This week's best telly includes many favourites such as Killing Eve and Friday Night Dinner continuing as well as the highly anticipated return of Ricky Gervais's hit Netflix comedy After Life and a big charity night on BBC One which sees Comic Relief and Children in Need come together for the first time to help support those significantly impacted by the Coronavirus crisis
Here are 7 shows you can’t miss this week...
1. Race Across the World
Sunday 19th April at 8pm on BBC Two
When this current (and only for a while) series of Race Across the World comes to an end in a couple of weeks, I will genuinely be at a loss over how to fill my Sunday evenings. After 17,000 kilometres, there are just 24 hours separating the teams, but with two legs left and almost 8,000 km to the finish line in Ushuaia, depleted budgets come into sharp focus.
First to leave Ilha Grande in Brazil are current race leaders Emon and Jamiul who discover that the next checkpoint is Mendoza in western Argentina and both agree that they need to escape expensive Brazil as soon as possible but have differing opinions on the best route to take.
The most financially stable couple with a quarter of their budget remaining, Jen and Rob have different priorities. Jen is keen to spend to move quickly, whilst Rob favours a more cautious approach to ensure they reach the finish line on budget.
With less money than any other team, mother and son Jo and Sam are in dire straits and determined to complete the leg and target work with bed and board in order to save cash, but this means a more circuitous route to the checkpoint. Whilst Dom and Lizzie continue on their mission to move up in the race standings by racing smart and economically and asking for help.
7/9
2. Killing Eve
Monday 20th April at 6am on BBC Three
Usually every episode of Killing Eve drops at once but that hasn't happened this time. Instead we're getting one new episode from the new third season every Monday morning at 6am, just hours behind the US. But where it might get confusing is that same episode will then be repeated six days later on BBC One at 9.15pm.
Following the dramatic events at the end of last week's season opener, Eve and Carolyn are left reeling and Eve strikes up an unlikely alliance with Kenny’s colleagues at the Bitter Pill. Villanelle meanwhile, finds that management isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
2/8
3. Comedy Against Living Miserably
Wednesday 22nd April at 9pm on Dave
In this second of three specials scheduled throughout the year, Dave has partnered with mental health charity CALM, for a night of comedy and conversation with headliner Nish Kumar being joined by Suzi Ruffell, Darren Harriott and Seann Walsh.
Before taking to the stage to talk about their own relationships to mental health and how that affects their lives and their comedy. These include stories about coping with the suicide of a parent, being violently trolled on Twitter, and dealing with debilitating panic attacks.
All the comedians performing donate their fees to CALM, which is matched by UKTV to deliver £100,000 to the charity, and the show also invites people to text to donate funds during broadcast.
2/3
4. The Big Night In
Thursday 23rd April at 7pm on BBC One
For the first time ever, Children in Need and Comic Relief are coming together to for a special night of television, hoping to offer some light relief and entertainment, whilst celebrating and rewarding those going the extra mile to support their communities in these troubled times.
Hosted by Matt Baker, Zoe Ball, Lenny Henry, Davina McCall and Paddy McGuinness, the three-hour show will see a number of celebrities take part, all from the safety of their own homes, including Peter Kay, Catherine Tate and Gary Barlow plus a special brand new Little Britain sketch from David Walliams and Matt Lucas.
The Strictly professional dancers have come together and each choreographed 10 seconds of a new dance routine to Dua Lipa's Physical, and want the great British public to learn ahead of The Big Night In.
On the night, viewers will have the opportunity to donate, should they feel able to do so, to help support vulnerable people of all ages and backgrounds across the UK who will be significantly impacted by the crisis. Funds raised on the night will be split equally between BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief to provide essential support to local charities, projects and programmes across the UK to help those most in need.
1/1
5. Gangs of London
Thursday 23rd April at 9pm on Sky Atlantic
If you're looking for your next drama binge, Sky Atlantic's Gangs of London could just be the show you've been waiting for. Starring Joe Cole, Colm Meaney, Lucian Msamati, Sope Dirisu and Michelle Fairley this nine-part action-packed thriller tells the story of a city being torn apart by the turbulent power struggles of the international gangs that control it.
London is one of the world's most dynamic and multicultural cities and in this series we find out what happens when the head of London’s most powerful crime family is assassinated. For 20 years, Finn Wallace was the most powerful criminal in London. Billions of pounds flowed through his organisation each year. But now he’s dead and nobody knows who ordered the hit.
With rivals everywhere, it’s up to the impulsive Sean Wallace, with the help of the Dumani family headed by Ed Dumani to take his father’s place. if the situation wasn’t already dangerous enough, Sean’s assumption of power causes ripples in the world of international crime.
Perhaps the one man who might be able to help him and be his ally is Elliot Finch, who up until now, has been one of life’s losers, a lowlife chancer with a mysterious interest in the Wallace family. But as the wind of fate blows, Elliot finds himself transported to the inner workings of the largest criminal organisation in London.
1/9 All episodes available
6. After Life
Friday 24th April at 10pm on Channel 4
Ricky Gervais' hit Netflix comedy After Life, in which he plays local newspaper writer Tony,, whose life is upended after his wife Lisa, played by Kerry Godliman, dies from cancer, returns this week for a second series as we return to the small fictitious town of Tambury.
This series we find Tony continuing to struggle with immense grief for his wife as Tony tries to become a better friend to those around him. Each grappling with their own problems and only to be intensified by the looming threat of the local newspaper being shut down. Will the town’s local Am-Dram show lift everyone’s spirits?
Alongside Ricky Gervais and Kerry Godliman, returning cast includes Penelope Wilton, David Bradley, Ashley Jensen, Tom Basden, Tony Way, David Earl, Joe Wilkinson, Mandeep Dhillon, Jo Hartley, Roisin Conaty, Diane Morgan, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Peter Egan, Ethan Lawrence and Bill Ward.
Interviews with the cast coming soon!
1-6/6
7. Friday Night Dinner
Friday 24th April at 10pm on Channel 4
In this week's penultimate episode of Friday Night Dinner, Mum Jackie is in hospital with a 'woman's procedure' so Aunty Val is tasked with making the Friday night dinner. To the boys' horror, she spends most of the evening glued to a dating app, before showing them several photos of semi-naked men.
Val is especially obsessed with one guy, who goes by the name of 'Loverboy 309', or as Adam and Jonny brand him, a 'sex robot'. The boys are relieved when Mum and Dad return, but there's no chance of any R&R for poor Jackie as 'Loverboy 309' is picking Val up from the house in 40 minutes.
Thus begins an evening of hell for the Goodmans as Val forces them to eat their lamb dinner in record time, followed by her secretly hated 'vomit-in-a-bowl' rice pudding.
Meanwhile, Jim has had an extra-large, galvanised steel dog cage delivered to the Goodmans' house because he didn't want Milson to be upset by it turning up at his own house and proceeds to put it together in their living room, with typically disastrous consequences.
5/6