This week's best telly includes the return of The Umbrella Academy to Netflix, two new comedies, two new dramas, a Taskmaster special and Sir Lenny Henry presents a joyous celebration of British-Caribbean life.
Here are 7 TV shows you can't miss this week...
1. Suspect
Sunday 19th to Wednesday 22nd June at 9pm and 9.30pm on Channel 4
New Channel 4 drama Suspect, based on the Danish series Forhøret, is a gripping psychological crime thriller with an all-star cast, led by James Nesbitt as veteran detective Danny Frater, who's on a mission to find the truth after his estranged daughter dies.
Turning up at a hospital mortuary for what he thinks is a routine ID check on a young woman’s body, Danny gets a devastating shock after the corpse turns out to be his estranged daughter, Christina, played by Imogen King.
Danny is traumatized by the news that according to the post-mortem report, she’s taken her own life. Danny and Christina had a complicated father-daughter relationship in recent years, but he refuses to accept that she would have ended her own life. He sets out on a mission for the truth, retracing her last days and hours, in an agonising crusade to discover what really happened to his only child.
Through a series of intense exchanges with those closest to Christina – her partner, Nicola, played by Niamh Algar, her best friend, Maia, played Antonia Thomas, her business partner, Jaisal, played by Sacha Dhawan, her godfather, Ryan, played by Sam Heughan, her mentor, Harry, played by Richard E. Grant and finally her mother, Susannah and Danny’s ex-wife, played by Anne-Marie Duff – Danny learns about his daughter’s descent into delinquency.
He is forced to confront his own failings as a father whilst struggling to make sense of a mass of contradictory testimony and circumstantial evidence, and he must decide who, if anyone, is responsible for Christina’s death and what he’s going to do about it.
Also appearing in the series is Jackie, played by Joely Richardson, the pathologist who carries out the post-mortem on Christina’s body and Richard. played by Ben Miller, Danny’s Detective Superintendent boss.
1-8/8 Continues nightly with two episodes
2. Ellie & Natasia
Tuesday 21st June at 10pm and 10.15pm on BBC Three
Following a successful pilot, comedians Ellie White and Natasia Demetriou are back with a six-part series of their sketch show Ellie & Natasia.
The series features a range of characters, from busybody mums to coffee spotters. Not to mention some excellent guest stars including David Morrissey and Jamie Demetriou and a song about snakes.
1-2/6 Continues weekly. All episodes available at launch
3. The Offer
Wednesday 22nd June on Paramount+
Another week, another new streaming platform and on Wednesday, Paramount+ launches in the UK for £6.99 a month on Sky or at no extra cost to Sky Cinema customers. One of the shows launching on the service is The Offer, a drama which tells the extraordinary, never-before-seen experiences of making The Godfather.
The series stars Miles Teller as Albert S. Ruddy, Matthew Goode as Robert Evans, Juno Temple as Bettye McCartt, Giovanni Ribisi as Joe Colombo, Dan Fogler as Francis Ford Coppola, Burn Gorman as Charles Bluhdorn, Colin Hanks as Barry Lapidus and Patrick Gallo as Mario Puzo.
In the first episode, after ditching his job at the Rand Corporation for a shot in Hollywood, Al Ruddy wins the job to produce Mario Puzo’s bestselling novel, The Godfather for Paramount Pictures. And Joe Colombo, a rising crime boss in the New York City Mafia, has a darker fate in mind for the picture.
1-10/10 All episodes available at launch
4. The Umbrella Academy
Wednesday 22nd June on Netflix
After putting a stop to 1963’s doomsday, the Umbrella Academy return home to the present, convinced they prevented the initial apocalypse and fixed this godforsaken timeline once and for all. But after a brief moment of celebration, they realize things aren’t exactly (okay, not at all) how they left them.
Enter the Sparrow Academy. Smart, stylish, and about as warm as a sea of icebergs, the Sparrows immediately clash with the Umbrellas in a violent face-off that turns out to be the least of everyone’s concerns.
Navigating challenges, losses, and surprises of their own – and dealing with an unidentified destructive entity wreaking havoc in the Universe (something they may have caused) — now all they need to do is convince Dad’s new and possibly better family to help them put right what their arrival made wrong.
Will they find a way back to their pre-apocalyptic lives? Or is this new world about to reveal more than just a hiccup in the timeline?
1-10/10 All episodes available at launch
5. Lenny Henry's Caribbean Britain
Wednesday 22nd June at 9pm on BBC Two
Across two episodes, Sir Lenny Henry will present a joyous celebration of British-Caribbean life with a host of famous faces from art, music, entertainment TV and theatre.
This celebration and examination is timely for Lenny, as he was told by his mother when he was a child that he had to go out and integrate with the local people of Dudley. He was confused about what that meant for him and his Caribbean-heritage siblings as their household was "very Jamaican".
Would integrating and ‘fitting in’ mean that he would lose his Caribbean culture? This series follows an older and wiser Lenny thinking about what integration actually means: is it a one-way journey or does it work both ways? Is it a loss or a gain in cultural identity?
Guests include Jazzie B, Floella Benjamin, Sonia Boyce, David Harewood, Judi Love, Trevor Nelson, Billy Ocean, Andi Oliver, Levi Roots, Benjamin Zephaniah and many more share their stories and experiences of Caribbean culture in the UK.
In part one, Lenny looks at the explosion of culture brought from the Caribbean by the post-war arrivals, from the music of calypso and ska to theatre and art. He explores the stories of activism, entrepreneurship and resilience behind these artforms and how the early cultural pioneers laid the foundations for the next generation. Lenny also reflects on his own journey of trying to fulfil his parent’s ambitions to fit into British society.
1/2 Continues next week. Both episodes available at launch
6. Taskmaster: Champion of Champions
Thursday 23rd June at 9pm on Channel 4
With Taskmaster over for another series, Channel 4 are kindly giving us a one-off Champion of Champions special to fill the gap in our Thursday evening viewing as five task titans will compete in the ultimate quest for victory.
In this special episode, Taskmaster champions from Series 6 to 10 return to the scene of the greatest triumph of their lives, as they battle to become the second Champion of Champions.
Taskmaster Greg Davies' expectations will be sky high as he watches Ed Gamble destroying a bath toy, Kerry Godliman rolling a bobbin, Liza Tarbuck avoiding low-flying bananas, Lou Sanders painting on skates and Richard Herring revealing his bare feet.
Who will emerge as the ultimate victor and bask in the glory of the greatest triumph in television?
1/1
7. Loot
Friday 24th June on Apple TV+
Apple TV+ has had a great year when it comes to original shows adored by fans and critics alike, and their latest comedy, Loot, stars Maya Rudolph as billionaire Molly Novak who has a dream life, complete with private jets, a sprawling mansion and a gigayacht, anything her heart desires. But when her husband of 20 years betrays her, she spirals publicly, becoming fuel for tabloid fodder.
Reaching rock bottom, Molly learns, to her surprise, that she has a charity foundation run by the no-nonsense Sofia Salinas, who pleads with Molly to stop generating bad press.
With her devoted assistant Nicholas by her side, and with the help of Sofia and team including mild-mannered accountant Arthur and her optimistic, pop-culture-loving cousin Howard, Molly embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Giving back to others might be what she needs to get back to herself.
1-3/10 Continues weekly