August arrives with culture in abundance. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe opens its doors for another extraordinary month of creativity, the streaming services unveil everything from Jedi adventures to foul-mouthed animated felines, while television ranges from the 1936 Berlin Olympics to the splendour of ancient Rome. Add in Tony Bennett, Frida Kahlo, the Trojan War, the Baltic resistance to Soviet occupation and a clutch of classic films, and there’s scarcely a spare evening left.
Three highlights particularly stand out this week. Tony Bennett Night on BBC Four celebrates one of the greatest singers of the twentieth century. Netflix’s irreverent animated comedy Alley Cats looks set to become an unexpected cult favourite. And, of course, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe gets under way, with Counter Culture once again covering the world’s biggest arts festival.
Saturday 1 August
10.05am – BBC Two – On the Waterfront (1954)
Marlon Brando doesn’t just act in On the Waterfront—he inhabits it. Every gesture, every pause, feels like it’s drawn from the marrow of a man torn between conscience and survival. Elia Kazan’s camera catches that tension like lightning in a bottle, framing the New York docks as both battleground and confessional. The film breathes with the grit of postwar America, where loyalty can be a curse and silence a crime.
Seventy years later, it still hits like a gut punch. Brando’s “I coulda been a contender” isn’t just a line—it’s a lament for every soul who’s ever traded integrity for comfort. The rhythm of the dialogue, the sweat on the faces, the moral weight pressing down—it all feels alive, urgent, human. On the Waterfront endures because it’s not just about corruption; it’s about the fragile courage it takes to stand up when the world tells you to stay down.
That’s cinema at its most raw and righteous—where truth isn’t polished, it’s fought for.
1.50pm – BBC Two – Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Meet Me in St. Louis floats along with that unmistakable MGM glow, but Judy Garland gives it its heartbeat. She doesn’t just shine—she warms the whole frame, as if Minnelli built the film around the way she could turn a simple melody into something that feels like memory itself. There’s a looseness to the storytelling, a gentle drift through seasons and family rituals, yet every scene lands with emotional precision.
Sky Arts showing it on a quiet afternoon feels right. The film moves at the pace of a lived‑in home: laughter in one room, longing in another, and outside, an America shifting under everyone’s feet. Garland anchors it with wit, vulnerability, and that voice—clear as a bell, aching without ever collapsing into sentimentality.
It’s one of MGM’s crown jewels because it understands that nostalgia isn’t soft; it’s sharp, bittersweet, and sometimes brave. A film about family that never pretends families are simple, and a musical that knows songs can carry truths spoken nowhere else.
3.00pm – Sky Arts – The African Queen (1951)
Bogart and Hepburn spark off each other with the kind of chemistry you can’t fake, the sort that feels lived‑in from the first prickly exchange. The African Queen moves with that gentle, old‑Hollywood confidence—John Huston letting the river, the heat, and the sheer absurdity of wartime adventure shape the rhythm of the story. Bogart, all rough edges and weary charm, earns that Oscar not through grandstanding but through the small, human beats: the wry grin, the stubborn grit, the flicker of vulnerability when he realises he’s no longer drifting alone.
Hepburn, sharp as a tack and radiating moral steel, matches him stride for stride. Together they turn a ramshackle boat journey into something tender, funny, and quietly heroic. The film still feels fresh because it understands that courage isn’t always loud—sometimes it’s two mismatched souls deciding to push forward, inch by inch, against a world gone mad.
6.10pm – Film4 – The Martian (2015)
Ridley Scott’s The Martian is that rare blockbuster that makes science feel like poetry. Matt Damon’s stranded astronaut doesn’t just survive—he improvises, jokes, calculates, and refuses to surrender to the void. There’s a rhythm to his resilience, a kind of jazz born of isolation and intellect. Scott directs with a steady hand, balancing the grandeur of space with the intimacy of human ingenuity.
Every frame hums with purpose: the red dust of Mars against the sterile hum of NASA’s control rooms, the heartbeat of hope pulsing through data and duct tape. Damon’s charm keeps the film buoyant, never letting the technical precision drown out the humanity.
It’s not just a survival story—it’s a hymn to problem-solving, to the stubborn spark that refuses to go out. The Martian reminds us that even millions of miles from home, courage and curiosity can still feel like gravity.
