Blue Planet III, Leeds's Marco Pierre White in Rise of the Rockstar Chefs and Monty Don's last Gardeners' World: TV highlights

The F Ward (Saturday 31/10/2026, Channel 4, 9pm & 10pm)

Words by Richard Jones

Hospitals have been a rich source of material for TV dramas over the years, whether it be in British series Casualty, Holby City and The Royal, or global blockbusters like Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Doctor and ER.

Australian-set series The F Ward, which debuts on Channel 4 tonight, is the latest entry to the genre. So what makes it different to the others in what is an increasingly crowded market?

One of its stars, Anna Friel, believes the series’ USP could be its location.

“Setting a hospital drama against the backdrop of the beautiful Northern Beaches gives the show something unique,” the Rochdale-born actress, who turned 50 in the summer, told The AU Review.

“We just don’t have that in England. Even in places like Italy or Spain you get more of that lifestyle than we do, unless you’re living somewhere like Brighton.

“There’s something really special about combining the intensity of a hospital drama with that stunning coastal setting.

“I think that’s one of the reasons Australian shows have captured audiences in England so successfully.

“It’s not too heavy. It’s not too loaded. You can sit back and watch something that’s visually bright. It’s got character. It’s full of really wonderful actors. I think it’s just a really lovely, entertaining, sweet show.”

Friel plays formidable head of surgery Dr Gloria Wall, who along with her second-in-command, maverick registrar Dr Curtis (Dan Wyllie), mentors a group of flailing intern doctors at The Pines, a fictional underfunded hospital in Sydney.

Each of them has stuffed up in different ways in the past and they are given a last chance to come good.

The desperate interns include Jimmy (Ioane Sa’ula), who has a heart condition he’s keeping secret, which flares up during moments of stress; Ellie (Lola Bond), who previously prescribed a patient the wrong drugs, resulting in the patient’s death; Josh (Alex Fitzalan), a party boy whose father (Jeremy Sims) is a star surgeon; and former nurse Lisa (Emily Barclay).

In tonight’s opening episode, Jimmy and Ellie get off to the worst possible start when they’re both late for the first meeting.

Gloria boots them back outside to wait.

They’re then thrown in at the deep end when a wild storm floods the hospital with casualties and cuts off the power.

In the second episode, following a stressful first day, Gloria debriefs the interns in the wake of a tragedy.

Ellie and Curtis are forced to bend the rules when a young couple’s attempt to conceive becomes a matter of life and death.

Jimmy has no time to recover from his traumatic experience when paramedics deliver a young boy with severe internal bleeding.

Throughout the series, we learn that Gloria demands excellence above all else. She’s uncompromising, intimidating and unashamedly blunt.

However, beneath her hardened exterior is a woman shaped by her own mistakes and determined to ensure her interns don’t repeat them.

“She’s been there and done that,” Friel explains.

“She’s been called out herself, and she’s learned from it. As the story unfolds, you understand what happened to her and why she is the way she is.

“Has it given her a thicker skin? Absolutely. But it’s also because she knows this environment is incredibly tough – it’s survival of the fittest.”

Blue Planet III (Sunday 01/11/2026, BBC One, 8pm)

Words by Richard Jones

Twenty-five years ago, a groundbreaking programme debuted on the BBC and changed TV forever.

The Blue Planet, the “first ever natural history series to give a comprehensive overview of the world’s oceans” took almost five years to make across nearly 200 filming locations and gave viewers never-before-seen deep-sea ecosystems.

Then, in 2017, Blue Planet II hit our screens, and had a different, but arguably even more important impact, as it galvanised a global movement to rid our oceans of single-use plastic.

In May of this year, during Sir David Attenborough’s 100th-birthday celebrations, it was confirmed that the national treasure would return as narrator for a third season, building on the legacy of the previous two and redefining the possibilities of underwater wildlife film-making.

“Twenty-five years ago, when I narrated the first Blue Planet series it didn’t occur to me that I would be narrating a third series in my centennial year,” the veteran broadcaster says.

“The ocean is an endlessly fascinating place. In these new programmes we uncover a further wonderful array of underwater life, which is more surprising, more sophisticated and even more important than we ever realised.

“I am proud and delighted to be associated with Blue Planet III.”

Tonight’s first edition, entitled Tropical Seas, focuses on the warm, sunlit waters of the tropics which support the greatest diversity of life in the ocean.

The episode’s producer Yoland Bosiger, who also worked on Frozen Planet II, Planet Earth III and Mammals, explains what makes this part of the ocean so fascinating.

The tropical seas are the warmest of our oceans,” she says.

