TV Times tops picks for tonight
What’s on telly tonight? Here the TV Times team of expert reviewers highlight the best shows on Thursday 18th January
Death in Paradise, 9.00pm, BBC1
Tonight we’re dipping our toes into literary waters, as a successful novelist is murdered on Saint Marie. Frank O’ Toole was out for a gentle morning swim but floated back to shore with a knife in his chest – classic Death in Paradise! But who was waiting in the ocean to kill him? And how did the murderer manage to scarper unnoticed? The suspects include Frank’s protégé, Gilly (played by Sian Gibson, who's chatted about the part), his agent, Larry (Simon Callow) and his wife Valerie (Imogen Stubbs)… Meanwhile, Dwayne has managed to secure a hot date (miracles do happen!), but Jack is cramping his style. How much longer can these unlikely flatmates go on living together? Rating: ****
Britannia, 9.00pm, Sky Atlantic
Invading Romans take on warring Celtic tribes and mystical Druids in this nine-part drama series from Spectre writer Jez Butterworth. Set in 43AD, Britannia follows Roman general Aulus Plautius (David Morrissey), who sets out to earn the trust of the Cantii and Regni, rival Celtic tribes, before turning them against each other in his plot to rule Britannia. Will the enemies join forces to fight the Romans? All the while, Aulus’s obsession with powerful Druids, led by the enigmatic Veran (an unrecognisable Mackenzie Crook), casts a shadow over his mission… An impressive-looking, big-scale production, with a top-notch cast and punchy dialogue. Rating: *****
Big Cats, 8.00pm, BBC1 (ex Wales)
Bertie Carvel has a sleek purr of a voice and the Doctor Foster actor is ideal as the narrator of this slightly breathless tour of the world’s big cats, which continues tonight. Some of it – lions on the savannah – we’ve seen before. But it’s unlikely the footage of night-vision cameras following a jaguar trying to crack open a turtle will be familiar. Then it’s off 2,500 miles north, to California, where a bobcat has set her sights on a gull, clearly having missed the memo that it can fly and she can’t. And she’s blind in one eye. Need more be said about the determination of this most elegant of predators? Rating: ***
More previews tomorrow
Pic credit for Britannia: AAQ *ASTANISLAV HONZIK