8.00pm – Channel 4 – Hitler’s Games: Berlin 1936 in Colour
Using restored colour footage, this documentary revisits the Berlin Olympics but, unfortunately maintains the myths that have grown around them. Those aware of Jesse Owens’ own recollections, particularly regarding race in America and his interactions with Hitler, provide a useful reminder that history is often more nuanced than popular memory and documentary makers allows. Most people are, perhaps, unaware that Germany topped the medal table at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, finishing first overall with 101 medals, including 38 golds — the highest total of any nation at those Games.
9.00pm – Sky History – Troy Story (Episodes 1 & 2)
Archaeologists, historians and classicists investigate one of antiquity’s greatest mysteries: was there really a Trojan War, and if so, where was Troy?
9.15pm – ITV4 – The Long Good Friday (1980)
The Long Good Friday hits like a clenched fist on a pub table—sudden, uncompromising, impossible to ignore. Bob Hoskins doesn’t just play Harold Shand; he detonates him. There’s a volatility in his performance, a swagger that keeps slipping to reveal fear, ambition, and that brittle pride of a man who thinks he’s about to step onto the world stage only to find the floor shifting beneath him.
Watching it now, the film still feels electric. John Mackenzie shoots London as a city on the cusp—old loyalties fraying, new money circling like sharks, the future arriving whether anyone’s ready or not. Hoskins carries all of that in his shoulders, in the way he stalks through rooms, in those sudden bursts of charm that feel like weapons as much as warmth.
Helen Mirren matches him with cool precision, giving the film its moral intelligence. Together they redefine what British crime cinema could be: sharp, political, stylish without ever losing its grit. By the time Hoskins reaches that legendary final scene, every twitch of his face tells a story of a man realising the world has outgrown him. It’s magnificent.
11.45pm – Film4 – Babylon (2022)
Babylon doesn’t tiptoe into Hollywood’s silent era—it charges in, brass blaring, champagne spilling, the whole thing vibrating with Damien Chazelle’s feverish love for the chaos that built the movies. It’s a film that refuses moderation. Every scene feels like it’s been dialled up past the point of good sense, and that’s exactly why it lingers. Chazelle isn’t interested in reverence; he’s interested in the delirium, the sweat, the ambition that made early Hollywood both monstrous and magnetic.
Watching it late at night, it hits differently. The excess becomes hypnotic. Margot Robbie’s wild‑eyed ascent, Diego Calva’s quiet heartbreak, Brad Pitt’s fading‑star melancholy—they all move with different rhythms, clashing and harmonising like a jazz band on the brink of collapse. The film swings between grotesque comedy and aching beauty, sometimes in the same breath.
It’s ambitious to the point of madness, but that’s the point. Babylon is a love letter written in spilled ink and cigarette smoke, a reminder that the birth of cinema was never clean or polite. It was loud, unruly, and utterly unforgettable.
Sunday 2 August
8.00pm – ITV1 – Van der Valk
Van der Valk moves with that cool, unhurried confidence ITV leans on for its primetime crime drama, but Marc Warren gives it the spark. His Amsterdam detective isn’t cut from the usual cloth—there’s a slyness to him, a slightly off‑centre rhythm that keeps you leaning in. He’s sharp, but never showy; weary, but never defeated. Warren plays him like a man who’s seen too much of the city’s underbelly yet still finds something worth fighting for in its canals and backstreets.
A feature‑length case suits the show. It lets the investigation breathe, lets the city become a character in its own right—sleek modern angles rubbing up against old‑world melancholy. The tone is stylish without tipping into gloss, grounded without losing its edge. You feel the pulse of Amsterdam in the way the story unfolds: measured, moody, quietly tense.
It’s the kind of crime drama that doesn’t shout. It trusts atmosphere, character, and Warren’s ability to carry a mystery with a raised eyebrow and a half‑smile.
8.00pm – Channel 4 – Richard E. Grant’s Very Modern Odyssey
Channel 4, he takes Homer’s epic—this ancient, sea‑sprayed cornerstone of storytelling—and treats it not as something to be revered from a distance, but as a living, breathing map of how we still think about journeys, heroism and home.
Grant’s curiosity gives the whole thing its pulse. He wanders through the myth with wide‑eyed enthusiasm, connecting ancient wanderers to modern ones, finding echoes of Odysseus in places you wouldn’t expect. There’s a warmth to his delivery, a sense that he’s inviting you along rather than lecturing from a podium. The show becomes part travelogue, part cultural excavation, part love letter to the stories that refuse to die.
