What to watch on TV this week: 12th - 18th April

Meanwhile, The Apprentice season 19 is coming to an end with its grand final this week, and the first of a series of retrospective specials about The Grand Tour, this one called The Not Very Grand Tour: The Power and the Glory, is coming to Prime Video.

Here, you'll find our top picks for this week – read on for our full choice of what to watch.

Doctor Who season 15

Release date: Saturday 12th April, 6:50pm, BBC One

There’s a playfully retro look to the debut of new companion Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), as the rocket on which she’s been stowed following a robot kidnap could almost be the one upon which Tintin travelled to the Moon, while the planet she’s destined for has shades of the 1980 Flash Gordon movie to it.

Not that Belinda has the mental space to clock such aesthetics, what with her having been rudely ripped away from her life on Earth as a nurse. But luckily, the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa, now appearing more comfortable) is on hand to hopefully both rescue her and repel a revolution by some fearsome automatons.

Such is the zero-sum set-up to an opening episode that’s a rattling but rocky ride. There are moments of invention, but the humour is a little misjudged (in an early scene, the Doctor inadvertently causes a hospital blackout, but the fate of patients is left unclear) and some pertinent real-life concerns are merely surfed on to service the plot. As ever, Doctor Who Unleashed reveals the facts behind the fiction at 7:35 pm on BBC3.

David Brown

The Last of Us season 2

Release date: Monday 14th April, 2am, Sky Atlantic

“Based on a video game” flashing up at the start of a TV show doesn’t usually inspire much confidence, but The Last of Us is perhaps the one exception to that rule. When the first series released in 2023, the story – which saw a grizzled smuggler transporting a teen across a post-apocalyptic America – struck a chord with viewers, as did the terrifying, fungus-infected zombies they faced along the way.

Now, the series is back for a second run, picking up five years after we left our heroes Joel and Ellie (Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey). After Joel sabotaged a cure for the “cordyceps” plague to save Ellie’s life, they’ve settled down in a surviving small town for a simpler life. But a sense of dread pervades this first episode. Both human and infected forces are headed their way to shatter this fragile peace, and Joel and Ellie are at odds. It’s a credit to the performances that in a world of mushroom zombies, it’s the human relationships that hold your attention.

Huw Fullerton

The Feud

Release date: Monday 14th April, 9pm, 5

Emma (Jill Halfpenny) and John (Rupert Penry-Jones) live in an ordinary suburban cul-de-sac. They get on OK with all their neighbours, even petty security guard Nick (Alex McQueen), obsessed with checking his CCTV to see who’s parking on the road, and elderly couple Derek (James Fleet) and Barbara (Tessa Peake Jones), who are strangely emotional about a tree in their back garden.

However, it’s obvious from the opening sequence that something bad has happened – three houses are up for sale and there are blood smears on the walls of one – but what and why? A starry cast and an intriguing plot will keep you hooked for the next three nights.

Jane Rackham

The Stolen Girl

Release date: Wednesday 16th April, Disney Plus

If you enjoy TV thrillers as hammy and cheesy as a croque monsieur, here’s your new binge. Elisa (Denise Gough) takes up an offer at the school gates from new mum on the scene Rebecca (Holliday Grainger) for their daughters to have a sleepover. What starts as an innocuous playdate turns to horror when the next day, Elisa discovers the house she thought belonged to Rebecca is now empty, and the girls have disappeared.

Elisa and husband Fred (Jim Sturgess, doing his best Richard Armitage impression) go to the police, where secrets and uncomfortable truths look to be unearthed. Eager local journalist Selma (Ambika Mod) has her own hunch and is keen to land a big scoop.

It’s a solid entry in a curious new sub-genre of dramas that are most commonly seen on 5, or come courtesy of Harlan Coben on Netflix: near-deliberately naff, shonky yet addictive nail-biters about affluent families with impossibly aspirational lives. Less kitchen sink dramas, and more kitchen island dramas, if you will.

Frances Taylor

Government Cheese

Release date: Wednesday 16th April, Apple TV+

Whether it's admirable or foolish remains debatable, but Apple's commitment to producing offbeat TV series that will baffle most viewers is certainly remarkable. Here's the latest, a dramedy set in Ohio in a handsomely rendered late 1960s.

David Oyelowo is Hampton Chambers, a man who returns from prison to a reception from his wife and sons that is somewhere between indifference and outright hostility. To please them and to placate a local criminal fraternity to whom he owes money, Hampton is very keen to sell his great invention, a self-sharpening drill. Stuffed with quirky metaphors and odd digressions, the show's key feature is that it's... not surreal exactly, but operating in a world where what's logical and realistic can be bent into imaginative new shapes.

It's often not clear, at least to begin with, why events occur or why characters are behaving as they are. Underneath all that, though, is a story about a luckless man trying to do something right - Oyelowo is good at the kooky chaos and the lonely desperation.

Jack Seale

Just Act Normal

Release date: Wednesday 16th April, 9pm, BBC Three

Written by Janice Okoh and based on her award-winning play Three Birds, this coming-of-age comedy drama about overcoming life’s myriad challenges showcases three talented newcomers in the lead roles.

Siblings Tiana (Chenée Taylor), Tanika (Kaydrah Walker-Wilkie) and Tionne’s (Akins Subair) world implodes when their mum unexpectedly leaves, and they must fend from themselves. While Tionne is in denial, eldest Tiana goes all out to conceal the truth to ensure they can stay together – including negotiating with hapless drug dealer Dr Feelgood (Sam Buchanan).

It is Walker-Wilkie, though, who steals the show as cherub-faced sassy youngster Tanika who luckily comes to the attention of kindly teacher Ms Jenkins (Romola Garai). Full of heart and humour, you’ll root for these resilient kids all the way.

Kay Ribeiro

The Apprentice season 19 final

Release date: Thursday 17th April, 9pm, BBC One

Over the course of the past 11 weeks, each candidate has perfected the choreography of walking in sync and block-dressing in primary colours — as well as picking up a bit of business acumen along the way if they’re lucky.

Even before last week’s interviews, it wasn’t difficult to have a punt as to who tonight’s two finalists would be. On the face of it, both of their businesses seem to have legs, scalability and all those other affirmative, irritating corporate buzzwords. To help launch them, a bunch of this year’s fired candidates return — and funnily enough, they all now radiate smiles and positivity instead of competitiveness and hostility.

Well, I say help… Turning director for an advert, one returnee repeatedly shouts “more energy!” in the manner of Michael Bay making a new Transformers film, while all one finalist can say is “I’m speechless” after viewing the finished video for their business. That’s not as damning as Lord Sugar’s verdict in the boardroom. He reckons the ad “started to sound and look like a dodgy adult film”.

Straight afterwards, at 10pm on BBC One, Tom Allen will be hearing more from Lord Sugar — and the winning candidate, of course — in The Apprentice: You’re Hired.

Frances Taylor

The Not Very Grand Tour: The Power and the Glory

Release date: Friday 18th April, Prime Video

Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond bade an emotional farewell - no, really, it was quite moving - to The Grand Tour last year, but there's still a dribble of gas in that old jalopy’s rusting engine. They're set to return for a series of specials that rehash the best bits of the motoring series the trio made after they were obliged to abandon Top Gear, but before that there’s this one-off version, with May and Hammond looking back at some of the fastest vehicles they've driven while gallavanting around the world's most spectacular locations. Expect supercars, muscle cars, classic cars and possibly the odd tank.

Jack Seale

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