The Brit Awards, Towards Zero and The Ruth Ellis Story: TV highlights this week

The Brit Awards 2025 (Saturday 01/03/2025, ITV1, 8.15pm)

Words by Richard Jones

Whether it’s Jarvis Cocker mooning Michael Jackson’s Earth Song, Madonna falling down a flight of stairs, or Geri Halliwell’s iconic Union Jack dress, we all have favourite Brits moment from down the years.

But although the awards show used to be one of the most chaotic and memorable nights on the showbiz calendar, many people think the ceremony isn’t what it used to be.

But while the night is often defined by the performances and the handing out of the awards, the tone is always set by the presenter. Anyone remember Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood’s dreadful hosting gig?

This year, Jack Whitehall is returning to present the Brits, hoping to return the ceremony to its glory days.

The 36-year-old comedian says he has “unfinished business” after last fronting the awards show as the world emerged from Covid lockdown.

Jack felt that his four-year run ended with a “whimper” because it was a socially distanced evening with no raucous behaviour.

“The last show I did was in 2021, which had a fair few restrictions due to Covid,” he explains.

“So it always felt like, due to circumstances beyond my control, I’d maybe gone out with a little bit of a whimper.

“I think the Brits 2025 is going to make up for that and be a really big night.

“When I first started out I was just like ‘Jack, don’t mess this up. This is such a big opportunity’. You don’t want to say the wrong thing and insult someone and then get taken off air.

“Then I got to a point where I was like, ‘It’s probably best now to not outstay my welcome’.

“And now, here I am, back again.”

As well as Jack’s return, there are plenty of other highlights to get excited about, with 14 statues up for grabs during the night.

Charli XCX has five nominations in categories including Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Dance Act and Pop Act.

Meanwhile, seven-time Brit award winner Dua Lipa is nominated for four awards as she looks to take her tally into double figures.

The Beatles have also been awarded a landmark nomination for Song of the Year for their single Now and Then, almost 50 years since their last nomination in 1977, and other nominees include Sam Fender, Central Cee, Jade, Nia Archives and Fred Again.

In the international categories, big names like Benson Boone, Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter have been given recognition and they will be keen to win their respective categories.

But it’s not just the gongs that define the Brits, the ceremony is renowned for some of the greatest musical performances of all time.

This year’s show will see Fender, Carpenter, Jade, Myles Smith, Lola Young, Shaboozey, Teddy Swims and The Last Dinner Party all perform at a star-studded O2 arena in London.

So will there be any controversy and memorable moments?

Jack will be doing his best to ensure there is some excitement, that’s for sure – once he’s got over his chilled pre-show ritual, that is.

“It’s quite zen backstage when I’m trying to get ready,” he says.

“I will probably be in there, just doing a sound bath or humming and trying to do some breath work to keep myself nice and calm.

“But then I go off like a coiled spring and bounce on to the stage.”

Towards Zero (Sunday 02/03/25, BBC1, 9pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s death, but the author remains the undisputed queen of crime.

Writers and directors still want to bring her mysteries to the screen – and as the latest three-part adaptation, Towards Zero, proves, big names still want to star in them.

Hollywood royalty Anjelica Huston, who won an Oscar for her role in Prizzi’s Honor (directed by her legendary father, John) and was the definitive Morticia in the 1990s Addams Family movies, was certainly keen to sign up. She says: “I have long been a fan of Agatha Christie and the murder-mystery genre and always love the opportunity to film in England.

“I am thrilled to be working with director Sam Yates and this wonderful cast, and excited to play the clever and dignified Camilla, Lady Tressilian.”

Writer, Rachel Bennette, who has adapted the book for the screen, can see why actresses in particular may be drawn to it: “These are among the richest and most complex of Christie’s characters, and I was captivated from the first by the charisma, in particular, of her female characters.

“It has been thrilling to bring them all to life in this disturbing tale of truth and lies, love and hate, a story which unfolds amidst the dark, cinematic glamour of the 1930s, yet feels startlingly of our time.”

If you mainly know Towards Zero from the 2007 adaptation, which aired as part of ITV’s Agatha Christie’s Marple series, you may wonder if one strong female character is missing. However, this version stays true to the book, which didn’t feature Miss Marple.

Instead, the plot focuses on British tennis star Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who has been caught up in a high-profile divorce from Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland).

Despite their split, the couple decide to spend the summer together at Gull’s Point, the coastal estate of Nevile’s aunt, Lady Tressilian, where the former childhood sweethearts grew up together.

It’s clear there’s still unfinished business between Neville and Audrey, which does not go unnoticed by his new wife Kay (Mimi Keene).