9.00pm – BBC Four – Great Violinists at the Proms
A showcase of remarkable performances from some of the greatest violinists ever to appear at the Proms.
9.00pm – Sky Documentaries – Groomed: The Truth Behind the Lie
A thought-provoking documentary examining one of the most contentious public debates of recent years.
10.05pm – Channel 4 – Erin Brockovich (2000)
Julia Roberts is irresistible here—not just charismatic, but sharp, funny, and utterly relentless. She plays Erin like someone who’s been underestimated her whole life and has finally decided she’s done with that. Every scene carries that crackle of determination, the sense of a woman pushing back against a system that expects her to stay quiet.
Steven Soderbergh keeps the film grounded, letting the real‑life stakes speak for themselves. The small California towns, the legal offices, the kitchen‑table conversations—they all build a world where corporate power feels enormous and personal suffering feels intimate. Roberts threads those two scales together with real grace. She’s the engine of the film, but never the whole story; she listens, absorbs, fights, and refuses to let anyone’s pain be reduced to paperwork.
A reminder that sometimes the most powerful thing in the room is simply someone who won’t back down.
11.40pm – Film4 – Withnail and I (1987)
Withnail and I drifts into the night like a half‑remembered story told over the last drink in a too‑quiet pub. Bruce Robinson’s cult comedy still feels gloriously out of step with the world—shambolic, razor‑sharp, and stitched together with the kind of quotable lines that lodge themselves in your brain for years.
Richard E. Grant’s Withnail is all flailing elegance and doomed bravado, a man performing his own collapse with theatrical flair. Paul McGann’s “I” steadies the film with a gentler melancholy, the straight man who slowly realises that friendship can be both a refuge and a trap. Together they wander through a Britain that seems permanently waterlogged, chasing dignity, booze, and some vague notion of escape.
What catches you off guard, even now, is the poignancy beneath the chaos. The humour is wild, eccentric, often absurd—but the sadness is real, creeping in around the edges until that final speech lands with unexpected weight. It’s a comedy that knows how fragile people can be, and how ridiculous they often are in trying to hide it.
Monday 3 August
8.55pm – PBS America – The Anti-Soviet Fighters
The remarkable story of the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian resistance movements that continued fighting Soviet occupation long after the Second World War ended.
10.20pm – BBC Four – Becoming Frida Kahlo
Becoming Frida Kahlo on BBC Four is a richly crafted portrait of an artist whose life refuses to be reduced to myth. The series traces Kahlo’s experiences—her physical pain, her political convictions, her turbulent relationships—and shows how each thread wove itself into the fierce, intimate visual language that made her one of the most recognisable artists of the 20th century. It’s reflective, beautifully paced, and attentive to the emotional and political landscapes she moved through.
And right now, London is giving Kahlo the kind of major platform she hasn’t had in decades. Tate Modern is hosting Frida: The Making of an Icon, a landmark exhibition running 25 June 2026 – 3 January 2027. It’s a substantial show: more than 30 works by Kahlo, alongside photographs, garments, jewellery, personal artefacts, and over 200 pieces by contemporaries and later artists influenced by her.
It’s the first UK exhibition in over twenty years to present Kahlo at this scale, exploring not just her paintings but the construction of her identity, her political commitments, and the global phenomenon of “Fridamania.” If you’re watching the BBC Four documentary and want to see that story unfold in person, Tate Modern is where London is currently telling it.
10.45pm – BBC One – The Mist (2007)
The Mist settles over you slowly, the way real fear does. Frank Darabont takes Stephen King’s tight, unnerving novella and stretches it just enough to let the dread breathe. What begins as a simple supermarket lockdown becomes a pressure cooker—fog outside, panic inside, and that awful realisation that the monsters in the mist aren’t always the ones you should be most afraid of.
Darabont understands group psychology better than most filmmakers. You watch the crowd fracture, cling to false prophets, lash out, and crumble. The film’s rhythm shifts from quiet unease to full‑blown hysteria, and every beat feels horribly plausible. Thomas Jane gives the story its emotional spine, but it’s the ensemble—the terrified, the righteous, the broken—that makes the whole thing feel like a study in how quickly civilisation can thin.
And then there’s that ending. Still one of the most devastating choices in modern horror, not because it’s shocking, but because it’s inevitable in a way you don’t see coming. Late‑night BBC One is the perfect slot for it: a film that leaves you staring at the screen long after the credits roll, wondering what fear does to people when the world stops making sense.
