SATURDAY
Doctor Who (BBC One, 7.20pm)
Every type of Dalek, from the 1960s to the present day, need a favour from the Time Lord – somebody, or something, is wreaking havoc on the planet where their most dangerously unhinged compatriots have been imprisoned and only the Doctor, with Rory and Amy in tow, can sort it out.
Executive producer and writer Steven Moffat promises: “We have, I think, our biggest range of stories ever. We’ve got the return of the Daleks, we’ve got dinosaurs on a spaceship, we’ve got a glorious western with a cyborg gunslinger, the most unusual invasion Earth story ever, and New York for the finale.”
Sunday
Richard Hammond’s Crash Course (BBC Two, 7.15pm)
The Top Gear favourite journeys across America to drive some really big vehicles. He immerses himself in some of the country’s most extreme environments, where he has only days to master some of the most dangerous monster machines in the world – a task that can take years for most people to achieve. He begins at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas, where he attempts to get to grips with an M1A2 Abrams tank.
Monday
A Mother’s Son (ITV1, 9pm)
Gritty two-part drama with a top-drawer cast of Martin Clunes, Hermione Norris, Alexander Arnold and Paul McGann. Ben, a widowed and recently remarried man, settles into a new home with his wife Rosie and her two children as well as his own two offspring. It should be a time for excited new beginnings – but what they’re about to go through couldn’t be further from that.
The family, and whole community, is shocked by the murder of a local teenager. However, that shock is nothing compared to what Rosie feels when she finds a blood-stained pair of trainers hidden in her son Jamie’s room, and all concerned are forced to think the unthinkable – could their teenage boy be involved?
Tuesday
Accused (BBC One, 9pm)
Tina is a prison officer at a young offenders’ institution where Stephen Cartwright, the young man at the centre of the last week’s drama, appears to take his own life.
She later comes face-to-face with Stephen’s father, Peter, and that’s when her problems really begin. But, once on the witness stand, Tina has plenty to say both for herself, and to those who’ve let her down.
Anna Maxwell Martin, the Bafta-winning actress, plays Tina but it’s comedian John Bishop, as Peter, who steals the show.
Wednesday
Mrs Biggs (ITV1, 9pm)
Versatile Sheridan Smith stars in a new series telling the true story of the woman behind the notorious Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs.
Thursday
The Bletchley Circle (ITV1, 9pm)
The code-breakers of Bletchley Park made an extraordinary contribution to Britain’s war effort, but what did they do with all that brainpower once peace had been declared?
Well, according to this new drama series, they started solving crimes. Anna Maxwell Martin, again, heads an impressive cast as Susan, a mother and housewife whose code-breaking days are behind her until she spots a pattern in a string of murders that have taken place in London.
Friday
Celebrity Big Brother: Final (Five, 9pm)
Nobody could accuse this instalment of Celebrity Big Brother of being boring. There was drama from the off, as two housemates Julie Goodyear and Cheryl Fergison were quickly given a secret task that played to the soap-queens’ strengths.
With 24 drama-filled days behind us, Brian Dowling presents the showpiece finale to the contest.
He takes to the podium once again as the remaining housemates gather in the living room for the final time.