This week there are just two new series in this list, because with so much great telly out there at the moment it’s worth remembering what’s still on and worth continuing with.
Here are the 7 shows you have to watch this week...
1. Reggie Yates: Hidden Australia
Monday 16th January, from 10am on BBC Three
Reggie Yates is back doing what he does best, and in these three new documentaries under the title of Hidden Australia, Reggie investigates why one of the richest nations on earth has indigenous people suffering such extreme social deprivation and inequality.
In the first episode, Black In The Outback, after a ten-hour inland drive from Sydney, Reggie heads into the outback, to an old mining town called Wilcannia, home of one of the largest Aboriginal communities in Australia with a 600 strong population, 80% of whom are indigenous.
Although traditional practices still exist, Reggie finds a marginalized community suffering from an addiction to alcohol and generations of institutionalized racism. Reggie meets the younger generation, living on the fringes of society.
What hope do they have of a better life than the generations before them?
1/3
2. Revolting
Tuesday 17th January, 10pm on BBC Two
If like me, you mourned the loss of The Revolution Will Be Televised on BBC Three then I’m sure you’re already enjoying Revolting on BBC Two. If you’re yet to catch an episode then you’re seriously missing out and I’d recommend you catch up on iPlayer when you can.
In the third episode of the series, Jolyon Rubinstein and Heydon Prowse delve into the Great British tradition of dogging, Dale Maily takes on the BBC and Penny and Robin get involved with political hot potato that is Trident.
Duckface the insta-celebrity slacktivist is out campaigning again, and we meet the man behind one of Britain's best loved characters, Boris Johnson.
3/6
3. Unforgotten
Thursday 19th January, 9pm on ITV
If you haven’t been watching Unforgetten, what have you been doing with your 2017? The first series gripped the nation and unlike some series, the second series has gripped the nation once again and dare I say this series is even better than the first?!
The new series started, for those of you who haven’t been watching, with the discovery of body found in a sealed suitcase in the silt of the River Lea. With the body preserved but clearly having been there a number of years, detectives DCI Cassie Stuart and DS Sunny Khan began the complicated task of identifying the victim and investigating his murder.
Through their inquiries, the body was revealed as middle-aged man David Walker who disappeared in 1990 leaving behind a wife and young son who is now in his early 30s. With four seemingly un-connected suspects emerging, the team are tasked with finding out who wanted David Walker dead and why?
Reaching the halfway point in the series, tensions are running high in the third episode of the new series as investigations into David Walker’s murder continue. Jason, in particularly, is finding it difficult to process his father’s death, asking Cassie to see his Dad’s body following his outburst at stepsister Becca.
Meanwhile, Sunny meets James Gregory, David’s old school friend who relays what David told him about his abuse at primary school, revealing that David had managed to track down and confront the offending teacher before his death. However, Sunny’s conversation with James also uncovers some illuminating aspects of David’s lifestyle that may have contributed to his murder.
In Highgate, Cassie meets Marion and Elise’s mother, Joy Dunphy, who can’t think of any reason why her address would have been written on the travelcard found in David’s possessions. Their conversation does come around to Marion, however, which leads to a prickly interview between Cassie and Marion.
I’ve already seen this week’s episode and I wish I was able to tell you why I loved it so much and why I was left open mouthed at the end, but I can’t so I won’t. Just make sure whatever you do this week, that you find time to watch Unforgotten.
3/6
4. Chewing Gum
Thursday 19th January, 10pm on E4
What can I say about Chewing Gum that I haven’t already said before? It’s funny, it’s smart and it’s super confident - a confidence which could so easily have become arrogance in series two - after all it did win EVERY award going. But that’s not the case, Michaela Coel has managed to deliver another brilliant series which isn’t afraid to be rude and crude. After all, it’s all in the name of comedy. A genre Coel is becoming an expert in.
In the second episode of the second series, Replacements, Tracey has a number of impossible tasks to complete before Joy lets her move back into their family home.
Meanwhile, having replaced best friend Candice with Ola, Tracey meets Ash, a handsome fella who ticks all her boxes; she thinks he’s the perfect replacement for Connor until she finds out what he really wants from her.
Candice finds a new friend in Tracey’s sister Cynthia played by the wonderful Susan Wokoma who was sadly missing from last week’s opening episode.
2/6
5. Tina And Bobby
Friday 20th January, 9pm on ITV
Michelle Keegan’s starring role in ITV’s new three-part drama Tina And Bobby, an epic love story about an ordinary girl who falls for an ordinary boy only to be swept up in an extraordinary life, continues this week.
In this week’s episode, Bobby (Lorne MacFadyen) leads England to World Cup glory and the lovers are reunited amidst the raucous celebrations. Tina (Michelle Keegan) joins Bobby in the spotlight and fame and fortune follow, as they become icons of their time.
When baby Dean arrives, Tina thinks she has it all, only for her mother’s sudden death to change everything. The price of fame soon becomes clear when Tina is besieged after Bobby is arrested in Bogota, and although he goes on to play brilliantly at the Mexico World Cup they return home to a kidnap threat.
With fame driving a wedge between them, when Bobby causes a tabloid splash Tina confronts him: is success destroying their marriage?
2/3
6. Delicious
Friday 20th January, 9pm on Sky 1
This Friday there are even more revelations afoot Sky 1’s Delicious draws to a satisfying end.
In the final episode of the series a mysterious man from Gina and Leo’s past threatens to expose a truth that Gina always wanted to keep hidden.
Not only that, the real reason for the failure of Leo and Gina’s marriage is revealed. Meanwhile, Sam grows concerned about Michael and Teresa’s relationship.
When she confronts them, tempers flare and Teresa discovers that Leo might not be her father, much to Gina’s dismay. As the family’s secrets begin to unravel, it will take something special to bring them back together.
4/4
7. Apple Tree Yard
Sunday 22nd January, 9pm on BBC One
Towards the end of last year, I attended a BAFTA press screening for Apple Tree Yard, and I have been itching to watch more ever since. I was so engrossed in the story that I even started reading the book on which the series is based on Louise Doughty’s best-selling novel Apple Tree Yard.
Emily Watson leads a stellar line up in BAFTA-winning Amanda Coe’s adaptation of the novel for BBC One. Apple Tree Yard is a provocative, audacious thriller that puts women’s lives at the heart of a gripping, insightful story about the values we live by and the choices that we make. A ‘what if’ situation that could happen to any one of us.
Emily plays Dr. Yvonne Carmichael. She has a high flying career, a beautiful suburban home and the perfect family. Smart, successful and highly renowned within her field of genetics, Yvonne has a conventional and apparently contented life, married to husband Gary, complete with two grown up children.
After confidently presenting to a Commons Select Committee on her specialist subject, she is approached by a charismatic and mysterious stranger, who seems refreshingly interested in what she has to say – refreshingly interested in her. Suddenly, she finds herself alone and intimate with him in the deserted crypt beneath the House of Commons.
It’s a completely out of character moment of madness. Despite Yvonne’s expectations that she will never see Mark Costley again, their encounter builds to a passionate and all-consuming affair.
However, despite Yvonne’s careful plans to keep her career and home life separate, fantasy and reality soon start to overlap; finally everything she values is put at risk when a life-changing act of violence ultimately leads to a Crown Court trial…
1/4