Hairy Bikers Go West, Death In Paradise and Wheel of Fortune: TV highlights this week

Wheel of Fortune (Saturday 03/02/24, ITV1, 5.25pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

Gladiators may have been dominating the ratings and the press coverage, but it isn’t the only revived show that’s been keeping viewers entertained on Saturday nights.

We’ve also had Graham Norton at the helm of Wheel of Fortune, which span its way back on ITV1 at the beginning of January.

But why are TV bosses and viewers returning to old formats? According to Graham, the answer is pretty simple – they work.

He says: “It was lovely to be asked to do [Wheel of Fortune]. Over the years I have done gameshow pilots and they’ve always been new formats, there is always a moment when you are doing a new game show when you realise ‘oh that’s why this won’t work’.

“With the Wheel of Fortune, it’s a tried and tested formula. It’s been running for 51 years in America so that is what gave me the confidence to say yes, the game is really strong.”

Although it may not have made it to the 50-year mark in the UK, the original British version of the show did run from 1988 to 2001, which is still impressive. But for anyone who didn’t see that incarnation, what are the rules?

Graham says: “The game is a combination of skill and luck. So, the luck is all about the wheel and what it lands on, so there is nothing you can do as a player to get better at that. There are three contestants and they spin the wheel. They each get a turn and whatever it lands on is the monetary value of the letters. Then they’ve got to solve the [hangman-style] puzzles and the puzzles are where the skill comes in.”

He adds: “That’s what I like about the game play, it’s half luck. If it’s all luck what’s the point and if it’s all skill the best person wins. What’s good about this is the person who is best at solving the puzzle can still lose if the wheel doesn’t like them, so it’s a nice combination of those two things.”

Then of course there’s the added pressure of being on TV. Graham says: “It’s weird as I feel with word puzzles you either get them quite quickly or you really are just bamboozled. When you are looking at the three players you kind of know when one of them has got it (the puzzle) and they really want the wheel back as they know the answer.

“You feel like it’s obvious and they still get it wrong because there is kind of a snow blindness that takes over. It’s a bit like trying to parallel park when people are watching you.”

He adds: “You are trying to do a word puzzle and people are not just looking over your shoulder there are two banks of people and cameras all watching you.”

This week business strategist Mubeen, theatre technician Emma, and ambulance controller Paddy are the players hoping to hold their nerve and walk away with a potential £50,000 prize.

Death in Paradise (Sunday 04/02/24 BBC1, 9pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

Since it first aired in 2011, the fish-out-of-water detective drama Death in Paradise has featured four different leading men (although current star Ralf Little, who plays DI Neville Parker, is now officially the longest serving).

There have been numerous other staffing changes at the Saint Marie police station, but there have been a couple of constants since Death in Paradise began – Élizabeth Bourgine, who plays bar owner and now mayor Catherine, and Don Warrington, aka Commissioner Selwyn Patterson.

So, it seems only fitting that he’s at the heart of the tonight’s episode which is also the show’s 100th, but there’s a chance that he could become the latest person to depart the crime-ridden island.

The edition finds Selwyn celebrating 50 years of service, but sadly the anniversary party takes a shocking turn when he’s targeted by a mystery assassin and left fighting for his life. So, the investigation is definitely personal, but will that cloud Neville and the team’s judgement as they try to find out who is responsible? And, more importantly, will the Commissioner pull through?

Don Warrington isn’t giving much away, but he does promise it will hook viewers. He says: “It’s an episode where we move away from the sort of conventional case, as it is a crime that involves everybody.

“Everybody is emotionally involved in solving it, given the victim is somebody they know. They have an emotional response that is different because normally, we don’t know the victims, so, there’s a detachment when dealing with them.”

He adds: “There’s a sense of jeopardy about this case which I think hopefully makes it exciting to watch. I suppose the big question is, will he make it or not?”

The veteran actor, who first found fame in the 1970s sitcom Rising Damp, can understand why his character has stayed in Saint Marie when so many of his colleagues have quit. Don explains: “He loves his job. I think when you love what you do, you tend to be quite good at it.

“Although he can be quite tough with people, he also cares about them. He cares about each member of his team, even Neville, who irritates him! But nevertheless, there are moments of tenderness between him and Neville because if you strip away all Neville’s issues, Selwyn is very concerned about people’s humanity.”

And if it should turn out that this is his final episode, at least Don has fond memories of all of his co-stars.