“They are often clear and calm, and they evoke in many of us an image of white-sand beaches and palmed-fringed shores – a perfect paradise where one might dream of swimming on holiday. But these seas are so much more.”

At the northern tip of Australia, tawny nurse sharks appear to work together to herd fish onto beaches before vacuuming up their prey.

Nearby, bottlenose dolphins have revealed a hunting technique new to science, using sea sponges to block holes in coral reefs where fish go to hide – one of the most sophisticated examples of tool use ever documented in the animal kingdom.

In the Red Sea, coral groupers team up with giant Māori wrasse and moray eels to flush prey from the reef’s maze of crevices, while after dark in Bali, tiny harlequin shrimp take on starfish many times their size.

Beyond the reefs, humpback whales arrive after epic migrations from Antarctica.

For one female, this will be her final journey, as her death brings life to one of the tropical ocean’s most barren landscapes.

On the remote island of Fernando de Noronha, green turtles must evade tiger sharks, while in seagrass meadows and mangrove forests, dugongs, remoras and fiddler crabs navigate lives shaped by risk and opportunity.

But the future of the tropics is increasingly uncertain.

In the Coral Triangle, an unprecedented marine heatwave causes corals and sea anemones to bleach, threatening the home of a clownfish family fighting to survive.

Some of the mesmerising shots tonight, and for the next six weeks, will have you scratching your head at how the filmmakers managed to achieve them.

You may have thought you’d seen it all in the previous two series of Blue Planet, but it turns out that footage was just a drop in the ocean when it comes to what they can pull off.

Adultery (Monday 02/11/2026, ITV1, 9pm)

Words by Damon Smith

Four episodes into this gripping drama written by Danny Brocklehurst about two families on the verge of being torn apart by forbidden desire, and you can hear the unmistakable tick-tock of time running out for GP Tom Kirkman (Dominic Cooper) and Beth Brookes (Romola Garai) to conceal their extra-marital affair from their spouses, families and friends.

When Tom’s 15-year-old daughter Jess (Leila Khan) began her relationship with Beth’s son Ollie (Johnny Sanpher), neither teenager could have imagined their hormone-fuelled longings would have such devastating repercussions. Tom and Beth are fully consumed by their secret relationship, unable to resist the gravitational pull towards each other.

Beth is struggling to cope as she supports husband Neil (Matthew McNulty) through his trial and inevitably, she is beginning to unravel. “I think the court case has made their life much more difficult,” suggests Romola.

“You get the feeling that Beth kind of resents that and Neil’s attitude to it: ‘It wasn’t my fault; I’ve been hard done by.’ The self-pity and the lack of responsibility he takes, as well as the stress it puts on the family, is something she resents.”

Co-star Matthew believes Neil is so secure in his marriage that he doesn’t notice the betrayal happening on his doorstep. “That’s why it takes him so long to see what’s going on in front of his eyes because he doesn’t get jealous, he feels safe and comfortable in his relationship,” he agrees.

While Beth spirals, Tom is choked with guilt for betraying the trust of wife Hannah (Shelley Conn) and fears the emotional fallout for his family including brother Paul (James Murray) and sister-in-law Leah (Charley Webb). However, temptation continues to override rationality, leading to more deception.

Romola and Dominic have both been acting on our screens for over 25 years, before the introduction of intimacy coordinators who ensure depictions of sex are carefully choreographed for the comfort of everyone on set.

By the nature of the show’s storyline, the two actors worked closely with intimacy coordinator Haley Muraleedharan to heighten the emotions for viewers and tonight’s episode is another showcase of that work.

“Such scenes are now, in my opinion, so much classier and more enjoyable to watch. And sexy, for want of a better word,” suggests Dominic. “Now also, being older, and not so keen on getting my wobbly bits out, you know you have protection and someone looking after you,” he adds.

Over the course of six episodes, Adultery addresses head on the cultural taboo of a woman having sexual desires that need to be satisfied above and beyond juggling childcare, housework, caring for parents and nurturing relationships with a husband and friends.

Romola responded strongly to that discussion. “A woman’s right to have a sexually healthy life is still something that I think we are not comfortable with,” she opines. “It’s complicated and I think everyone is going to have their views on that.”

MasterChef: The Professionals (Tuesday 03/11/26, BBC1, 8pm)

Words by Damon Smith

The cream of the crop of the country’s top chefs will be hoping they are dish of the day when Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti return as hosts of the annual nationwide search for the next culinary superstar. Over the next seven, fiercely contested weeks, 24 professional chefs will battle it out for the coveted MasterChef: The Professionals trophy.

