop retreat for the weekend; secrets and lies, and soon nasty stuff, start to emerge.
Amazon Prime Video
76 Days (12)
(Wu Hao, Chen Weixi, Anonymous) 93 mins
Those looking for conspiracy theories about Covid aren’t likely to find them here. This gruelling doc about Wuhan’s first lockdown last February stays inside the hospitals treating patients when the illness was not taken seriously by the world.
On digital
The Masque of the Red Death (15)
(Roger Corman) 90 mins
Hammer’s horror films proved an unexpected hit in the 1950s, so Corman got in on the act. This 1964 Edgar Allan Poe adaptation – following House of Usher – has Vincent Price as Prospero, a satanic prince presiding over a feast.
On digital
American Animals
Based on a true story, this gripping tale of an inept heist has all the thrills of a caper movie but with the real gang members commenting on the action. Directed by Bart Layton (who made conman doc The Imposter), it follows Kentucky students Barry Keoghan and Evan Peters as they plot to steal priceless books from the university library.
Tuesday 26 January, 9pm, Film4
