How coronavirus is the perfect time for a catch-up: The Mail’s guide to the best box sets, movies and podcasts while you’re in isolation
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So what are the best boxsets, films and podcasts to see you through the coming weeks of self-isolation? Here, CHRISTOPHER STEVENS offers his choice of free entertainment — and throws in a few films for Netflix subscribers.
On the ITV Hub or catch-up site, there are 22 episodes starring David Suchet at his moustache-twirling best in Agatha Christie’s Poirot
BOXSETS
All 4’s Walter Presents
The Channel 4 video on demand site boasts dozens of stylish foreign dramas with the emphasis on crime. Some have been shown on British TV but many are available online only.
Curated by Euro-TV fanatic Walter Iuzzolino, the channel was launched with the breathtakingly good German Cold War spy thriller, Deutschland ’86. And don’t miss Seventies-set Sicilian police drama, Maltese. If you prefer Scandi noir, there’s a dozen listed, such as the brutal Alex featuring a corrupt cop, and Stockholm Requiem that follows a criminologist.
Game Of Thrones
Sign up for a week’s free trial of Sky’s NowTV and you can binge on all eight seasons of gore and intrigue in the seven kingdoms of Westeros. That’s the best way to enjoy this saga of a war-torn continent, trapped in the Middle Ages with its ghouls, slave armies and dragons.
Don’t be misled by critics who accuse the show of glamorising violence against women — there’s violence against everyone in Game Of Thrones: man, woman or child.
Sign up for a week’s free trial of Sky’s NowTV and you can binge on all eight seasons of Game Of Thrones
Poirot & Marple
On the ITV Hub or catch-up site, there are 22 episodes starring David Suchet at his moustache-twirling best in Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Some feature the Belgian sleuth in full-length spectaculars, such as the two-hour Murder On The Orient Express. Others are early half-hour shows from the first series from 1989.
There are also half a dozen episodes with Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple.
David Attenborough: The Early Years
A gem of a collection on BBC’s iPlayer, these shows feature the UK’s best-loved broadcaster in some of his first TV adventures as a naturalist. Especially fascinating is his 1963 trip to the Northern Territories of Australia, Quest Under Capricorn, where he spent weeks living with Aboriginal people on walkabout — talking with their elders in Pidgin English and filming their sacred ceremonies.
Doctor Who
A free 30-day trial with BritBox gives you access to more than 550 episodes of the time-travelling adventure, from the Sixties to the Nineties — 129 adventures, starring the first eight Doctors from William Hartnell to Paul McGann.
For superfans there are animated episodes and documentaries too.
Watching these back to back would take 11 days.
A free 30-day trial with BritBox gives you access to more than 550 episodes of Doctor Who
PODCASTS
The Teacher’s Pet
This 16-part true crime series, researched and presented by journalist Hedley Thomas, investigates one of Australia’s most notorious unsolved crimes.
Young mother Lynette Dawson vanished after a row with her ex-rugby star husband Chris… though he claims he has spoken to her on the phone.
After the global outcry created by this podcast, Dawson, now 71, has been arrested and charged with his wife’s murder.
This Is Love
Journalist Phoebe Valentine Judge, acclaimed for her podcast Criminal, offers an antidote to murder and mayhem with this quirky look at romance. It is described as ‘a warm, story-based podcast to listen to when the news is too much to bear’.
One episode explores love after bereavement, and how a father keeps the memory of his late wife alive. Another describes the efforts of an animal lover to comfort a young whale that has lost its mother.
Athletico Mince
Bob Mortimer might be the funniest man in Britain.
He’s the most amusing regular on TV’s Would I Lie To You? and his amiable outings with Paul Whitehouse in Gone Fishing have made national treasures of both men.
But he’s at his most inventively silly and uproarious on this football podcast, inspired by his beloved Middlesbrough FC. The podcast is crammed with silly voices and running jokes —Bob pretends to be a millionaire with household slaves, lording it over co-host and old friend Andy Dawson. There are 99 episodes, and the 98th consists entirely of songs made up by Bob on the spot, with titles such as Two Large Mangos and I’d Give It Ten Minutes.
You Must Remember This
Borrowing its title from the Casablanca song, writer Karina Longworth’s podcast delves into the sometimes seamy side of . More than 150 episodes stretch from the Twenties romance of John Gilbert and Greta Garbo, to the infamous Manson murders in the Sixties.
Longworth likes to profile doomed actresses from Marilyn Monroe to Natalie Wood and has an eye for the seedier details, but her fact-checking is meticulous.
Oxford Biographies
TheSE readings from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography cover more than 250 famous lives.
They span the centuries — 12th century hermit St Godric is here, so is Charles II’s mistress Nell Gwyn, while recent additions include footballer George Best and Body Shop founder Anita Roddick. Surprisingly addictive.
A gem of a collection on BBC’s iPlayer, David Attenborough: The Early Years feature the UK’s best-loved broadcaster in some of his first TV adventures as a naturalist
FILM
Escape From Alcatraz
Available until the end of the week on BBC iPlayer, this 1979 prison thriller stars Clint Eastwood as armed robber Frank Morris. Sent to the most brutal and high security jail in America, he vows to break out. The script, based on real events, was rejected by just about every agent in Hollywood before director Don Siegel read it and sent it to Eastwood.
Stan & Ollie
The acclaimed 2018 biopic stars Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly as the Hollywood comedy duo and is based on their actual visit to Britain in 1953.
The story isn’t played for laughs, but you can’t help smiling at the friendship underpinning those wonderful movies. Available on Amazon Prime (free trial).
The Report
Mad Men’s Jon Hamm plays a Senate staffer investigating the CIA Detention and Interrogation programme in this thriller.