The 19th series kicks off tonight with six chefs salivating at the prospect of showcasing their bold creativity and lip-smacking flavours. For the opening skills challenge, they must pair up to recreate a mouthwatering crab raviolo dish, served with a rich and deeply unctuous bisque. Then the chefs fly solo to produce a signature dish that will keep them simmering gently into the next round. Alas, someone will be hanging up their apron.

Battle continues tomorrow in the company of guest chef Santiago Lastra, who challenges contestants to put their spin on his recipe for honey and chilli char-glazed duck breast, with Mexican sauce. An impressive pastry knowledge will determine who rises in a signature dessert challenge.

Then on Thursday, the first quarter-final welcomes back the four surviving chefs and asks them to demonstrate their inventiveness and technique by making a dish with a surprise ingredient – coconut. Food critics William Sitwell and Xanthe Clay, and chef and writer Rahel Stephanie are waiting in the wings to sample each chef’s two-course meal to decide who will survive to sauté and stir another day.

MasterChef: The Professionals will serve up three episodes a week throughout the seven-week run, culminating in the grand finale on December 18 as an early Christmas present.

Samoan-born chef Galetti has been demanding perfection as host and mentor since the second series. Aside from one year, 2022, when she stepped back from the show to concentrate on commitments to her family and restaurant, she has been a consistent friendly face for nervous contestants, providing constructive criticism to ensure the chefs present their best dishes to judges to move forward in the competition.

Wareing joined Galetti on the calmer side of the kitchen back in 2014, replacing Michel Roux Jr. Renowned for his home-grown but classically influenced British style, he grew up in Southport, Merseyside, as the son of a vegetable supplier and began his culinary career aged 18 at The Savoy in London. He received his first coveted Michelin star aged 25, impressively young for such an honour, and earned a second star in 2007.

When he joined the show, Marcus revealed that he had been watching the regular version of MasterChef since he was a young kid at catering college. More than a decade into his tenure, he continues to fulfil the promise he made at the time to embark on a “journey of discovery to find the next generation of Michelin-starred chefs.” By the end of this first week of competition, pretenders for that prestigious honour will be sizzling.

The Future with Hannah Fry (Wednesday 04/11/26, BBC2, 7.30pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

Can Professor Hannah Fry see into the future?

Well, she didn’t do a great job of predicting the outcome of her recent appearance on The Celebrity Traitors. It wasn’t due to a lack of preparation – the mathematician had certainly done her homework.

Before going into the castle, she said: “I’m here to fulfil the nerd quota for the year, and I’m taking my responsibility extremely seriously. Have I gone back through the data of all the previous games and tried to find statistically significant patterns? Yes! Are any of these going to help me? Honestly, who knows?! There is a pattern in the way that Traitors behave. For example, Traitors often do a burn vote in the first few episodes when they’re settling in.”

She added: “I am using the same bit of math that Alan Turing used to crack the Enigma machine. Whether it’s going to work or not, honestly, your guess is as good as mine! I’ve got spreadsheets coming out of my eyeballs.”

Sadly, it seemed the one possibility she hadn’t factored in was that she would be recruited to become a Traitor herself. Her fellow players were suspicious when she and Jerry Hall both survived the night despite the only two possible candidates for murder, and swiftly voted her out.

Luckily, The Future with Hannah Fry, which returned for a second series last week, puts her analytical brain to much better use as she looks into new technologies and what they could mean for us.

It may be easy to panic about the rise of artificial intelligence, but Hannah explores the positives as well as the worst-case scenarios, which it seems is a reflection of her own outlook on life.

The professor told The Guardian: “As I’ve got older, I’ve become happier and more optimistic. Bad things will happen. But I believe in my resilience, in the resilience of people I love and in humanity more generally.

“I think there is this irrepressible determination of humanity to overcome. The pandemic is a good example of that. No matter how bad things get, we adapt.”

In the latest episode of her series, she’s looking into a use of artificial intelligence that many of us hadn’t considered – talking to animals.

Admittedly, some of us like to chat to our pets regardless of whether or not they can understand us, but could we be on the brink of really being able to communicate with them? That’s what Hannah is finding out.

She discovers bioacoustics technology and AI have not only allowed scientists to decode complex animal sound data, but also to begin communicating back. To learn more, Hannah deciphers elephant rumbles in Nairobi, and meets a talking dog called Cash in California.

Although many people would be fascinated to find out what animals are thinking, Hannah asks what we would really gain from being able to communicate with them and if there’s a chance it could be exploited.

Rise of the Rockstar Chef (Thursday 05/11/26, BBC2, 9pm)

Rachael Popow

They both involve pressure, late nights and (if TV is to be believed) lots of swearing, but it may now seem like a bit of a stretch to call cooking the new rock and roll.

