Unforgotten, The Apprentice and The Fear Clinic: Television highlights this week

Dope Girls (Saturday 22/02/25, BBC1, 9.15pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

If you’re intrigued by the idea of a female Peaky Blinders, then BBC1’s new period drama Dope Girls, which follows women on both sides of the law in London’s post-First World War nightclub scene, could well be the show for you. However, if you’re looking for 100 per cent historical accuracy, it’s probably best to adjust your expectations.

Luckily, there’s something much more atmospheric in its place. One of the show’s stars, Julianne Nicholson, explains: “This is not an accurate portrayal of the streets of Soho in 1918. This is our feminised, hyperrealist, colourful, over-the-top version. It’s our story book version of what that was like.”

She adds: “[Production designer] Sherree Philips is incredible.

“Her attention to detail and beauty is on every inch of every set. And when this street is heaving with people and carts selling prosthetic limbs and fake eyes and dried fish, and stoles, it’s really got such an incredible life to it and that informs so much of the story and the world we are trying to create.”

It’s a world where the men have returned from war, expecting their old lives to still be waiting for them, but where not all the women are keen to give up their newfound independence for a life of domesticity.

For some women, staying at home is also not an option for practical reasons. Take Kate Galloway (Julianne Nicholson), who at the beginning of the first episode is left penniless and widowed with a teenage daughter Evie (Eilidh Fisher) to support.

In desperation, she turns to her estranged daughter Billie (Umi Myers), who is a dancer in a London club, for help.

Julianne explains: “Kate’s primary motivation is taking care of her daughters. When she gave Billie up all those years ago, her intention was to come back and collect her – and she was not able to do that.

“It’s very complicated because Billie is now a grown woman, so there’s disappointment and rage there. But to be able to go back and reconnect with her is a very important part of Kate’s journey. It’s basically a mother bear taking care of her cubs”.

Billie takes her mum to the club to look for a job, a trip that turns out to be more life-changing than either of them could have imagined. Not only does it give Kate the beginnings of an idea of how she can make her fortune by capitalising on the post-Armistice boom in nightlife, but it also leads to her and Bille killing the son of an infamous gangster.

Meanwhile, Violet Davies (Eliza Scanlen) is also heading to London on a mission to become one of the city’s first female police officers. She will be sent undercover as part of an investigation that will put her on a collision course with Kate, but where will Violet decide her loyalties lie – with her male bosses or the anarchic women running Soho’s clubs?

Big Boys (Sunday 23/02/25, Channel 4, 10pm & 10.30pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

Sometimes extraordinary things happen. Just ask Jack Rooke, the writer and creator of semi-autobiographical sitcom Big Boys.

“Ten years ago I took a rather ramshackle comedy-theatre hour about grief and friendship to a damp cave at the Edinburgh Fringe and never thought a decade later it’d be a silly, sweet sitcom about a lad’s lad and a dweeby gay becoming best mates,” smiles the comedian. “My therapist (a close lesbian friend) suggested that Big Boys is subconsciously about me not being able to say a proper goodbye to certain people or periods of my life, and so to give this show a final send-off is a huge honour.

“I’ve known the ending since the pilot, and I hope it still represents those first Edinburgh shows but also the collaborative genius of our incredible cast, crew and creative team. I’ll be indebted to them always for giving me the funniest, happiest years making Big Boys.”

Yes, sadly, after three wonderful seasons, we’re about to say a tear-stained farewell to young Jack, Danny and the rest of the gang.

For Rooke, that goodbye is a bittersweet experience: “I feel very lucky and grateful, but I cannot lie, I’m really relieved [it’s over]. I wrote, filmed, edited series two, handed it into Channel 4, and wanted to have a couple of months off, a holiday, a break, which ended up just being one week.

“When I came back, the contract was on the table and it was like, ‘You need to start writing series three immediately.’ Series three begins with the gang on holiday, which one could argue was perhaps also so that I could see the sun for a couple days of our shoot!”

Rooke admits that watching aspects of his life occur on TV has been surreal, but is keen to point out that not everything that’s happened on screen really happened – some artistic licence has been adopted.