He says: “I remember moments with Ben [Miller], I particularly liked it when I shouted at him… And I liked the moments with Kris [Marshall] where there was a kind of tolerance of him.

“I remember Ardal [O’Hanlon] because they formed a sort of philosophical relationship which I thought was gentle and thought-provoking, involving two people who were happy to reveal bits of themselves to each other when they were away from work, and that was nice.

He adds: “Neville, I remember moments because he’s, on one level, such an irritant to Selwyn, but he also finds him incredible.”

Let’s keep our fingers crossed this isn’t the end of their working relationship…

Our Flag Means Death (Monday 05/02/24, BBC2, 10pm)

Words by Rob Lavender

Although it’s still relatively recent, the first series premiering in 2022, David Jenkins’ historical sitcom Our Flag Means Death qualifies as a sleeper hit purely on the basis that, on its release, expectations of its success were low. It certainly didn’t qualify for any real marketing budget, yet good old-fashioned word-of-mouth (bolstered by social media) saw viewership more than triple between its first episode and its season finale.

This purely organic growth in demand, driven by little more than online chatter, is rivalled perhaps only by Ted Lasso’s phenomenal success.

Vanity Fair broke the news of its second season being greenlit just last summer, dubbing the news “the Sigh of Relief Heard Round the Internet” such was the anticipation in both critical and viewing circles – and yet earlier this year Max, the US studio who produces Our Flag, announced its cancellation.

Flags may well have been flying at half-mast for this news, however some would argue that it’s better to go out on a strong season than to run and run. Especially since one of its two main stars, Taika Waititi, has so many other irons in the fire – including the hit horror-mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows (also on BBC) as well as an upcoming Time Bandits reboot starring Lisa Kudrow for Apple TV+.

For the uninitiated (season one is available in full in iPlayer), Our Flag Means Death tells the story of the real-life ‘Gentleman Pirate’ Stede Bonnet, played by Flight of the Conchords’ Rhys Darby, a member of the landed gentry who, during the Golden Age of piracy, left his life and family behind to pursue his dreams of buccaneering around the seven seas.

He soon attracts the attentions of rival pirate Ed ‘Blackbeard’ Teach (Waititi), and the two become unlikely allies – and thus begins a complicated and often sweet, surprisingly touching and oddly very believable romance.

Among the two pirate captains’ disparate crews are the seabird-obsessed Nathaniel Buttons, played by Trainspotting star Ewen Bremner, non-binary cutthroat Jim Jimenez (Vico Ortiz), who has a bounty on their head, and the surprisingly level-headed Frenchie (Joel Fry of Trollied).

Stede’s chief antagonist is Blackbeard’s first mate Izzy Hands, played by Happy Valley’s Con O’Neill, who purports to have his captain’s best interests at heart but who honestly believes Stede has no place among them.

As we rejoin the crew and get our sea-legs back, we find Stede and his shipmates living at the Republic of Pirates, working for Spanish Jackie in an attempt to save for a new ship – the Revenge being currently in the hands of Blackbeard and cutting a swathe through the merchant ships of the trade routes.

Blackbeard meanwhile is still smarting from his apparent snub by Stede, and is acting increasingly erratically putting himself, his crew and his command at risk.

And no one bears the brunt of Ed’s mania more heavily than his oldest friend and confidant, Izzy.

Hairy Bikers Go West (Tuesday 06/02/24, BBC Two, 7pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

Dave Myers has had a tough couple of years, but he bounced back onto the box late last year with a Hairy Bikers Christmas special.

For a while, following his cancer diagnosis in 2022, the duo’s future seemed uncertain, but they were certainly on top form during a programme designed to celebrate all the people who had helped Myers on his road to recovery.

His best mate, Si King, assisted him in making a banquet for them all, but he was as instrumental as anybody in keeping Myers’ spirits up during the darkest period of his life. His passion for food also lifted the much-loved make-up artist-turned-cook.

“Food is vital when you’re recovering from cancer,” explains Myers. “Sometimes I have to give myself a good talking to because if you’re feeling rough, you don’t feel like eating but you have to do it.

“There are moments when you get back into food that you look forward to it again. It’s important to find things that you like as well during that journey. It’s the stuff of life. It doesn’t matter if you’re a prince or pauper, everyone has something that they like to eat. Pancit noodles now have legendary status for me.”