11.05pm – BBC Two – Sing Sing (2023)
Sing Sing is one of those films that doesn’t just move you—it quietly shifts something inside you. At 11.05pm on BBC Two, it arrives with the emotional clarity that late‑night cinema is made for. Colman Domingo leads an extraordinary ensemble, but what makes the film remarkable is how little it relies on conventional sentiment. Instead, it trusts the raw, unvarnished power of creativity—men in a maximum‑security prison discovering that performance can be liberation, connection, even redemption.
Domingo gives a performance that feels lived‑in, patient, and deeply humane. Around him, the cast—many of them formerly incarcerated—bring a truthfulness you simply can’t manufacture. The film’s rhythm is gentle but insistent, building toward moments that feel almost miraculous in their simplicity. It’s one of the most moving pieces of recent American cinema because it never begs for sympathy; it shows transformation happening in real time, through art, trust, and the fragile courage to try.
It’s a film about the possibility of change, and the way creativity can carve out space for dignity even in the harshest of environments.
Tuesday 4 August
9.00pm – Channel 5 – The Victorians with Rob Rinder and Ruth Goodman (Catch up via 5 Streaming)
The Victorians with Rob Rinder and Ruth Goodman has that lively, hands‑on energy Channel 5 does well when it leans into practical history. Rinder brings sharp curiosity and a knack for asking the questions viewers are already thinking, while Ruth Goodman—always a joy in any historical setting—grounds everything in lived experience. She doesn’t just explain Victorian life; she shows it, tries it, tests it, and makes the era feel tactile rather than distant.
Together they explore a Britain in the midst of transformation: industry reshaping cities, new social rules emerging, domestic life shifting under the weight of progress. The tone is warm, engaging, and full of those small, fascinating details that make the period come alive. Catching up via 5 Streaming suits it perfectly—it’s the kind of programme you dip into and come away knowing something genuinely interesting about how people worked, ate, travelled, and thought during one of the most restless centuries in British history.
9.00pm – U&Gold – Joe and David’s Magical Sitcom Tour (Catch up via NOW)
A nostalgic and affectionate celebration of Britain’s sitcom heritage.
9.00pm – Sky Documentaries – The Salisbury Poisonings: The Spy Next Door (Catch up via NOW)
A compelling account of one of the most audacious espionage operations ever carried out on British soil.
LONDON, UK. March 12, 2019: Olivia Atwood arriving for the TRIC Awards 2019 at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London. Picture: Steve Vas/Featureflash
9.00pm – ITV2 – Olivia Attwood: The Price of Perfection
11.05pm – BBC Two – The Last Bus (2021)
Wednesday 5 August
12.55pm – Film4 – Monkey Business (1952)
4.35pm – Film4 – Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is one of John Huston’s quiet triumphs—a wartime drama that refuses bombast and instead finds its power in restraint, character, and the fragile bond between two people caught in an impossible situation. Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum are superb together, their performances shaped by understatement rather than melodrama. Kerr’s Sister Angela is composed, principled, and gently humorous; Mitchum’s Allison is rough‑edged, loyal, and unexpectedly tender.
Stranded on a Pacific island as war closes in around them, the pair navigate danger with a relationship built not on romance but on mutual respect. Huston lets their connection grow in small gestures, shared silences, and the quiet recognition of each other’s strength. The film’s emotional pull comes from what isn’t said—the dignity of two people holding fast to who they are, even as the world around them collapses.
6.40pm – Film4 – Steel Magnolias (1989)
Steal Magnolias is one of those films that earns its reputation the honest way: through character, warmth and the kind of emotional truth that sneaks up on you. Set largely in Truvy’s Louisiana beauty salon, Dolly Parton presides with that effortless blend of wit and kindness, creating a space where friendship feels like a form of shelter. It’s the hub of the story, a place where lives intersect, jokes fly, and the women who gather there reveal themselves in ways they never could anywhere else.
The ensemble is enviable. Sally Field’s fierce tenderness, Julia Roberts’ luminous charm, Shirley MacLaine’s gloriously sharp humour, Olympia Dukakis’ steel‑backed grace and Daryl Hannah’s gentle vulnerability all mesh into a portrait of Southern womanhood that feels lived‑in rather than stylised. The humour is rich, rooted in character rather than caricature, and the film’s emotional turns land because they’re built on genuine connection.
It balances laughter with heartbreak in a way few films manage. The joy is real, the sorrow earned, and by the time the credits roll you feel as though you’ve spent time with people who matter.
