Dog Days – Friday, BBC iPlayer
Set in Dundee, this outstanding social-realist drama follows a guitar-toting homeless man as he struggles to rebuild his life. Hats off to writer/director James Price and his brilliant cast for presenting a sometimes darkly funny, fundamentally moving yet entirely unsentimental depiction of people who have fallen through the cracks in society. Dog Days is raw and honest, it exposes the ways in which vulnerable people are exploited by opportunistic street-level criminals and left to rot by our ruling classes. The whole series, which unfolds over six ten-minute episodes, will be exclusively available on iPlayer from Friday April 7. Highly recommended, it’s the best thing you’re about to see on TV so far this year.
Long Lost Family: What Happened Next – Tuesday, STV, 9pm
In the latest spin-off from this reliably touching series, hosts Nicky Campbell and Davina McCall revisit some of the families they’ve reunited over the last 12 years. How easy is it to build a relationship with someone after a lifetime spent apart? And what happens when one of the show’s searches doesn’t go quite as planned? In episode one we catch up with two memorable cases. Joselyn had been desperately searching for her brother, James, for over 20 years. Roy, who discovered at eighteen that he’d been adopted, asked the show to help him find his birth mother. Needless to say, their lives have never been quite the same since. Long Lost Family never fails to tug the heartstrings.
Rain Dogs – Tuesday, BBC One, 10:40pm
Daisy May Cooper stars as the brilliantly named Costello Jones in this commendably anger-fuelled black comedy drama about a homeless single mum and her young daughter. It begins with them being evicted from their London flat. The only person they can count on is a dissolute Withnail-esque fop with a violent streak. He’s Costello’s best friend. A deftly written and performed riposte to disingenuously concerned ‘poverty porn’, Rain Dogs is – as per its Tom Waits-inspired title – a sympathetic portrayal of people living on the margins. By sheer coincidence, it just so happens to be a more overtly comic yet no less serious companion piece to this week’s similarly titled highlight, Dog Days.
Get On Up: The Triumph of Black America – Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm
In the final chapter of David Harewood’s absorbing essay about the global impact of African American pop culture, he covers the rise of Hip Hop – the most significant and influential musical movement of the last 40 years. Adjacent detours include Spike Lee’s seminal Do The Right Thing and hit 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, both of which did so much to challenge negative stereotypes about Black people. Harewood also reflects upon the vital legacy of The Wire, an unvarnished expose of systemic racism and economic inequality featuring a primarily Black cast. He concludes by celebrating artists such as Ryan Coogler and Donald Glover, who continue the conversation while drawing inspiration from their African heritage.
Hollywood Bulldogs: The Rise and Falls of the Great British Stuntman – Thursday, ITVX
This fascinating feature-length documentary pays heartfelt tribute to some of Britain’s greatest stunt performers, those unsung heroes of cinema who made action heroes such as James Bond and Indiana Jones look so fine. Packed with often terrifying clips of death-defying stunts, the Ray Winstone-narrated film pivots around candid interviews with a lovely bunch of elder statesmen, who are only too happy to share their colourful tales while eulogising fallen comrades. These guys are pros, experts, pivotal players in the creative process. They deserve our respect, hence why they only have a bad word for one particular director. The late Michael Winner comes across as an awful bully with scant regard for the safety of his gifted stuntmen.
Pilgrimage: The Road Through Portugal – Friday, BBC Two, 9pm
If, like me, you’ve always dreamed of following Su Pollard on a profound journey towards spiritual enlightenment, then strap yourselves in for a dream come true. Yes, it’s the return of Pilgrimage, a show in which celebrities of differing faiths and beliefs trek through scenic vistas while contemplating the very nub of existence. This time they’re following in the footsteps of three early 20th century Catholic children who reportedly witnessed apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Pollard’s fellow pilgrims include former boyband sensation Shane Lynch, reality TV star Vicky Pattison and the endearingly nerdy maths teacher/broadcaster Bobby Seagull. Ignore my knee-jerk snark, folks, this is a perfectly pleasant and well-meaning exercise. It means no actual harm.
The Cleaner – Friday, BBC One, 9:30pm
In the latest episode of Greg Davies’ enjoyable blood-stained farce about a disgruntled crime scene cleaner, Wicky is working a night shift. Begrudgingly of course. “This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” he moans. “And bear in mind an old fiancée left me for a taxi driver, my mum is dead and a doctor recently described me as uniquely fat.” While cleaning a technology shop, he’s startled by the unsettling presence of a shelf stacker (Asim Chaudhry from People Just Do Nothing). He’s a conspiracy theorist who’s preparing for the End of Days. A lesser show would make fun of this deluded fool and leave it there, but Davies squeezes some pathos from his futile plight.