The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Following Marvel’s refreshingly eccentric WandaVision, this more straightforward six-part series focuses on Anthony Mackie’s Falcon and Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier. Picking up where Avengers: Endgame left off, the heroic pair must face off against Baron Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) and the anti-patriotism group the Flag-Smashers.
Friday 19 March, Disney+
Grace
John Simm stars as Roy Grace, a troubled detective superintendent haunted by the disappearance of his wife, in this two-part thriller adapted from Peter James’s bestselling novels. After his dangerous police methods are questioned, Grace’s job is on the line.
Sunday 14 March, 8pm, ITV
Sky Rojo
Money Heist creators Alex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato deliver another pulpy Spanish action thriller. After best friends and sex workers Coral, Wendy and Gina make a desperate run for freedom, they are tracked by their pimp and his henchman on a chaotic journey that solidifies their bond.
Friday 19 March, Netflix
Formula 1: Drive to Survive
Season three of the action-packed sports docuseries chronicling the high-stakes world of big money and even bigger egos in Formula 1 tackles the great leveller of the Covid-19 pandemic. With racing halted on the eve of 2020’s Australian Grand Prix, we follow the drivers through their limbo to Lewis Hamilton’s astonishing seventh world title.
Friday 19 March, Netflix
Calls
Based on the French TV series of the same name, this star-studded adaptation enlistS the likes of Rosario Dawson, Lily Collins and Aaron Taylor-Johnson to provide the voices for a series of short tales relayed only via phone calls and minimal abstract visuals.
Friday 19 March, Apple TV+
Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death
Featuring interviews with her mother and twin sister, this emotional documentary – released a year after Flack’s tragic death at the age of 40 – explores the life of one of TV’s most-loved presenters, as well as discussing the pressures of fame.
Wednesday 17 March, 9pm, Channel 4
Taskmaster
Charlotte Ritchie, Jamali Maddix, Lee Mack, Mike Wozniak and Sarah Kendall are the latest comics to be put through a litany of daft challenges dreamed up by Alex Horne and judged by Greg Davies’s Taskmaster. The funniest show on TV? Probably.
Thursday 18 March, 9pm, Channel 4
The Circle
As the celebrities depart the Salford block of flats, so a new batch of everyday contestants move in. Except that no one is who they say they are in this endearingly weird reality show, which somehow manages to fuse Big Brother, MTV’s Catfish and an episode of Black Mirror.
Tuesday 16 March, 9.15pm, Channel 4
Keeping Up with the Kardashians
US reality TV’s royal family hang up their crowns after this final 20th season of their ever-expanding show. Expect the usual rifts between Khloe, Kourtney and Kim, as well as the steely guiding hand of momager Kris. But will Kanye also make an appearance?
Friday 19 March, Hayu
Allen v Farrow
This four-part documentary series forensically analysing the 1992 accusation of sexual abuse against Woody Allen involving Dylan, his then seven-year-old daughter with Mia Farrow, now reaches British screens. Film-makers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering piece together the story through candid interviews with the Farrow family.
Monday 15 March, 9pm, Sky Documentaries
Podcasts
The Gargle
From the makers of the hit satirical news podcast The Bugle comes this witty, sideways look at the jargon and gibberish that comes with the week’s news stories and cultural hot topics, hosted by comic Alice Fraser. Recent highlights have included a deep dive into Captain Tom merchandise, Roman penis carving, and the phenomenon of potato gender reveal parties.
Weekly, widely available
The Spider in the Web
The Times’s Berlin correspondent Oliver Moody hosts this special miniseries of the Stories of our Time podcast. The two-part investigation explores the role of German lawyer Hans Globke, who laid the legal basis for the Holocaust and then went on to become one of the architects of the modern German state.
All episodes widely available
Politics Weekly
With Boris Johnson’s “roadmap” out of Covid under way and Rishi Sunak’s recent budget seeing record levels of government borrowing, there is plenty for the Guardian’s political team to unpick in their weekly podcast, led by Heather Stewart. Recent episodes have analysed the government’s fixation on “cancel culture” and the state of the union.
Weekly, the Guardian
Dear Me
Katy Wix (Stath Lets Flats) and Adam Drake (Goose) swap silly japes for psychological tenderness in this new mini-doc series. The comics visit the childhood homes of their favourite performers (Liam Williams, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Lou Sanders) to create a show that’s part Through the Keyhole and part therapy session.
All episodes widely available
The Culture Journalist
Launched last August, this insightful pod aims to try and make sense of an already shifting cultural landscape ripped up by the pandemic. Hosted by journalists Emilie Friedlander and Andrea Domanick, the first episode of its second season asks if counterculture can exist in the age of the internet.
Weekly, widely available
Film
Judas and the Black Messiah
(15) (Shaka King) 126 mins
Daniel Kaluuya picked up a Golden Globe for his poignant portrayal of Fred Hampton, the Black Panther leader shot dead during a 1969 FBI raid, in King’s roiling historical drama. As William O’Neal, the career crim-turned-FBI’s man on the inside, Lakeith Stanfield is at his slippery best, while Martin Sheen latexes up as a sinister J Edgar Hoover.
On digital
Mouthpiece
(15) (Patricia Rozema) 92 mins
Her mother’s sudden death, and the task of summing up her life for the funeral eulogy, pitches writer Cassandra into a tumult of memories in the tender Canadian drama. Expanding on their own play, Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava both star as Cassandra, an often comic double act that neatly illustrates the conflicting states in which we often find ourselves.
On digital
Cherry
(18) (Anthony and Joe Russo) 142 mins
This dark drama shows there is more to Tom Holland and the Russos than Spidey and Marvel planet-busters. Holland gives his all in the title role, morphing from teen in love to Iraq war grunt to junkie bank robber. Scorsese’s influence is strong in the film’s straining-for-the-epic feel.
Apple+
The Columnist
(15) (Ivo van Aart) 84 mins
A superb Katja Herbers (from Evil and Westworld) heads this blackly comic horror about the perils of the comments section. Her sweet-hearted Dutch journalist, who has instilled in her daughter the right to free speech, becomes obsessed by abusive online trolls, inspiring her to enact a truly brutal form of cancelling.
On digital
The Winter Lake
(15) (Phil Sheerin) 92 mins
In this efficiently downbeat Irish mystery constant rain coats everything in a layer of melancholy. Anson Boon’s teenager Tom finds a baby’s skeleton in a pond near his single mum’s rural family home. Does it have something to do with neighbour Holly (Emma Mackey)?
On digital from Monday 15 March
BFI Flare festival
Wednesday 17 to 28 March
London’s cinematic LGBTIQ+ celebration returns in online-only mode. Hot tips include cold war love triangle drama Firebird, documentary Rebel Dykes – about UK post-punk lesbian culture – and biopics of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Tove Jansson.
BFI Player
Clouds of Sils Maria
Olivier Assayas’s intense drama has echoes of Bergman’s Persona, as Juliette Binoche’s stage star Maria and her PA Valentine (Kristen Stewart) rehearse a play about a lesbian affair that was Maria’s breakthrough role as a young actor. Now she’s taking the older role, and her insecurities start to affect her relationship with Valentine.
Saturday 13 March, 2am, BBC Two