8.00pm – Sky Arts – Voices of the Valleys (Catch up via NOW)
This celebration of the musical traditions of the South Wales Valleys explores the communities, choirs and performers who have helped shape one of Britain’s richest cultural landscapes. Blending performance with personal stories, it is a reminder that music has long been at the heart of Welsh identity and community life.
8.00pm – BBC Four – The Treasures of Ancient Rome: Pomp and Perversion
Mary Beard explores how Roman attitudes towards sex, power and violence found expression in the empire’s extraordinary art. Characteristically, she brings both scholarship and accessibility to a subject often reduced to cliché.
8.55pm – BBC Four – Mary Beard Remembers: Ultimate Rome – Empire Without Limits
A short retrospective in which Mary Beard reflects on her acclaimed 2016 series, discussing what has changed in our understanding of ancient Rome and why it continues to fascinate.
9.00pm – Film4 – Speed (1994)
9.10pm – BBC Four – Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limits
Beard examines the myths, revolutions and contradictions that shaped the Roman Empire at the height of its power. Rather than presenting Rome as a monolithic civilisation, she reveals a dynamic and often deeply contested world whose influence still reaches into modern politics, law and culture.
10.00pm – BBC Two – The Funeral Home Horror: The Big Cases (Catch up via BBC iPlayer)
One of the year’s most shocking criminal cases comes under the microscope in this concise and sensitively handled documentary. It examines how Hull funeral director Robert Bush was able to deceive grieving families over many years, pleading guilty to 67 offences that included hoarding bodies, selling fraudulent funeral plans and providing relatives with the ashes of strangers instead of their loved ones. The programme gives deserved prominence to the families whose determination has transformed personal tragedy into a campaign for tighter regulation of the funeral industry. Bush’s recent 20-year prison sentence brings a measure of justice, but the wider questions about oversight and public trust remain every bit as important.
10.10pm – BBC Four – I, Claudius (Two Episodes)
The evening concludes with two episodes of one of the BBC’s greatest dramas. Adapted from Robert Graves’ novels, I, Claudius transformed Roman history into gripping television, boasting unforgettable performances from Derek Jacobi, Siân Phillips, John Hurt and Brian Blessed. Nearly half a century later it has scarcely dated.
Thursday 6 August
Talking Pictures TV – The History of Mr. Polly (1948)
The History of Mr. Polly is one of those British classics that feels like it’s been quietly waiting for people to rediscover it. Anthony Pelissier’s 1948 adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel gives John Mills one of his most engaging roles: Alfred Polly, a draper stuck in a life of small disappointments and quiet frustration, who finally decides—after a string of comic mishaps—that he’s had enough. His solution isn’t heroic in the traditional sense; it’s simply the stubborn, hopeful act of reinventing himself.
Mills plays Polly with a wonderfully light touch, blending humour, melancholy and a kind of gentle bewilderment at the world. Pelissier keeps the tone nimble, shifting between satire, poignancy and outright farce without losing the thread of Wells’ affection for ordinary people yearning for something better. The film’s charm lies in its humanity: it understands how small lives can contain big dreams, and how reinvention often begins with a single, slightly ridiculous leap.
It deserves to be better known—a warm, witty slice of post‑war British cinema that still feels fresh in its empathy and its comic spirit.
9.30am – BBC Radio 4 – The Guitar Story
Bob Dylan’s decision to plug in an electric guitar at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall in 1966 remains one of rock history’s defining moments, but this series asks a much broader question: why has the guitar become such a potent cultural symbol? Presenter John Wilson explores the instrument’s musical, political and social significance, drawing on contributions from some of the world’s leading guitarists. Insightful, entertaining and rich with musical examples, it promises to strike the right chord with musicians and music lovers alike.
6.45pm – Film4 – The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is a gently dazzling piece of cinema, and at 6.45pm on Film4 it’s exactly the sort of story that rewards settling in and letting its eccentricities wash over you. Benedict Cumberbatch brings warmth, vulnerability and a wonderfully off‑kilter charm to Louis Wain, the Victorian illustrator whose cat paintings—wide‑eyed, colourful, increasingly fantastical—became a cultural sensation. He plays Wain not as a caricature of genius, but as a man whose creativity is inseparable from his emotional fragility, his curiosity and his deep, aching need to make sense of the world.
