We are really in two minds about Elementary, the latest Sherlock adaptation, courtesy of US channel CBS.
When Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman stepped into the shoes of supersleuth Holmes and his sidekick Watson in Mark Gatiss‘s contemporary BBC version, we reckoned everyone else might as well hang up their deerstalkers and admit defeat.
Nevertheless, we do like Jonny Lee Miller, and we’re also Lucy Liu fans, so we’re going to have to give this a go if only for their sakes! No word on anyone on this side of the pond picking it up yet – watch this space.
9pm, Glee, Sky1 HD SERIES FINALE As graduation arrives for the class of 2012, the New Directions look to the past and present, while contemplating their futures. What does the world have in store for Rachel, Finn, Santana, Kurt, Puck, Quinn, Mercedes and Mike? And how will the glee club kids left behind cope without their friends? • Catch it again on Friday, Sky1 HD, 10pm
9pm & 1.05am, The Good Wife, More4
The team defends a girl accused of murder at summer camp five years previously, after the discovery that DNA evidence was mishandled by the crime lab. Meanwhile, Kresteva kicks off his candidacy campaign by smearing Peter.
• Catch it again next Tuesday, 11.05pm
9.30pm, Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23, E4 HD NEW SERIESDawson’s Creek‘s James Van Der Beek plays himself in an edgy new comedy series about a con artist called Chloe (Krysten Ritter) and her naive new flatmate, June (Dreama Walker). Watch the trailer below.
10pm, House, Sky1 HD LAST ONE EVER! Fittingly entitled Everybody Dies to book-end the 2004 pilot Everybody Lies, this emotional final prescription sees House examine his life and personal demons as he treats a drug-addicted patient (James Legros). Former stars Jennifer Morrison, Olivia Wilde and Amber Tamblyn also return.House Special: Swan Song, which looks back at the long-running series, is also showing at 8pm & 11pm.
• Catch it again on Friday, Sky2, 10pm
9pm, Castle, Alibi
A dead body causes problems for Mayor Robert Weldon’s administration and Castle’s partnership with the police, which the Mayor helped arrange.
• Catch it again on Thursday, 8pm
9pm, Justified, 5USA
Raylan pursues a Dixie Mafia soldier who could be the key to nabbing Quarles. Meanwhile, Ava protects an imperiled prostitute. William Mapother guests. • Catch it again next Tuesday, 11pm
9pm & 12m’t, A Town Called Eureka, Syfy HD Jack and Andy steal a generator in a bid to locate Allison and the crew. Meanwhile, in the virtual Eureka, a dragon is hatched out of the spaceship.
• Catch it again on Thursday, 8pm
9pm, Bones, Sky Living HD
A corpse found in the woods may be connected to a century-old family feud. Meanwhile, Max’s offer to babysit dredges up unpleasant memories for Brennan.
• Catch it again on Saturday, 8pm
10pm, Grey’s Anatomy, Sky Living HD Mark is torn between Lexie and Julia, while Ben intends to show Bailey how he feels. Meanwhile, Arizona is reunited with a childhood friend.
• Catch it again on Sunday, 10pm
Now here’s something we’re getting excited about – JJ Abrams‘ upcoming drama, Revolution, which looks like it’ll be suitably compelling, especially as Iron Man director Jon Favreau is at the helm.
It’s based on the premise that one day, the world’s electricity just shuts down, and life as we know it grinds to a halt. No computers, no mains power, no technology whatsoever. No-one seems to know why it has stopped working, or how to fix it, and so for a while everyone accepts it and begins to enjoy the simple life, but of course it wouldn’t be a JJ Abrams drama without a serious conspiracy rattling around…
It’s Bafta time again, so we’ve got the amazingly talented Benedict Cumberbatch on our cover, up for Leading Actor for his turn as Sherlock. He talks about his role as the legendary detective, and also explains why he’s been hanging round London Zoo a lot lately.
Also this week:
• Springwatch is back! We’ve got the lowdown from presenters Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Martin Hughes-Games.
• Marg Helgenberger tells us why she’s finally hanging up her CSI gloves, and reminisces about 12 years of crime-solving as Catherine Willows.
• Brothers & Sisters star Emily VanCamp is back on our screens in the deliciously malicious drama Revenge, guaranteed to become a guilty Monday-night pleasure.