Getting back on the bike – Myers says he had to learn to ride again after being unable to sit in the saddle for a long period – has also been important, for King as well as his friend.

“It was the return for Dave and for me to normal a little bit and that was very precious when things haven’t been for Dave particularly so by default haven’t been for me either,” says King. “It was lush to see Dave in my rear-view mirror riding saying ‘are you sure we’re not turning left here?’”

The pair were seen exploring on their trusty mechanical steeds during the festive show, and they’re doing more of the same in their new culinary journey, which follows their adventures as they explore Britain’s west coast. Along the way they’ll be travelling from Scotland to Devon, stopping off en route in Dumfries & Galloway, Lancashire, Merseyside & the Isle of Man, North Wales, the Severn Estuary and Somerset.

Some of the destinations they visit have a special personal meaning to one or both of them, either through family connections or because they’re places where their friendship was forged. Along the way they take the time to meet the producers, artisans, farmers and chefs who are contributing to the culinary revolution currently happening across the land.

And, of course, the duo will spend time rustling up their own recipes using the best local produce on offer, inspired by wherever they are at the time.

Their trip begins on the Isle of Bute, a place they adore. After landing at Rothesay, Myers and King call in at a local deli to buy picnic supplies, before visiting a patisserie owned by a Syrian family and a six-acre market garden.

Finders Keepers (Wednesday 07/02/24, Channel 5, 9pm)

Words by Rob Lavender

It seemed like the perfect crime…

Three weeks ago, when metal detectorists Martin and Ashley unearthed a hoard of Saxon treasure, they were elated – but one reckless decision sent them spiralling on a treacherous path of deceit and deadly consequences.

It’s been quite a ride since then, and we’ve been fairly well hooked on the story involving local history nut Martin, played by Neil Morrissey, and his family – wife Anne (Fay Ripley), daughter Laura (Jessica Rhodes), son Josh (Thom Jackson-Wood), and Laura’s fiancee, the aforementioned Ashley, a wheeler-dealer type played to believable effect by Inbetweeners star James Buckley.

It was of course Ashley who drove the deceit in the first place, somewhat reluctantly joining his future father-in-law in his metal-detecting hobby, and providing his decidedly dodgy ex-con friend Rocky as a contact through which to fence their ill-gotten booty.

Martin, meanwhile, had not so much as a speed-awareness course to his name and was keen to remain squeaky clean, yet the mounting costs of life for his family – including Laura’s forthcoming wedding to Ashley, as well as a missing business partner and a suspicious deficit in his company’s accounts – meant he was eventually persuaded to stray to the dark side of criminality along with his ne’er-do-well almost-son-in-law.

As with the BBC’s recent crime drama Boat Story, in which a mismatched pair of strangers stumbled upon a boatload of smuggled drugs and decided on the spur of the moment to take it, the subsequent chain of events prove to be unexpected to say the least.

Now, shocked to his very core by his fatal confrontation with Denys last week, Martin has no choice but to finally confess all to Anne. And it proves to be the first smart thing he’s done in a while.

Desperate to save her family – and to keep alive her dream of bringing Josh home – she hatches a plan. It involves persuading Rocky to break into Denys’s house to recover the horde. Once he’s taken the bait, Martin informs the police that a robbery is taking place, leading to the police catching Rocky in the act, with Denys’ body at the scene.

Everything – for a change – seems to be going to plan, and sure enough Rocky is charged with murder. Even DS Doyle (Rakhee Thakrar, excellent) is forced to abandon her relentless pursuit for justice and head back to London, and Martin dares to allow himself to breathe a sigh of relief.

However, the plan also relies on Ashley keeping a cool head.

Martin just wants to put this cursed treasure back in the ground and move on with his life, but Ashley – whose wedding now seems increasingly uncertain – has other ideas.

Will it be a case of finders keepers, or will it be more like “losers weepers” once Ashley gets desperate?

The Madame Blanc Mysteries (Thursday 08/02/24, C5, 9pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

Cosy crime – it used to be a rather derogative term for mystery tales that critics claimed lacked a certain edge or darkness. But in recent years, that’s begun to change.

The genre has steadily grown in stature, with awards given out for the best of them at crime writing festivals across the country. While Agatha Christie remains the doyenne of them all, new faces have burst onto the scene, not least Richard Osman, whose Thursday Murder Club books are the very epitome of cosy.