Claire Foy provides superb support as Emily, his wife and anchor, giving the film its emotional centre. Their relationship is tender without sentimentality, and the film’s most affecting moments come from the quiet devotion between them. Beneath the whimsical visuals and playful tone lies a thoughtful portrait of love, mental health and the ways imagination can both illuminate and overwhelm a life.
It’s visually rich, emotionally generous and quietly haunting—a biographical drama that understands that the line between delight and sorrow is often thinner than we think.
9.00pm – BBC One – Who Do You Think You Are? (Catch up via BBC iPlayer)
Olympic heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson explores her family history, travelling from Liverpool to the Bahamas and Miami, where her father Ricardo was born. As ever, the series combines meticulous genealogical research with powerful personal stories, revealing how individual family histories are often shaped by much broader currents of migration, hardship and resilience.
9.00pm & 10.00pm – Sky Atlantic – Possession (Catch up via NOW)
Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars as Claudia, a woman of dual heritage whose own identity becomes inseparable from the mystery she has been asked to investigate. Her search takes her from Britain to Hope Hill, a Jamaican plantation inherited following the death of a British aristocrat, where buried family secrets and the enduring legacy of empire begin to emerge. Rich in atmosphere and historical resonance, it promises to combine a compelling mystery with thoughtful exploration of memory, inheritance and identity.
11.05pm – BBC Two – Women Talking (2022)
11.40pm – Film4 – Dance with a Stranger (1985)
Friday 7 August
6.40pm – Film4 – Ad Astra (2019)
9.45pm – BBC Four – Tony Bennett Night
Few compliments in popular music carry more weight than Frank Sinatra’s description of Tony Bennett as “the best singer in the business”, and Bennett spent a lifetime justifying it. The evening begins with Tony Bennett at the London Palladium, a 2011 BBC concert featuring effortless performances of classics including The Good Life, alongside memorable duets with Cleo Laine and Leona Lewis.
The celebration continues with all six episodes of Tony Bennett Sings, his 1979 BBC series devoted to the Great American Songbook, before concluding with Tony Bennett’s New York (1996), an affectionate profile reflecting on his remarkable career and lifelong relationship with the city that shaped him. A fitting tribute to one of the twentieth century’s greatest interpreters of popular song.
11.05pm – BBC Two – Hoard (2023)
11.50pm – Film4 – Last Night in Soho (2021)
2.10am – Film4 – Sick of Myself (2022)
Streaming
Prime Video (available now)
Marty Supreme
One of the week’s biggest streaming arrivals, Marty Supreme comes with plenty of anticipation and a cast to match. Whether you’re drawn by the performances or simply curious to see what the buzz is about, it’s likely to dominate conversations over the coming weeks.
Prime Video (available now)
Masters of the Universe
Eternia returns in a new adaptation of one of popular culture’s most enduring fantasy franchises. Sword-and-sorcery spectacle, colourful heroes and larger-than-life villains remain the order of the day, promising nostalgic pleasure for those who grew up with He-Man while introducing the mythology to a new generation.
HBO Max (available now)
President Curtis
The Rick and Morty universe continues to expand with this spin-off centred on the perpetually exasperated President Andre Curtis, once again voiced by Keith David. Faced with mysterious crashes and increasingly bizarre threats, Curtis has to keep the country together while the absurdity around him spirals ever further out of control.
Monday 3 August – Acorn TV
The Chelsea Detective – Series 4 (weekly episodes)
Adrian Scarborough returns as DI Max Arnold, with Vanessa Emme as DS Layla Walsh, for another run of elegant murder mysteries hidden behind Chelsea’s immaculate façades. The opening investigation centres on the death of an undercover journalist looking into a celebrity fashion guru.
Wednesday 5 August – Disney+
Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi (all eight episodes)
One of the most acclaimed entries in Star Wars: Visions expands into a full series as Kara continues her Jedi training under Margrave Juro. A new generation of Jedi sets out to rescue her father while confronting a mysterious Sith leader. It promises the visual flair and imaginative storytelling that made the original such a standout.
Wednesday 5 August – Prime Video
Sterling Point (all six episodes)
A coming-of-age drama following young adults navigating friendship, ambition and uncertain futures. If it fulfils its promise, this should be a warm, emotionally honest addition to the genre.