• Ready for Eurovision? Find out why Englebert Humperdinck reckons we’re in with a good chance of winning in Azerbaijan this year.
• Plus Griff Rhys Jones tracks down Britain’s Lost Routes, Robbie Williams gets ready for Soccer Aid 2012, and Jimmy Doherty tackles ethical food production. All this, plus of course your weekly round-up of films, sport and soaps, and the very best listings for Sky and Virgin customers.
9pm, Alcatraz, Watch HD
Sent to Alcatraz for killing his mother who tried to drown him when he was younger, violin-playing former inmate Webb Porter resurfaces and willingly gives blood to Lucy, allowing her to wake from her coma. Rebecca, Doc, and Hauser set out to capture him.
9pm, CSI, Channel 5 HD
Catherine’s friend Laura’s mogul husband Mark has a lot to hide behind his successful international corporation, and has hired a team of assassins to murder anyone who might be aware of what he’s doing – including not only Laura’s lawyer but Laura herself.
9pm, Unforgettable, Sky Living HD
Carrie and Al must get inside the mind of a deranged conspiracy theorist before he sets off a series of bombs after an explosion at a laboratory claims a seemingly innocent victim. Their enquiries reveal a series of controversial experiments conducted by the deceased.
Back in the 1980s, Little House on the Prairie’s Michael Landon left Walnut Grove to become Jonathan Smith, an angel with a mission from God, in the Emmy nominated Highway to Heaven. Helping him guide lost and lonely souls onto the right path was his former Little House co-star Victor French, as a troubled ex-cop whose life he once helped turn around.
The first season of Highway to Heaven is now available in the UK on DVD through Revelation Films, and we have three copies to give away. To enter, fill in the form below, answering the following question: Who did Michael Landon play in Highway to Heaven.
If you’re in search of a tub-thumping new action thriller with a healthy dose of intrigue, look no further than Last Resort. It stars Andre Braugher as Captain Marcus Chaplin, the commander of a submarine loaded with ballistic missiles who finds himself in the horns of a dilemma when he receives the ultimate order – to fire nuclear weapons at Pakistan. Unsure of the validity of the command, he refuses, and he and his crew are declared rogue enemies of the United States, forced to go on the run.
One of the writers is Shawn Ryan, who also penned The Shield. Alongside Braugher, the cast features Scott Speedman (Underworld), Daisy Betts (Sea Patrol), Dichen Lachman (Dollhouse), Sahr Ngaujah (House of Payne), Autumn Reeser (Hawaii Five-O), Jessy Schram (Falling Skies,Once Upon a Time), and recurring guest star Robert Patrick (The Gangster Squad).
After watching the trailer (shown below), I for one will not be messing with Andre Braugher anytime soon.
8.30pm, Cougar Town, Sky Living HD
A cyclone blows into town, so Jules throws a ‘hurricane party’. But there’s more than one storm brewing, as Travis wants to make a play for Laurie, now that she’s broken up with soldier Wade (guest star Edwin Hodge). Jules is determined to keep them apart.
9pm, NCIS, FX HD
NCIS Director Leon Vance becomes personally involved when he argues with Gibbs about how to solve a case in which Vance’s brother-in-law (guest star Jocko Sims from Crash) is the prime suspect in the murder of a petty officer.
10pm, Awake, Sky Atlantic HD
When an escaped convict abducts Michael’s son in one world, the detective is forced to negotiate with same man in his other reality, well aware that he is missing a memorial service to his son that his wife Hannah doesn’t want him to avoid.
10pm, Dexter, FX HD
Dexter uses lessons he learned from Brother Sam to follow up on some new leads regarding Travis in the Doomsday investigation, and Debra butts heads with Captain LaGuerta over the case of a dead call girl. Travis’s sister is later found dead.
Now here’s a show to get excited about – Kevin Bacon pitted against James Purefoy in Fox’s nail-biting new thriller, The Following.
Purefoy plays notorious serial killer Joe Carroll, who escapes from death row and embarks on a new killing spree, while Bacon is former FBI agent Ryan Hardy, called in to help track him down. Hardy was responsible for Carroll’s capture nine years earlier, after Carroll murdered 14 female students on a university campus, and he is an expert on the killer’s methods, but nowadays he’s not too stable.