Other names to conjure with from the past and present include Josephine Tey, Anthony Horowitz, MC Beaton and SJ Bennett (the latter has adopted the late Queen Elizabeth II as her sleuth, no less). What all of them have in common is their use of humour and gentle escapism.

Maybe we should be adding Sally Lindsay and Sue Vincent to that list of writers. Not only do they star in The Madame Blanc Mysteries, they created the series and have written every episode to date.

And who can blame them for coming up with the premise? After all, if you’re going to write a series to star in yourself, then why not set it in a sun-kissed area like Sainte Victoire so that you’ll always be working in good weather? Viewers hoping to make a pilgrimage to the location may, however, be disappointed to find it’s not in the south of France but on Gozo. But never mind.

“What inspired me was a lady I met on holiday,” claims Lindsay when asked about the initial idea for the series. “She was a really eminent antiques dealer and really very knowledgeable and fantastic, and she was telling me about how she had a third-generation antiques dealership in London.

“I don’t think it happens anymore but what used to happen in Europe is basically her and her husband would get their van and they’d drive to these beautiful little towns in the South of France and then the Italians would come and the Spanish would come and they’d all swap items. What was complete tat in our country would be really fashionable in Italy.”

As a result, Jean White was born. When we first met her back in 2021, she was grieving the sudden death of her husband Rory, with whom she’d run a successful antiques business. Following his death, she discovered they were in debt, and after paying the creditors baying for money, Jean was left with one asset – an idyllic home on the coast of southern France, where she decided to relocate permanently.

“Making this show was like winning a competition,” adds Vincent. “Sally was on holiday and Channel 5 wanted a script quickly, so she rang me and I knocked out the first 20 pages in about two-and-a-half hours. There were some ups and downs along the way, but we never lost the vision of our world.”

And thank goodness for that. Here’s hoping we’ll be going back for a return visit – and more cosiness – in the near future.

Sue Perkins: Lost in Alaska (Friday 09/02/24, Channel 5, 9pm)

Words by Rob Lavender

One of the most memorable moments on The Great British Bake Off during Sue Perkins’ tenure as co-host involved a baked Alaska. It became the stuff of Bake Off legend, and probably haunts the dreams of those present.

In fact, so fractious did the discourse surrounding ‘Bingate’ – which saw construction engineer Iain Watters throw his ice cream in the rubbish after it melted, apparently a consequence of fellow contestant Diana Beard removing it from the freezer – become, that Perkins took to Twitter to exclaim: “All getting a little inflamed for my liking. Am off. This is a show about CAKES. Please, let’s save the ire for real stuff”.

One wonders whether she felt a slight chill when she was told that this new series was about Alaska, before being reassured that it was the US state, not the part-frozen dessert, that was the focus.

America’s largest state by area – bigger than Texas, California and Montana combined – Alaska is also its most westerly, its Aleutian Islands extending beyond even Hawaii.

It is a land of extremes, then, in terms of the US; it is also the most sparsely populated of the 50 states, with a population of just 736,000. That’s less than the population of Leeds in an area twice the size of France.

To find out more about this vast and largely unspoiled land, Sue jumps in at the deep end to uncover the extreme weather, wildlife, wilderness and ways of life that make it so unique.

Across three episodes she learns about Alaska’s fascinating history and breath-taking nature, and meets the incredible people who call it home, from gold prospectors and native communities to hunters and doomsday preppers.

In this first episode, Sue starts her adventure in Anchorage, a city that is on the very edge of civilisation. Anchorage is Alaska’s biggest city by a large margin, and its climate is not too dissimilar to our own. However the farther north and west one travels, the more remote and wild the terrain becomes.

With this daunting fact in mind, Sue begins her journey with a very necessary trip to a survival school, where she learns how to protect herself in the event of a bear attack. Anyone who saw Sue on Taskmaster will muster little surprise that this particular challenge was met with decidedly mixed results.

There are also memories of that chaotic programme later in the episode as Sue puts her body on the line in order to feed a rather pushy baby moose. All that’s missing is Alex Horne looking on with a whistle.

As she continues her adventure to discover more about the Alaskan way of life, she’s confronted with some uncomfortable realities, such as the precarious relationship between Alaska’s human and wildlife populations.

She also discovers Alaska’s enduring Russian heritage – mainland Alaska is actually only around 55 miles from Russia, and prior to the Alaska Purchase in 1867 it was a part of the Russian Empire.

With the United States having a historic antipathy with Russia, how does this paradox look in today’s modern America?