Friday 7 August – Netflix
Alley Cats (all six episodes)
Cat lovers have an extra reason to tune in this week. Ricky Gervais is among the creative forces behind this gleefully foul-mouthed adult animation, following cynical Gus, uncouth Fang, disgusting Puke and gloriously dim Olive as they roam the streets causing mayhem while mocking their pampered feline friend Ponts. Everything changes with the arrival of a lost kitten, giving the gang an unexpected shared purpose.
The premise is classic sitcom, but the semi-improvised dialogue feels closer to a wonderfully chaotic comedy podcast, veering into discussions about death, religion and whether honeybees are underachieving. Packed with colourful language and episodes running comfortably under half an hour, this unapologetically adult cartoon could become one of the year’s surprise comedy hits.
Leaving Soon
BBC iPlayer (until Thursday)
Great Expectations (1946)
David Lean’s magnificent adaptation of Dickens remains the definitive screen version. Beautifully photographed, superbly acted and rich in atmosphere, it is well worth revisiting while it’s still available.
Radio
Sunday 2 August
1.30pm – BBC Radio 4 – Britain’s Robot Army
Former Army officer Will Robson examines how drones, autonomous systems, laser weapons and artificial intelligence are transforming the economics of modern warfare. As armed forces around the world rethink the balance between manpower and machines, he asks what tomorrow’s battlefield might look like and what these technological changes could mean for Britain’s defence strategy. Timely, thought-provoking and likely to raise as many questions as it answers.
9.00pm – Boom Radio – Sir Tim Rice’s Legacy Tracks
Who comes to mind when you hear Good Vibrations or Baker Street? The Beach Boys and Gerry Rafferty, naturally—but what about Paul Tanner, whose prototype electro-theremin gave Good Vibrations its otherworldly sound, or Raphael Ravenscroft, whose unforgettable saxophone solo transformed Baker Street into an all-time classic? Sir Tim Rice shines a welcome spotlight on the gifted musicians, arrangers and innovators who so often remain in the shadows. Beautifully assembled, the programme is packed with fascinating stories behind classics including Yesterday, Telstar and even the Doctor Who theme. For anyone who loves the craft behind great records, this is an absolute treat.
Wednesday 5 August
3.30pm – BBC Radio 4 – The Ocean Within Us
A fascinating exploration of one of the most intriguing medical discoveries of recent years. Prompted by the publication of a landmark 2018 scientific paper, this programme examines the interstitium—a fluid-filled network of microscopic spaces surrounding our organs, joints and connective tissues that appears to function as a previously unrecognised organ. Researchers are increasingly linking it to wound healing, regulation of the body’s internal clock and the way cancer spreads between tissues. Complex science is made accessible in what promises to be an absorbing listen for anyone interested in medicine and the frontiers of human biology.
Thursday 6 August
9.30am – BBC Radio 4 – The Guitar Story
Bob Dylan’s decision to plug in an electric guitar at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall in 1966 remains one of popular music’s defining moments, but this series asks a much broader question: why has the guitar become such a potent cultural symbol? Presenter John Wilson explores the instrument’s musical, political and social significance, drawing on contributions from some of the world’s leading guitarists. Insightful, entertaining and rich with musical examples, it promises to strike the right chord with musicians and music lovers alike.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe (7–31 August)
The term “Fringe” was coined in 1947 when eight theatre companies turned up uninvited to the newly created Edinburgh International Festival and staged their own performances on the margins of the official programme. From those gloriously independent beginnings, the Fringe has grown from the city’s alternative sideshow into its cultural crown jewel, while also serving as Britain’s closest equivalent to an off-Broadway proving ground, where new shows are tested, careers are launched and tomorrow’s hits are born.
Here at Counter Culture, we’ve been building up to the festival for weeks with a series of interviews featuring performers from across this year’s programme. Once the Fringe gets under way, we’ll have three reporters on the ground in Edinburgh, bringing you interviews, reviews, features and daily updates throughout the month.
More than 3,600 productions are expected this year, encompassing everything from major comedy names and ambitious new drama to live podcast recordings, music, cabaret, dance and more reimagined Shakespeare than you could shake a bodkin at. Choosing a single highlight from this megalodon of a festival would be impossible, so instead here is a small selection of interviews with performers with productions that have particularly caught my eye.
00:45:00 – Five Walk In. One Walk Out. The Audience Decides.
Kate Butch: Camp, Chaos and Kindness at the Fringe
John‑Luke Roberts: Running, Talking, and Twisting Comedy Into New Shapes
Elton Reimagined: Jess Robinson’s Joyful, Bonkers, Brilliant Tribute
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