The FBI team includes all-business and tough-as-nails Jennifer Mason (Alcatraz‘s Jeananne Goossen) and young, razor-sharp Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore from X-Men), while Justified‘s Natalie Zea plays Carroll’s ex-wife and mother of his 10-year-old son, Joey.
Yup, the BBC drama Mistresses, starring Sarah Parrish, Sharon Small et al, has got a glossy US makeover, courtesy of ABC, the network behind Desperate Housewives.
It will feature the same set-up, as the four female pals navigate less-than-conventional love lives. The first three episodes are already promising flings with co-workers, patients, and a father-and-son tangle.
The most familiar faces are Charmed‘s Alyssa Milano as Savannah and Lost‘s Yunjin Kim as Karen. You may recognise Rochelle Aytes from White Collar as April, and Jes Macallan, who plays Josslyn, has been in Grey’s Anatomy.
The love interests include Jason George (Grey’s Anatomy) and Brett Tucker (Castle), and there’ll also be a role for John Schneider (Smallville).
8pm & 9pm, Glee, Sky1 HD In the double-bill, Tina suffers a head injury, causing her to see some students as having taken on strangely familiar identities, then the day of the National Show Choir Championships arrives, where the panel of judges includes actress Lindsay Lohan. • Catch it again on Friday, Sky1 HD, 10pm & 11pm
8pm & 12m’t, Flashpoint, Universal HD SERIES FINALE Parker loses control of the team’s annual evaluation and has to hand them over to a military psychologist, notorious for splitting up squads. • Catch it again on Friday, 9am
9pm, Body of Proof, Alibi SERIES FINALE The past comes back to haunt Megan in the second series finale, when evidence in a homicide case points to a serial killer she helped convict. • Catch it again on Friday, 8pm
9pm & 1.05am, The Good Wife, More4
Former Friends actor Matthew Perry guests as Mike Kresteva, a high-powered lawyer who crosses swords with Alicia when they both serve on a panel investigating a police shooting that ended in the death of a civilian. • Catch it again next Tuesday, 11.05pm
10pm, House, Sky1 HD
In the final series’ penultimate episode, the team suspects a college student is suffering from schizophrenia when he suffers a series of mysterious nosebleeds, and claims that he hears his dead brother’s voice appear to confirm suspicions. • Catch it again on Friday, Sky2, 10pm
The networks keep on releasing information on the brand new shows they’ll be airing later this year – ABC are the latest to join the party. Over the next few days we’ll be flagging up the ones that have caught our eye.
First up, 666 Park Avenue, which looks like Devil’s Advocate meets Bedlam. Billed as a chilling drama that’s home to an epic struggle of good versus evil, it stars Lost favourite Terry O’Quinn as Gavin Doran, the mysterious owner of a swanky apartment block, with queen of scheming looks Vanessa Williams as his wife Olivia.
Brothers and Sisters’Dave Annable puts his doe-eyed look to good use again as Henry, a naive young man who accepts the job of building manager with his wife, Rachael Taylor (Greys Antomy) but they slowly begin to realise the block is home to shadowy, supernatural forces that imprison and endanger the lives of the residents inside.
Here are some pictures of the cast, with the trailer below.
We just stumbled upon this rather interesting spin-off from high-octane FX drama Burn Notice – it’s a graphic novel!
It picks up at the end of series four, which of course aired late last year on FX – there are two volumes on there, and we haven’t had time to work our way through so we can’t say for sure if they contain spoilers – America is about to begin series six of the show, so perhaps proceed with caution…
8pm, The Secret Circle, Sky Living HD SERIES FINALE With Faye’s life in danger, it is left to the rest of the coven to save her. Blackwell encourages them to use their Balcoin blood and dark magic, but first Cassie must persuade a reluctant Diana to unleash to Crystal Skull.
• Catch it again on Sunday, 6pm
9pm, A Town Called Eureka, Syfy HD NEW SERIES As the show begins its fifth and final season, the crew of the Astraeus return to Eureka and are shocked to find that they have been away for four years rather than the few hours they thought. • Catch it again on Thursday, 8pm
9pm, Bones, Sky Living HD
Booth’s son, Parker, comes home from England, but Brennan wonders how he’ll react to his new baby sister. Meanwhile, the discovery of a truck company employee’s corpse in the woods prompts a visit to the victim’s son’s karate class.