With a long-suffering lady’s companion, a mysterious gentleman’s valet, an exiled cousin with a grudge, a venerable family lawyer, an inquisitive orphan and a French con man also in the mix, it isn’t surprising that there’s eventually a murder.

Meanwhile, troubled detective Inspector Leach (Matthew Rhys) has been doubting his purpose, but can he get his mojo back and untangle a toxic web of jealousy, deceit and dysfunction before the body count rises?

The incredible supporting cast also includes Jackie Clune (Motherland), Grace Doherty (Call the Midwife), Jack Farthing (Poldark), Khalil Gharbia (Mary & George), Adam Hugill (Sherwood), Clarke Peters (The Wire), and Olivier Award-winner Anjana Vasan.

No wonder director Sam Yates says: “It has been an honour to bring this most psychological and sensual of Agatha Christie’s stories to vibrant life with a peerless cast of actors and an extraordinary team.

“Audiences are in for a propulsive, intoxicating ride into the dark hearts of some of Christie’s most irresistible characters.”

Imagine: The Academy of Armando (Monday 03/03/25, BBC One, 10.40pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

What kind of conditions are needed for satire to flourish?

Well, there has to be something bonkers going on, or someone behaving in such an outlandish manner that they’re ripe for ridicule.

In the 1960s, Britain was at the forefront of a satire boom, with the Beyond the Fringe quartet (Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett) credited with getting it going; the baton was then picked up by the likes of David Frost, Johns Bird and Fortune, and those working for Private Eye magazine.

Then, 30 years later, Armando Iannucci picked up the baton, leading a new wave of comedy that poked fun at established norms, from politics to the media industry.

Born in 1963 in Glasgow to a father from Naples and a mother with Italian heritage, Iannucci ditched his initial calling to become a priest to study English literature at the University of Glasgow and University College, Oxford. It was while writing a doctorate on 17th-century religious language that he realised what he really wanted to do was make people laugh, inspired by Woody Allen, the man he once described as his “all-time comedy hero”.

In 1992, Iannucci enjoyed his first big success with On the Hour, a Radio 4 series he co-wrote with, among others, Chris Morris, which parodied current affairs shows; it also featured the first appearance of Steve Coogan as the then-sports presenter Alan Partridge. The TV version, The Day Today, followed and became a cult hit; almost everything Iannucci has touched since then seems to have turned to gold.

Last year, his accomplishments were recognised with a CBE, with the man himself stating: “I’m proud to work in the British TV and film industry. It’s the best in the world, yet weirdly I’ve been spending more and more of my energy defending our public service television from attacks on its independence and funding. I’ll take this award as a cue to keep going.”

He added it had been a “huge surprise” and was “delighted”, saying: “But as with all awards, you know, I’m very happy to receive them, but I feel that they shouldn’t affect what you do next”.

What he did next was work on a stage adaptation of Dr Strangelove, with Coogan playing the roles taken by Peter Sellers in Stanley Kubrick’s classic film. “In these sad times, what better way to cheer the nation up than a stage show about the end of the world?” asks Iannucci.

He took time out of rehearsals to speak to Alan Yentob about his work, and the result of their chat forms the basis of a fascinating documentary for the long-running Imagine strand.

Throughout there are clips from Iannucci’s other works, including The Thick of It, Veep, The Death of Stalin and The Personal History of David Copperfield, as well as testimony from those who’ve worked with him, such as Morris, Coogan, Peter Capaldi, Michael Palin and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Like Iannucci’s projects, it’s an insightful show. It doesn’t, however, mark the end of an era – you get the feeling there’s so much going on around the world, there’s plenty for the satirist to get his teeth into for years to come.

Seeking Satoshi: The Mystery Bitcoin Creator (Tuesday 04/03/25, Channel 4, 10pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

Whether you believe cryptocurrency is the future or just too confusing to give much thought to, the two-part documentary Seeking Satoshi: The Mystery Bitcoin Creator could provide an eye-opening look at some of the issues around it, and how many people see it as more than just an investment opportunity.

It lays out how Bitcoin first emerged in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, created by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto.

Three years later, Satoshi disappeared, and their identity remains the biggest mystery in tech. Now podcaster and journalist Gabriel Gatehouse is on a mission to find out more. He starts by following an unexpected tip-off, which takes him to a mega-gathering of Bitcoin enthusiasts in Miami, and then to a Caribbean island, where two ageing hackers warn him to steer clear.

His next stop on his quest is the libertarian heartland of New Hampshire. He discovers that libertarians have embraced Bitcoin because they see it as a way of starving governments of taxes.