Again, based on a real events it is made all the more awkward by the fact that Denis McDonough — a former Chief of Staff to Barack Obama — is still alive. ‘He never returned my calls,’ jokes Hamm. ‘Not a Mad Men fan.’ Amazon Prime (free trial)
The Irishman
Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci star in an ageing hitman’s account of his time with the U.S. mob. The film divided critics with its computer effects, which contrived to make the stars appear decades younger. But there’s no denying the power of the slowly unfolding story.
The Two Popes
Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce star in this philosophical/historical docu-soap based in the Vatican.
This movie outing might seem a little arcane at first . . . but once the story starts to unfold it is surprisingly gripping.
COMEDY
The Windsors
Is the Queen watching this lighthearted send-up?
Some of the gags are near the royal knuckle, such as Meghan’s decision to move to Canada with Harry and Archie after finding the Duke of Edinburgh’s Big Book Of Racist Slurs.
Others are just sweetly silly . . . like the flamenco contest between Kate and Pippa. Find on All4.
Larry David co-created the biggest comedy hit of the Nineties, sitcom Seinfeld.
This cult hit imagines Larry as a grumpy, confused has-been living in Los Angeles and railing at the world that forgot him. Ten series are on NOWTV (free trial).
Gavin & Stacey
Crowned Britain’s best-loved sitcom at Christmas, when a special became the most-watched show (excluding sport and royal weddings) on TV for ten years.
More than 17 million people tuned in to see if the boy from Billericay and the girl from Barry were still together. Nobody was disappointed. Rewatching the three series is like falling in love all over again. See BBC iPlayer.
Switch on and relax: Our TV Editor Mike Mulvihill picks his classics, old and new
Death In Paradise (BBC iplayer)
Ralf Little recently signed off as DI Neville Parker, the latest Met Police detective posted to Saint Marie, the most dangerous island in the Caribbean.
Now, all nine seasons are available, starting with Ben Miller’s first stint in charge as DI Richard Poole. Kris Marshall and Ardal O’Hanlon, pictured middle, right, followed his lead in the sunny crime series.
W1A (BBC iplayer)
This sharp satire of the BBC also poked fun at the modern workplace in general: electronic meeting room booking systems, daft job titles, crazy PR speak, hot desking, riding foldable bikes to work.
Hugh Bonneville is brilliant as the BBC’s head of values, but he’s supported by a talented cast led by Jessica Hynes as awful PR Siobhan Sharpe and Hugh Skinner as the wonderfully dim intern Will Humphries. All three series are available.
Louis Theroux (BBC iplayer)
For more than 20 years, the bespectacled investigator has used his wide-eyed innocent act to lure subjects into a false sense of security so they give themselves away.
All his programmes are available (except, understandably the interviews with Jimmy Savile and Max Clifford).
He spends time with porn stars, drug addicts, Nazis and paedophiles, and gets startling confessions from ex-boxer Chris Eubank and disgraced politician Neil Hamilton and wife Christine. Alarming and amusing in equal measure.
Last Tango In Halifax (BBC iplayer)
Sir Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid are marvellous as the love-struck septuagenarians Alan Buttershaw and Celia Dawson in the Bafta-winning drama.
The brilliant cast — which includes Sarah Lancashire and Nicola Walker as the couple’s problematic daughters — and the stunning Yorkshire landscapes make Sally Wainwright’s silver saga unmissable viewing.
All five series are available.
Inside No 9 (BBC iplayer)
Former League Of Gentlemen co-stars Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, pictured below, are behind these deliciously macabre shorts.
Each 30 minutes is a masterclass in storytelling: witty, imaginative, inventive and suspenseful — with a clever twist at the end to round things off.
All five series are available. Highlights include The 12 Days Of Christine (series 2), starring Sheridan Smith, and spine-chilling Diddle Diddle Dumpling (series 3) with Keeley Hawes.
Spooks (BBC iplayer)
‘MI5, not 9-5’ ran the tagline for this thrilling series. All ten seasons can be viewed now.
For 86 episodes, over nearly ten years from 2002, British intelligence agents worked to protect the country from terrorists and other threats.
The series was launched in 2002, the year after the 9/11 attacks, when the threat to the nation felt very real.
Peter Firth is the team’s leader, Harry Pearce, with future husband and wife Matthew Macfadyen and Keeley Hawes among his many agents.
Inspector Morse (ITV Hub)
Who better to spend an afternoon self-isolating with than everyone’s favourite Oxford detective.
John Thaw as inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as sergeant/inspector Lewis, bring law and order to the city of dreaming spires in a feast of episodes.
Episodes of Morse sequel Lewis and prequel Endeavour are also available.
John Thaw as inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as sergeant/inspector Lewis, bring law and order to the city of dreaming spires in a feast of episodes
National Treasure (All4)
Robbie Coltrane and Julie Walters are superb as the veteran comedian Paul Finchley and his long-suffering wife, Marie, in this excellent four-part drama inspired by recent high-profile sex assault cases involving celebrities.
Coltrane’s Finchley is one half of the nation’s favourite double act, a ‘national treasure’ to many. But his world and his marriage is thrown into chaos when he is accused of historic sexual abuse. Of course, he protests his innocence — but could the allegations be true?
The Virtues (All4)
This bleak but compelling four-part drama from Shane Meadows (This Is England) features a tour de force performance from Stephen Graham as Joseph, a recovering alcoholic confronting disturbing childhood memories.
Joseph falls into despair after his young son leaves for Australia with his ex-partner, and he heads to Ireland to face his past. Graham’s performance as Joseph, including a scene when he’s on a drunken bender, is mesmerising.
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