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Girl in a Band: Tales from the Rock'n'Roll Front Line, BBC Four

Lisa-Marie Ferla Saturday, 31 October 2015

For women making music, it’s probably a tough call to decide on what is more tedious: being asked what it’s like being a girl in a band, or being grouped with other female musicians, regardless of genre, for magazine features and documentaries on Women in Rock.

The Face of Britain by Simon Schama, BBC Two

Marina Vaizey Thursday, 29 October 2015

This was the fifth and last in a series of hour-long programmes amounting to a vivid, varied and extraordinarily lively history of Britain. Although ostensibly a history of portraiture, the images have been hooks for Simon Schama, that most ubiquitous historian who bears a rather charming resemblance to Tigger – very bouncy, very chatty, very enthusiastic, a little self-regarding – to subtly engage us in a journey through the political and social landmarks of British history.

Catastrophe, Series 2, Channel 4

Jasper Rees Wednesday, 28 October 2015

There’s a baby boom in sitcom. This week two of last year’s best comedies return for second helpings, each with a child in tow. In Detectorists (BBC Two on Thursday) Andy is out in the field panning for gold with a small sweet addition. But first Catastrophe is back – and the title holds good.

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Jekyll & Hyde, ITV / From Darkness, Series Finale, BBC One

Adam Sweeting Monday, 26 October 2015

It's the age of the prequel, sequel and origin story, and the ingenious Charlie Higson has decided that now is the time to give Robert Louis Stevenson's divided-self myth a superhero-style makeover. Action-packed and a little bit shocking, this supercharged Jekyll & Hyde (****) has the makings of a major hit.

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Psychedelic Britannia, BBC Four

Barney Harsent Saturday, 24 October 2015

As part of BBC4’s continued course of musical regression therapy, we revisited a time of wide-eyed innocence, when ideas were big and pupils even bigger. The Sixties had swung and now they were set to start spinning as people looked to the past for inspiration, and to the future with aspiration.

The Last Kingdom, BBC Two

Adam Sweeting Friday, 23 October 2015

I always like watching Matthew Macfadyen, so I was appalled to see him horribly slain barely 20 minutes into this gutsy new adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories. Not just slain, but then nailed to a post by the Vikings, who put a flipping great bolt in his mouth and hammered it through the back of his head.

American Horror Story: Hotel, Season 5, FX

Fisun Güner Wednesday, 21 October 2015

A haunted house, a mental asylum, a witch’s coven, a circus freak show. Check, check, check. And check. Is there no horror trope left unturned in American Horror Story? Nope. And that’s precisely the point – familiarity and postmodern camp go a long way to explaining the runaway success of the series.

How Gay Is Pakistan?, BBC Three

Tom Birchenough Wednesday, 21 October 2015

As a YouTube comic Mawaan Rizwan is clearly at ease on screen, and right at the beginning of How Gay Is Pakistan? he was telling us about coming out as gay to his family last year: it was “the worst news ever for Pakistani parents”.

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Downton Abbey, ITV: Alien vs. Dowager

Marianka Swain Monday, 19 October 2015

It's been the most heavily signposted illness in drama history. A twinge here. An "Oof" there. Chekhov's roiling guts. And tonight, His Lordship's mystery complaint finally took centre stage, in a scene that led one to wonder exactly how to remove three pints of aristocratic blood from a pristine white tablecloth.

China: Treasures of the Jade Empire, Channel 4

Marina Vaizey Monday, 19 October 2015

Here comes the President, and with him a timely reminder about what the Chinese have been digging up over the past 40 years or so to further demonstrate their exceptional imperial history over the past two millennia.