However, that’s just start of their ambitions. They also want to completely change the world, by getting rid of democratic nation states, colonising the cosmos – and merging humans with machines.

Once upon a time that may have sounded a little far-fetched, but as Gabriel points out in this documentary, now that Donald Trump is in the White House and Elon Musk appears to have his ear, ideas that once seemed like the preserve of tech experts’ wildest dreams are now moving closer to the mainstream.

Has Gabriel uncovered a much bigger story than just finding out who Satoshi really is?

If he has, he’s arguably the right person to unravel it. Gabriel has previously been praised for his podcast The Coming Storm, which examined the rise of conspiracy culture and its impact on US politics.

As he told The Guardian last year while talking about his book, also entitled The Coming Storm, when it comes to conspiracy theories “you don’t take them literally, but you take them seriously. A conspiracy theory tells you something about society.”

So, what will the second part, which airs on Wednesday, tell us? Well, it sees the presenter finding out more about what a Bitcoin future could look like as he travels to a private city state off the coast of Honduras – a community where tech bros rule.

He learns that these people are building an alternative world, free from governments, and an incubator for a new world order – and it’s all fuelled by crypto cash.

Gabriel asks whether this is what Satoshi envisioned, and does some more digging to find out who the Bitcoin creator is and what they believed.

The search leads to a cryogenic freezing lab where one suspect hopes to conquer death so they can be revived in the sci-fi future of their dreams.

As with so much in this documentary (and some people may suggest, life in general) it may once have seemed outlandish, but could technological advances make it a reality?

A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story (Wednesday 05/03/24, ITV1, 9pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

The story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in the UK, has haunted Britain for 70 years.

Much has been written and said of the case, and now, her grandson, Stephen Beard, hopes a new four-part drama about her will shed new light on the matter.

During an interview with GB News, Beard said: “I’m not saying that Ruth should be reprieved because she did murder a man,” but he claims that evidence not seen at her trial has since come to light, and that he’d like these revelations may lead to a review of the case, if the drama sparks a similar reaction from the public as Mr Bates vs The Post Office did.

Coincidentally, Toby Jones, who played Alan Bates in that drama, also pops up here as Ruth’s solicitor, the sensitive John Bickford, but it’s Lucy Boynton who takes centre stage as Ruth herself, who was aged just 28 when she was thrust into the spotlight.

Ruth was born in Rhyl in 1926 and she had a difficult childhood due to her abusive father, the first in a long line of men who let her down. She had a son, Andy, when she was 17; the father was a married Canadian soldier who stopped supporting her financially. A marriage to dentist George Ellis followed, as did a daughter, but he was a violent and possessive alcoholic.

After a brief dalliance with acting (she appears alongside Diana Dors in the 1951 film Lady Godiva Rides Again), Ruth became a nightclub manager, and it was in that role that she met David Blakely, a hard-drinking racing driver. He was abusive throughout their relationship, hitting her so hard at one point that she miscarried their baby.

She was also seeing former RAF pilot Desmond Cussen, but her heart remained with Blakely. Matters finally came to a head on Easter Sunday 1955, when she shot him dead outside a Hampstead pub, with a gun allegedly given to her by Cussen.

Ruth immediately admitted her guilt and it took a jury less than 20 minutes to convict her. Despite efforts to launch an appeal, she was hanged by Albert Pierrepoint at Holloway Prison at 9.01am on July 13, 1955. Her death did, however, raise certain issues that led to the abolishment of the death penalty.

Miranda Richardson portrayed Ruth in the 1985 film Dance with a Stranger which, you imagine, Boynton will have seen as part of her research into a project adapted by Kelly Jones from Carol Ann Lee’s acclaimed biography A Fine Day for Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story.

“Ruth Ellis’ story is a fascinating one,” claims Boynton. “Both she and this complex case have always evoked a strong reaction, and with Kelly’s insightful scripts I’m looking forward to bringing a new perspective to both familiar audiences as well as those who are unaware of her mark on British history.”

Laurie Davidson, Mark Stanley, Joe Armstrong, Arthur Darvill, Juliet Stevenson and Toby Stephens also star, alongside Nigel Havers who, in an intriguing twist, plays his own grandfather, the trial judge Sir Cecil Havers.

The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed (Thursday 06/03/2025, ITV1, 9pm)

Words by Richard Jones

For more than 40 years, a secret unit of undercover police were paid to spy on members of the public.

The spies initially belonged to the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), which was created to control and keep tabs on political protestors and demonstrators during the late 1960s, but continued to monitor protest groups for a further four decades.