• Catch it again on Saturday, 8pm
10pm, Grey’s Anatomy, Sky Living HD
The residents begin to doubt themselves as they agonise over their oral board exams, and it appears one of them has good reason to worry when Catherine tells Richard that someone has failed. Meanwhile, Arizona reconnects with an old friend.
• Catch it again on Sunday, 10pm
10pm, Fringe, Sky1 HD SERIES FINALE In the second part of the fourth season finale, the team attempts to stop a catastrophic event that threatens the lives of everyone and everything.
• Catch it again on Thursday, Sky2, 11.50pm
• Here’s the trailer to tonight’s Syfy HD film premiere, Treasure Guards, at 10pm
Fans of The West Wing will be pleased to hear Aaron Sorkin has been hard at work on a pacy new show, called The Newsroom.
It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the team who make a nightly cable-news show, and as you’d expect from Mr Sorkin, there’s plenty of politics, verbal sparring and power struggles. The amazing cast includes Jeff Daniels as an outspoken anchorman, Emily Mortimer as his very determined producer, Sam Waterston as an old-school journalist and Jane Fonda as the executive holding the purse strings.
It begins on HBO in the USA on 24 June, but there’s no word on whether anyone on this side of the pond is taking the bait yet. BBC’s The Hour showed there’s an audience for programmes about the people behind the news (and series two of that is due to air later this year), so hopefully someone here will pick it up soon!
We tweeted this yesterday, but if you didn’t catch it, here’s the trailer for series five of True Blood. Law & Order: SVU‘s Christopher Meloni has dropped his law enforcement role in favour of something much juicier, and it’s all looking like it’s going to get very, very messy…
The end is nigh for TV’s grumpiest doc – we celebrate eight fantastic seasons of House and find out what’s in store for Hugh Laurie and the rest of the show’s stars.
• Also this week, there’s brand new drama in Hell on Wheels, a stunning Western about a former Confederate soldier who’s set on vengeance after his wife is murdered.
• Chloë Sevigny courts controversy with her latest role, a ruthless assassin who also just happens to be a pre-op transexual. Created by Shameless writer Paul Abbott, Hit and Miss promises to be top telly.
• Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek is back on our screens, playing a caricatured version of himself in acerbic new comedy series Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23.
• Gok Wan switches his attention from clothes to cookery, as he and his restaurateur father John show us how to rustle up quick and healthy Chinese meals.
All this, plus the brand new series of Family Guy, the finale of Glee, Freddie Flintoff going wild Down Under, Ruud Gullit on Roberto Di Matteo’s Champions League chances, and reviews of all the new films on television this week, all wrapped up with the very best listings for Sky and Virgin viewers.
9pm, Alcatraz, Watch HD
Innocent man Clarence Montgomery is sent to Alcatraz after being convicted of murdering his girlfriend. In the present, Clarence commits murders similar to that of his girlfriend, except he can’t help himself, and calls upon a former Alcatraz inmate to help him.
9pm, CSI, Channel 5 HD
When a man’s dead body turns up naked in the bed of Doc Robbins’ wife, the detectives try to ‘just work the scene’ without bringing their prejudices to the table – but the case looks very much like one of Death-During-Adultery.
9pm, Unforgettable, Sky Living HD
Carrie’s personal and professional lives collide when she meets her boyfriend Steve’s parents and other mob related friends at the opening of his restaurant. She is subsequently and taken off a case because of guilt by association
10pm, Blue Bloods, Sky Atlantic HD Last one! Frank must race to stop a biological weapons attack on New York City while keeping it a secret from his family during their most sentimental holiday, Mother’s Day. Meanwhile, a long-standing conflict between Danny and Jamie comes to a head.
9pm, Game of Thrones, Sky Atlantic HD
Theon embarks on a hunt as he tries to prove his Ironborn status. Dany receives an invitation to the House of Undying, which could prove useful to her cause, and Jaime Lannister meets a distant relative among Robb Stark’s captives.
• Catch it again on Wednesday at 10.15pm
9pm, Grimm, Watch HD
Nick is on the hunt for a dragon-like creature that has killed two people with its fiery breath, but first has to fend off its daughter’s seductive advances.
• Catch it again on Watch+1, 10pm and Tuesday at 11pm
We are really in two minds about Elementary, the latest Sherlock adaptation, courtesy of US channel CBS.
