Get ready to fall in love with the piglets!
This week's best telly includes a powerful new documentary from Sophie Morgan, a new adaptation of Time Bandits starring Lisa Kudrow and a hilarious new ITV comedy starring Mark Heap and Sarah Parish.
Plus Kerry Godliman is back in a second series of Whitstable Pearl and Tala Gouveia and Jason Watkins are back in a fourth series of McDonald & Dodds.
Here are 5 TV shows you can't miss this week...
1. Piglets
Saturday 20th July at 9.30pm on ITV1
BRAND NEW COMEDY
Last week we saw Alan Carr's Changing Ends make its triumphant return to ITV1 and this weekend, following episode 3, we've got the start of a brand new comedy called Piglets, which is set in a fictional police training college.
Piglets, from the award-winning team behind Smack The Pony and Green Wing, follows a newly-recruited group of six very different would-be cops and the handful of key staff whose thankless task it is to knock them into some kind of shape.
Heading up the cast are Sarah Parish and Mark Heap as no-nonsense Superintendent Julie Spry and some-nonsense Superintendent Bob Weekes, whose job it is to oversee the training of the next batch of new recruits.
Those new recruits are Steph, played by Callie Cooke, Leggo, played by Sam Pote,
Geeta, played by Sukh Kaur Ojla, Afia, played by Halema Hussain, Dev, played by Abdul Sessay and Paul, played by Jamie Bisping.
Working alongside Superintendents Julie Spry and Bob Weekes are Head of
Admin Melanie and police trainers Mike and Daz, played by Rebecca Humphries, Ukweli
Roach and Ricky Champ.
1/6 Continues weekly. All episodes available on ITVX at launch
2. McDonald & Dodds
Sunday 21st July at 8pm on ITV1
RETURNING DRAMA
After two years away from our screens, Tala Gouveia and Jason Watkins are back as DCI Lauren McDonald and DS Dodds in the fourth series of ITV1's McDonald & Dodds.
Having spent their weekend tying up a case after a local scandal-breaking journalist dies of anaphylaxis at a party in her own home, they swiftly deduce that there’s foul play afoot, expose the murderer and call it a day, satisfied with another job well done. But their work isn’t over yet…
Separately, a middle-aged woman is found shot dead in a rented flat in Bath. The killer has removed all clues to her identity, but DNA reveals she’s a missing person; ANNE HOLGATE, who vanished on her way home from school, 38 years ago. McDonald and Dodds are intrigued. Where has she been all those years? And who with? And who, after all this time, would want her dead?
1/3 Continues weekly
3. Sophie Morgan's Fight to Fly
Monday 22nd July at 9pm on Channel 4
BRAND NEW DOCUMENTARY
In what promises to be a powerful documentary, Sophie Morgan sends a group of disabled travellers undercover to expose the shocking service they can experience when flying.
From wheelchairs being broken to a passenger having to drag himself on the floor to use the toilet, this important programme reveals the battle disabled flyers face. D
etermined to inspire change, Sophie visits both the White House and Downing Streetand also discovers an invention that could allow passengers to stay in their wheelchairs while flying. Sophie also becomes the first British female paraplegic to take a zero-gravity flight, to show that if you can make aerospace accessible, aviation should be too.
1/1
4. Time Bandits
Wednesday 24th July on Apple TV+
BRAND NEW DRAMA
Lisa Kudrow stars in Jemaine Clement, Iain Morris and Taika Waititi's live-action comedic adventure adaptation of Time Bandits for Apple TV+.
The ten-part series is an unpredictable journey through time and space with a ragtag group of thieves and their newest recruit: an 11-year-old history buff named Kevin. Together they set out on a thrilling quest to save the boy's parents and the world.
Guided by Lisa Kudrow, the eccentric crew of bandits embark on epic adventures while evil forces threaten their conquests and life as they know it. As the group is transported through time and space, the gang stumbles upon fascinating worlds of the distant past while seeking out treasure, depending on Kevin to shed light on each situation.
The "Time Bandits" witness the creation of Stonehenge, see the Trojan Horse in action, escape dinosaurs in the prehistoric age, wreak havoc during medieval times, experience the Ice Age, ancient civilizations and the Harlem Renaissance, and much more along the way.
1-2/10 Continues weekly with two episodes
5. Whitstable Pearl
Thursday 25th July at 9pm on U&Drama
RETURNING DRAMA
Kerry Godliman is back as Whitstable born-and-bred Pearl in the second series of Whitstable Pearl, which picks up six months on from Flash’s body being discovered and the breakdown of Pearl and Mike’s fleeting romance.
After deciding to be friends, Mike and Pearl have moved on. Fast. Mike, played by Howard Charles, is no longer alone, his new girlfriend is sunny, outgoing Kat, played by Emily Head. He’s still a DFL but he’s starting to put down roots and being part of the community.
Pearl is seeing someone too, kind, cosy supply teacher Tom, played by Robert Webb, the definition of a nice guy. Pearl's cases overlap with ex-boyfriend Mike's police investigations and their relationship is charged by a determination to outdo each other, and a fiery mutual attraction.
1/6 Continues weekly. All episodes available now on U
Comments