In total, 139 undercover officers were sent on deployments – which usually lasted four years – to spy on more than 1,000 political groups.

During that time, the officers adopted fake personas and infiltrated political movements to obtain information.

However, that wasn’t all. During their deployment, some of the undercover officers deceived women into intimate, sexual relationships.

The women had no idea the men were police spies – and some relationships lasted many years, and some women even had children with them.

After the existence of the covert operation began to be exposed in 2010, the women grouped together and successfully took legal action against the police.

As a result, the scandal is now the subject of an almost decade-long £88million public inquiry.

So far, the police have paid compensation to at least a dozen women who were deceived by the undercover officers.

ITV’s new three-parter The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed focuses on five of the women who were affected.

In tonight’s opening edition, I Will Find You, we hear from Alison, Lisa and Helen who were campaigners in their 20s when they first met their seemingly perfect boyfriends.

Creepy clues eventually emerged as their relationships developed, and when all three women turned detective, they discovered that they had been spun a web of lies.

The documentary will show the similarities between the women’s experiences – from the way they were seduced into their relationships, to the almost identical letters they received when they were abandoned by the men they loved.

The women, who are speaking on camera for the first time, share the similarities between their experiences and reveal how they discovered police officers stole the identities of deceased children to create new aliases and even fathered children with them.

The women released a joint statement about the series, saying: “We’ve been working together to expose this policing scandal since we first met in 2011.

“Our lives were devastated by the actions of undercover police and this powerful documentary highlights how we fought back against dehumanising spy cops intrusion and abuse, which was sanctioned by the state for decades to undermine progressive campaigns for change.

“By shining a light on the role of these undemocratic, secret, political policing units, we hope the series is part of a dramatic shift away from the culture of misogyny that the police and security services have normalised and puts pressure on decision makers to reverse the current legislation that places undercover officers completely beyond the law.”

The Undercover Police Scandal… also details how, after the covert operation began to be exposed in 2010, how the women successfully took legal action against the police.

It also features interviews with Guardian journalists who helped break the story.

The Metropolitan Police issued an apology in November 2015, with then assistant commissioner Martin Hewitt calling it “a gross violation of personal dignity and integrity.”

With that in mind, the programme asks: has the apology, process and compensation been enough to make up for the damage that was done during one of the state’s biggest secrets?

Death in Paradise (Friday 07/03/25, BBC1, 9pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

We’re now six episodes (and a Christmas special) into Don Gilet’s stint as Death in Paradise’s latest leading man, and it seems like fans have embraced his character, DI Mervin Wilson.

But has Mervin adapted to life on the murderous island of Saint Marie? As Don points out, it has been something of a struggle for the London cop.

The actor says: “He’s quite vocal about coming into a place where he’s battling with a temperature that he’s not used to. He didn’t realise how much he took for granted in London until he went somewhere that works at a different pace.

“He expects the same in Saint Marie, but – as we’ve seen already – he soon learns things don’t happen as quickly as they would back home… He’s not a well-travelled guy. He’s a British guy, a Londoner – he loves his fish and chips and home comforts.”

But while it may have taken Mervin a while to adjust to Saint Marie, has Don fallen under the spell of the filming location, Guadalope?

Well, it seems he hasn’t really had a chance. The actor admits: “I did get recommendations for some nice restaurants as well as places to go and visit from the cast. They wanted to take me out, but I really wanted to knuckle down while we were filming so I could look back and say that I put all my energy into this role.

“We’ve spent so much time together and there’s such a beautiful, warm bond between us. Thanks to them, I have so many great places on my list!”

Meanwhile, his alter ego is also busy as Mervin and the team investigate when a man is shot dead at his villa. They discover the victim was waiting for a woman he’d met on a dating app when their video call was interrupted by an intruder.

For Mervin, the most puzzling aspect of the case is the presence of a bullet in the victim’s hand – why would the killer put it there? It seems that get to the bottom of the mystery, the cops are going to have to delve into the world of online dating and the lengths people will go to for love.

Of course, as regular viewers know, the cop hasn’t just been dealing with the case of the week, but has also been caught in a series-long arc about his mother’s death.

Don says: “It’s great how the story has been written and unravels. There’s a possibility that there might have been some suspicious circumstances related to her death, but we don’t know for sure. The question is can he juggle the personal with the professional? Can he get the job done or will it become too much for him?”

There are some new developments in this episode, as Mervin reopens his mother’s case, but his determination could attract the attention of someone suspicious.

Meanwhile, a new colleague makes a big impression – but sadly, it’s not a good one.