“We make space in some scenes for improv and ad-libs which are really fun to watch play out. I luckily have a lot of creative control over the edit, so I have accepted what personal stories are in the mix by the time it’s on air. And then, thankfully, I feel very lucky Big Boys has found a loving, dedicated fanbase.

“But for this final series, who knows? I have to accept that some people might not love what we’ve done. For others, I hope they feel it’s the correct last chapter.”

Now Rooke’s characters are about to leave uni and start their adult lives, which means it’s time for him to move on too.

“Big Boys feels like a culmination of 12 years’ worth of work. Ever since I was 18, performing comedy, weird storytelling, poems, things like that, I’ve been talking always about grief and loss and loneliness, but also trying to make jokes and have really funny, specific, niche, silly stories be the vehicle for that.

“Now I can write something completely different and try and figure out what other stories I want to tell and have a bit of a new start. Maybe I’ll write the gangster movie I’ve always wanted to…”

Unforgotten (Monday 24/02/25, ITV1, 9pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

It’s all well and good having new cast members and guest stars, but sometimes, a series needs an anchor, someone who becomes its centre, or its beating heart.

In Unforgotten, that honour goes to DI Sunny Khan, played in all six series by Sanjeev Bhaskar. As a result, many were upset by the previous run, in which the character just wasn’t himself as he dealt with his grief following his friend and colleague Cassie’s death. Thankfully, he now seems to be back on track.

“Sunny is definitely a little more hopeful,” agrees Bhaskar. “Not that he ever lost enthusiasm for the job, but he’s re-found his enthusiasm for the work environment that he’s in, so he’s in a better place than he was.”

However, one thing has definitely not changed – the actor’s inability to figure out who the killer is before writer Chris Lang reveals their identity.

“I’ve never got it right,” he laughs. “It’s that thing where you can change your mind every few pages. You go, ‘It’s him.’ ‘No, it’s her.’ ‘No, it’s them.’ I always get it wrong. And that’s one of the joys. It’s like watching someone do a magic trick. When I was younger, I would get stressed about trying to work out how they did the trick. And there’s a point at which you go, ‘That’s not the point. The point is to actually enjoy the magic’.”

Bhaskar even has his own routine when it comes to reading the scripts: “It is just one of the most exciting things to know that they are coming and I tend to clear my diary to read them. I’ll grab a cup of tea, and I luxuriate in it. A lot of the time, you get a script and you flick to the bits that you’re in, then you go back and read it. With this, I read like it’s the latest novel from my favourite author. I absolutely love it.

“I think what Chris is brilliant at is empathy. That’s what makes the show stand out for me. The feedback I get is similar. There’s empathy across the board. For the investigators, and for the victims, but also empathy for the perpetrators. That makes for interesting reading, because there are layers there that you are encountering and accessing as you turn the pages.”

More of those layers have been peeled away from Sunny himself.

“I don’t think we knew too much about him in the first three series. The audience was beginning to get to know him, and therefore I was getting to know him, across four, five and now six. There’s more about how he’s thinking or how he’s feeling.”

Hopefully he’s got his head together for the last episode, when Gerry Cooper’s killer will finally be revealed. And despite his own lack of real-life detective skills, Bhaskar remains crucial to the show’s success, although he’s rather modest about that: “I am a very small cog in that beautifully intricate machine and very happy to be. And I realise how lucky I am.”

Let’s just follow his example and enjoy the magic.

The Fear Clinic: Face Your Phobia (Tuesday 25/02/2025, Channel 4, 8pm)

Words by Richard Jones

Everyone is scared of something, and in the UK alone, an estimated 10 million people suffer with a phobia, defined as an overwhelming and irrational fear of an object, place, situation, feeling or animal.

There’s emetophobia (a chronic fear of vomit), arachnophobia (spiders), musophobia (mice), ranidophobia (frogs), amaxophobia (being a passenger in a car), and globophobia (balloons), to name but a few.

And phobias are no laughing matter – they are often deep-rooted in people’s past experiences or traumas and can cause shame, stigma and even ridicule as they suffer in silence, sometimes with wide-ranging, negative impacts on their daily lives.

Over the past few weeks, Dr Merel Kindt, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, has been attempting to free some patients from the prison of their phobia.

