This week's best telly includes the return of Better Things, Meet the Richardsons, Trying and The Hit List as well as new dramas The Control Room, Maryland and Witness Number 3.
Here are 7 TV shows you can't miss this week...
1. The Hit List
Saturday 16th July at 7.10pm on BBC One
The Hit List is back for its fifth series as Rochelle and Marvin Humes continue to test music lovers with the most addictive musical quiz on television and a real treat in the TV schedules.
In each show, three pairs of contestants put their music knowledge to the ultimate test as they attempt to name as many songs and artists as possible for the chance to take home a whopping £10,000.
The songs played are all hits from a wide range of music genres from the 1950s to today, meaning the whole family can play along.
Hoping to win the £10,000 cash prize pot this week are friends Jillian and Rory from Belfast, father and son Jim and Teddy from Essex, and brother and sister duo Nath and Savannah from the West Midlands. But who will make it to the Final Chart Rundown?
1/12 Continues weekly
2. The Control Room
Sunday 17th to Tuesday 19th July at 9pm on BBC One
BBC One's latest thriller, The Control Room is a three-part drama written by Nick Leather which tells the story of Gabe, played by Iain De Caestecker, an ordinary man who works as an emergency call handler for the Strathclyde Ambulance Service in Glasgow.
His world is turned upside down when he receives a desperate life-and-death call from a woman who appears to know him. Under pressure to work out who she is, he makes a decision that threatens to have devastating consequences.
As Gabe finds himself forced into further criminal behaviour, he realises that if he’s to escape the nightmare of his present, he will have to confront his past. And in the series finale, as both the police and criminals close in, Gabe realises that his life is now truly on the line, as past and present collide at the Christmas Tree Farm.
The Control Room also stars Joanna Vanderham, Taj Atwal, Daniel Portman, Sharon Rooney, Garry Sweeney, Taqi Nazeer, Rona Morison, Conor McLeod, Stuart Bowman and Daniel Cahill.
1-3/3 Continues nightly
3. Better Things
Sunday 17th July at 10.15pm and 10.50pm on BBC Two
After months of waiting for the final season of Better Things to arrive in the UK, I suddenly discovered it's back THIS WEEK. Most FX series are now airing on Disney+ in the UK and I had thought that's where Better Things would end. But it would seem that BBC Two, who have played the series since season one, have held on to it until the very end.
If Better Things has passed you by (and there's a strong chance that it might have) it stars Pamela Adlon as single mother Sam Fox, who tries to raise her three daughters while keeping her acting career afloat. And it's a family you really want to spend time with.
As the fifth and final season begins, it's a busy day for Sam as she helps Max find an apartment, visits the genealogist with her brother Marion and is a shoulder to cry on for best friend Rich.
And when Sam's day starts with a shoot-out at the supermarket, it doesn't get much better as she learns Phyllis has been scammed. However, things improve when she makes a decision about work.
1-2/10 Continues weekly. All episodes available at launch
4. Witness Number 3
Monday 18th to Thursday 21st July at 9pm on Channel 5
Channel 5's latest thriller, Witness Number 3, stars Nina Toussaint-White as Jodie, a single mum, who owns her own hairdressing business and glancing out of the window, catches a glimpse of an altercation between two men. Unbeknownst to her, one of the men is about to be murdered and in that seemingly innocuous split second, Jodie’s life is turned upside down forever.
Jodie is unwittingly the last person to witness a killer and when the police make an appeal, she decides to come forward, believing her information to be of little consequence. But she quickly learns that she’s the prosecution’s key witness, known only as Witness Number 3 to protect her identity, and is assigned protection from P.C. Ivan Barkas.
When the murderer, a key player in a local gang, realises that Jodie’s evidence could put him behind bars, a terrifying campaign of intimidation to silence her unfolds and escalates with dramatic consequences.
What ensues is a chilling and tense game of cat and mouse that poses a simple question: How far are you prepared to go to do the right thing?
The series also stars Sue Johnston, Sion Daniel Young and Clare Dunne.
1-4/4 Continues nightly
5. Maryland
Wednesday 20th July at 10.05pm on BBC Two
Maryland was first seen in 2021 at the Royal Court in London and is a fictional artistic response to recent real-life events, as writer Lucy Kirkwood grapples with the violence women are forced to reckon with in their everyday lives.
This new 30-minute adaptation for BBC Two, tells the story of two everywomen, both called Mary, and a chorus of modern-day furies as they deliver their stories of assault with Zawe Ashton and Hayley Squires playing the lead roles of two individual Marys who meet at a police station in the aftermath of their respective sexual assaults.
Guiding them through this world is police constable Moody, played by Daniel Mays, and his colleague PC Eddowes, played by Justine Mitchelle. They are supported by a cast of Furies who rail against the injustices the women face, both in the events of the play and in the wider world.
1/1
6. Meet the Richardsons
Thursday 21st July at 10pm on Dave
Ahead of a fourth series of Meet the Richardsons, Jon and Lucy are back with a two-part holiday special that sees them asked to make a UK travel show with Sally Lindsay.
They jump in an RV, visit Whitby and sample the food and legends of the area, hoping that this could win them a BAFTA but it turns out that quite a few people off the telly have already visited the town. And the RV stinks a bit.
Luckily Seann Walsh is on hand to make sure the show stays funny.
1/2 Continues next week
7. Trying
Friday 22nd July on Apple TV+
Whilst Ted Lasso is quite rightly held up as Apple TV+'s best original comedy, one that's often forgotten is Trying, a wonderful comedy starring Esther Smith and Rafe Spall as Nikki and Jason, a couple who all they want is a baby. But it’s the one thing they just can’t have.
Having decided to adopt, season two saw the couple continue to navigate the adoption process. Matching with a child is not as straightforward as they had hoped as it seems like children are being snapped up by other couples, and they're somehow being left behind.
Following that dramatic end to season two, season three picks up with Nikki and Jason as they wake up as new parents to two children who they are still getting to know. Now they just have to keep hold of them, which proves to be trickier than they initially thought.
Thrown straight into the parental deep end, Nikki and Jason’s relationships with each other and with their nearest and dearest are tested as they desperately try to navigate the ups and downs of parenting, while hanging onto their kids, and their sanity.
1-2/8 Continues weekly
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