Strangers, UTV, Monday at 9pm
If you’re devastated at the ending of the Bodyguard and are lusting after some more television drama it’s time to consider what else is on offer.
Most other series are into their second or third episode but it’s easy to get up to speed on catch-up TV.
The excellent Black Earth Rising continues its run on BBC 2, with episode three broadcast this week. It tells the story of of Kate Ashby (Michaela Coel) who was rescued as a child from the Rwandan genocide by international criminal lawyer Eve.
To her dismay, her mother decided to prosecute a man she believes to be a hero of the resistance against the genocide. It’s the one for you if you’re tired of traditional crime drama and want something a bit different.
Killing Eve, which is being described as a “spy drama”, has been given the prime time Saturday night slot after Strictly Come Dancing on BBC1. Episode three airs tonight.
Sandra Oh plays Eve Polastri, an MI5 agent, who becomes obsessed with tracking down a female assassin, Villanelle, who has killed around the world.
In contrast to the The Bodyguard, Killing Eve, which has already been broadcast in the US, is available as a box set on the iPlayer if you fancy a bit of binge watching.
More traditional crime drama is available on UTV, with John Simm trying to figure out the mystery of his wife’s murder in Hong Kong. Episode three was broadcast on Monday.
A traditional whodunnit, Simm plays Professor Jonah Mulray whose wife Megan is killed in a car crash in Hong Kong, where she has been living for six months.
Mulray arrives to this foreign and strange place and uncovers a web of shocking details, including that his wife led a double life and had another husband and family.
In episode three he discovers Megan had secret passports in other names for herself and her daughter and that her Hong Kong husband was a crooked cop.
It’s competent and watchable, but is crime drama by numbers.
***
Frampton: Return of the Jackal, BBC 1, Monday at 9pm
Real, unfiltered access is the key to the in-the-locker-room sports documentary genre and the Return of the Jackal didn’t come out punching.
We saw the former Belfast world champion train, relax with his family and friends and out on the street in the build up to last month’s fight at Windsor Park.
It’s not that it wasn’t a reasonable hour of television, but it lacked real insight.
Frampton came across as a decent chap who was happy to be a leader against sectarianism, but it was clear that decisions were taken as to when the cameras would be turned on and off.
It’s understandable that any sports star wants to retain some control, but it doesn’t help the television product.
***
Tour Championship, Sky Sports Golf, Sunday from 7pm
Everyone loves a comeback story and Tiger Woods delivered one of the best at Augusta, Georgia on Sunday night.
After four back operations, four knee operations, a personal moral collapse and extreme public embarrassment, he returned to beat the game’s younger stars at one of biggest tournaments of the year.
Thousands of fans broke through the ropes, thronging around Tiger as he walked up the 18th fairway in scenes reminiscent of Arnold Palmer in the 1960s.
It was magnificent television, but let’s not get carried away. As of yet it’s not even the greatest comeback in golf (that goes to Ben Hogan after his car accident), but all that might change when Tiger returns to Augusta in April.