However, as the three-part series Rise of the Rockstar Chef reminds us, there was a time when a new generation broke through to show us that the world of fine dining could be exciting, rebellious and a home for charismatic mavericks.

The documentary concentrates on Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal, whose ambition and rivalry helped to change the world of British restaurants.

All three of them contribute to the series, but why (apart from the fact that the title calls them rockstars), did they want to take part? Well, it seems for Gordon, it’s a look back at a unique time in British culture. He says: “This has always been a lifelong dream, making this series, and, just reflecting on what it was like coming through those incredible kitchens in the 1990s, trying to understand the magnitude of the competitiveness in London and just how focused we were, there were no distractions.

“In that era of cooking there were no social media platforms where you could watch what everyone else was doing, so it was a very small bubble that was just intense, unique, incredibly gripping and it was just one of those amazing arenas you found yourself in.”

As well as sharing their individual stories, the final episode will bring the three of them together at a table for the first time in 20 years, which, Gordon suggests was a tense experience. “I arrived first, Mr punctual, on time, ready and waiting. Heston arrived second and I had a good catch up with him, the Great White enters the dining room like a bull in a china shop.

“I was excitedly nervous because last time we were in the same restaurant, Heston asked me to leave because it upset Marco, so yeah, it was fascinating.”

The first episode though takes us back to the 1980s, when the British culinary scene was dominated by the traditions and techniques of French cuisine. That began to change when Marco Pierre White burst onto the scene. He had mastered the classical foundations, but was ready to tear up the rules, becoming the most talked-about chef in the country.

One of the young newcomers who passed through his kitchen was Gordon Ramsay. Hungry to learn and determined to prove himself, the bond between Gordon and Marco was part mentorship and part rivalry.

Meanwhile, a third force was emerging in the shape of Heston Blumenthal. He also worked alongside Marco but took a very different approach to cooking. He was interested the science of food, and his experimental methods took gastronomy in some unexpected directions.

Marcus Wareing, Michel Roux Jr. Angela Hartnett, Clare Smyth and Tom Kerridge are among the contributors looking back at a very exciting time to be in the kitchen.

Gardeners’ World (Friday 06/11/26, BBC2, 8pm)

Rachael Popow

It’s the last in the current series of Gardeners’ World, but it’s also the end of an era as Monty Don bids goodbye to the long-running show that he first joined in 2003.

Speaking about his decision earlier this year, Monty said: “I have decided that the current series of Gardeners’ World is to be my last. I began hosting the programme 23 years ago, first at Berryfields and for the past 16 years here in my own garden, Longmeadow.

“Throughout that time – and around 700 programmes – I have had the privilege of sharing my own abiding passion for gardens and gardening with an equally passionate, and often equally knowledgeable audience.

“That connection with millions, not just in Britain but across the world, who share a love of gardens, plants and the natural world is something I have always treasured and which I increasingly believe to be at the heart of a life well lived.”

He added: “I have also always relished the craft of programme making and to do so, week in week out, as part of a superlative BBC team has been a deeply rewarding experience. But now is the right time for a change.”

Not everyone agreed it was time for Monty to go – the news of his departure caused an outpouring of emotion on social media. Even the BBC’s press release was bittersweet. Kate Phillips, BBC’s Chief Content Officer says: “Monty’s decision to leave Gardeners’ World is one I respect, but I’m still very sad he’s leaving. Monty is utterly unique, a wonderfully engaging broadcaster with a soothing, calm presence who has inspired so many with his passion for gardening.”

Perhaps it’s because even as the seasons change, Monty being on our screens on Friday nights felt like a constant (or as Phillips puts, it ‘a soothing, calm presence who has inspired so many with his passion for gardening’).

Of course, there are many viewers who will remember a Gardeners’ World without Monty. It first arrived on BBC2 in January 1968 (commissioned by the channel’s then controller, David Attenborough), and its other lead presenters have included Toby Buckland, Geoffrey Smith, Geoff Hamilton and Percy Thrower.

Monty has also made it clear that he isn’t retiring and that he hopes he will still be on our screens. He said: “I look forward to continuing to work with and for the BBC on other projects, as well as following new avenues. There are more books to write, more programmes to make.

“And of course, I will still be gardening, dog by side, here at Longmeadow.”

Still, some viewers will be getting a little misty eyed as tonight Monty hosts his final episode. With Ned by his side, he’ll be celebrating the enduring pleasures of gardening and serving up one last bulb lasagne.

Meanwhile, Carol Klein takes a deep dive into the scientific world of plants, Joe Swift learns how his friend Ann-Marie Powell has taken solace in her garden following the death of her husband last year, and in North Yorkshire, a woman explains her quest to grow thousands of trees from seed.