This week’s best telly includes a new Julia Davis comedy, a Stand Up to Cancer charity night on Channel 4, a new John le Carré TV adaptation and a live episode of Inside No.9! Here are 7 shows you can’t miss this week...
1. Emma Willis: Delivering Babies
Monday 22nd October at 10pm on W
If Emma Willis wasn't a television presenter, she's certain that she would have followed in her parents footsteps and worked in a hospital. Now in her new six-part series Delivering Babies, Emma will be training for three months at Harlow Hospital as a Maternity Care Assistant.
The series will follow her as she works four shifts a week, day and night, alongside the midwifery team helping to deliver babies, discovering first-hand what makes it one of the toughest, but most rewarding careers you can have.
As a key member of the midwifery team, Emma will be there for every intimate moment and will gain first-hand experience of what midwives working in the NHS currently face.
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2. Sally4Ever
Thursday 25th October at 10pm on Sky Atlantic
After Camping and Hunderby, Julia Davis returns to Sky Atlantic this week with a brand new comedy called Sally4Ever.
The seven-part show follows Sally (Catherine Shepherd), a conscientious office worker who’s tiptoed through life avoiding risk and adventure. But that all changes when she meets Emma (Julia Davis), a seductive, charismatic, bohemian actress, singer, musician, poet and author.
Sally ditches her monotonous relationship with her boyfriend David (Alex Macqueen) and embarks on a wild affair with Emma. But barely before Sally’s had a chance to catch her breath and put her clothes back on, her new lover has taken over every aspect of her life. Is this really what Sally wants, or has she made a mistake?
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3. Stand Up to Cancer
Friday 26th October from 7pm on Channel 4
Every year since 2012, Channel 4 have supported Stand Up to Cancer with a range of programming designed to raise funds for vital cancer research. And every two years they go all out with a star-studded night of fundraising, which this year will be hosted by Maya Jama, Adam Hills and Alan Carr.
On the night you can expect a special sketch courtesy of The Muppets, a special Carpool Karaoke with James Corden and Michael Bublé, another episode of Celebrity Gogglebox, an Aretha Franklin tribute and the cast of Made In Chelsea are tasked by Davina McCall to create an A-list charity single.
There'll also be a number of sketches, appearances and performances from a host of names including John Legend, Liam Gallagher, Louis Tomlinson, Little Mix, Gareth Southgate, Stephen Merchant, Gary Lineker, Sharon Horgan, Matthew McConaughey, Jon Hamm, David Mitchell, Kate Beckinsale, Chris O'Dowd, Jamie Oliver, Tom Walker, Backstreet Boys and many more.
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4. Strictly Come Dancing
Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th October on BBC One
There are three weeks during each series of Strictly that are worth staying in for more than any other and that's Movie Week, Blackpool and Halloween Week which happens to be this weekend!
The remaining 11 couples will be getting into the Halloween spirit and as always Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman will host this year’s Halloween Special and Bruno Tonioli is once again reunited with Shirley Ballas, Dame Darcey Bussell and Craig Revel Horwood after his week off.
The judges will decide who cast the best spell of the evening and their scores will be added to the viewers' votes and on Sunday night Tess will reveal which two couples are in the dreaded dance off, whilst the judges decide who should leave the competition. And there'll be a special musical performance from Rita Ora.
5. The Little Drummer Girl
Sunday 28th October at 9pm on BBC One
After the success of The Night Manager, it's no wonder that the BBC have returned to John le Carré for their next Sunday night drama, The Little Drummer Girl.
The story begins in Germany 1979 and when a bomb goes off in the diplomatic quarter of Bonn, senior Israeli intelligence agent Martin Kurtz, played by Michael Shannon, flies in to investigate. In recent weeks, a series of similarly deadly attacks targeting prominent Jewish figures across Europe have been carried out and Kurtz now believes there is a Palestinian revolutionary at the heart of this pattern. Kurtz sets in motion a brilliant and elaborate plan to catch the kingpin, Khalil.
Meanwhile in London, passionate young actress Charlie is treading the boards of pub theatres and struggling to land a breakthrough part. She drifts from one bad relationship to another, unable to find her purpose in life. When an anonymous benefactor sends Charlie and her theatre troupe on a rehearsal jaunt to Greece, she feels renewed vigour. But a working holiday soon becomes a journey of discovery when she encounters a mysterious stranger on the beach.
While Kurtz makes inroads into the network responsible for the bombing in Germany, the tangled threads of the stories weave their way together until Charlie finds herself at the centre of Kurtz's international espionage operation.
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6. Butterfly
Sunday 28th October at 9pm on ITV
It feels like it's only just started, but this weeks sees ITV's latest Sunday night drama Butterfly come to an end.
In the final episode, Vicky is desperate to protect her daughter and takes drastic measures to help Maxine become who she really is, against Stephen’s wishes.
But Vicky’s visceral need to protect her child at any cost could end up tearing her family apart.
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7. Inside No.9
Sunday 28th October at 10pm on BBC Two
Ahead of a fifth series in 2019, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are offering up one more episode of Inside No.9 this year and they're doing it LIVE!
Dead Line marks the 25th story from the Inside No.9 team and tells the story of Arthur Flitwick (Steve Pemberton) who finds an old mobile phone in his local graveyard.
He makes the mistake of trying to contact the owner. But some mysteries are best left unsolved, and as Halloween draws near Arthur is plunged into a nightmare of his own making. It seems that no good deed can go unpunished, in this world or the next.
Guest stars Stephanie Cole.
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