Using techniques based on 20 years of neuroscientific research into emotional memory and the expanding science of memory reconsolidation, the Kindt Clinics team coach patients from all over the world to confront and approach their fears, rather than avoiding them and running away.

However, participating requires immense courage and determination from the patient as they will be facing their worst fear imaginable, and although the Memrec treatment has a success rate of 83 per cent, not all cases are successful.

While The Fear Clinic: Face Your Phobia, narrated by Kate Ashfield, is first and foremost a fascinating health documentary series, there are also reality TV aspects to it.

As in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here’s infamous Bush Tucker trials, we see people turned into gibbering wrecks as they get locked in rooms with their greatest terror.

Dr Kindt explains how it felt being filmed for the series, and why the show is much more than just watching people being scared.

“Initially, it was quite unsettling to have numerous cameras in our clinic recording every step of our work,” she says.

“However, I view this as a collective endeavour for mental-health education, to show the public what it means to live with debilitating fear.

“I am deeply grateful to the patients who bravely open up and share their most vulnerable moments.

“Together we aim to convey that it is entirely possible to break free from a life of shame and avoidance.

“My aspiration is that this series encourages people to seek treatment.”

Tonight’s edition features three people who are determined to manage their inherited phobias, or that are worried about passing their phobias onto their children.

Former prison officer Paula is one tough cookie, but when it comes to spiders, she crumbles.

Paula explains how she inherited her phobia from her mum and recalls being trapped in her bedroom for fear of a spider.

Meanwhile, Chloe has emetophobia and talks about her sadness at not being able to care for her three young daughters.

And her eldest child is already starting to show signs of the same phobia, after seeing Chloe’s reaction.

Finally, Milly has had a phobia of frogs for as long as she remembers, and wants to be treated before her two young children inherit it too.

Can the clinic help Paula, Chloe and Milly overcome their own phobias – and perhaps inspire other people to do the same?

Grantchester (Wednesday 26/02/25, ITV1, 9pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

No matter how many vicars it goes through – this series saw the arrival of a third in the form of Alphy Kottaram (Rishi Nair) – Grantchester has proved to be a big hit with viewers.

So, the good news for anyone who’s saddened to hear this is the last episode of series nine is that a 10th run has already been commissioned.

What’s more, while his co-stars may change, Robson Green, who has played detective Geordie Keating since the first episode aired back in 2014, has confirmed he has no plans to leave.

He says: “I never get itchy feet because I’m at a stage in my life where I want to work with people who make me genuinely happy, in front of the lens and behind it. I’m not chasing awards. I’m not chasing fame. I’m just being present in a very enjoyable and healthy environment, and that’s what Grantchester is.

“It’s one of the nicest jobs I have ever done in my career.”

Perhaps it helps that he gets on with his co-stars. While the former Soldier Soldier star was very sad to see Tom Brittney, who played Will Davenport, leave at the beginning of this run, he immediately bonded with new boy Rishi.

Robson says: “I was there for the chemistry reads and the auditions. Because I know how actors feel when they come into auditions, I met all the actors outside and chatted with them before they went in to help them relax.

“Rishi came in and the first thing he said was, ‘You’re a Newcastle fan, aren’t you?’ and then we just talked and talked about football and other things and immediately we had a likeable rhythm with each other. It was an enjoyment, being each other’s company.”

He adds: “The chemistry was there immediately. It’s a completely different and new and wonderful energy with Rishi, and that’s the most delightful thing. He just fitted into the Grantchester family perfectly and he cares so much about the job.”

Of course, Grantchester isn’t a two-man show, and there’s been another storyline developing in the background of this run.

Robson says: “There’s a great slow-burning arc about a character called Sam who arrives at Leonard’s [Al Weaver] halfway house to talk to the men about self-development, and Daniel [Oliver Dimsdale] is sucked in by this charismatic character. And Leonard sees that he’s losing him. By the time the story comes to fruition, all our lives are jeopardised by this guy…”

In this episode, Daniel’s whereabout are still unknown, and when Leonard gets a letter from him, instead of putting his mind at rest, it just makes him more worried.

Meanwhile, Geordie and Larry (Bradley Hall) are called on to investigate the death of a reclusive man on the streets of Cambridge. It initially appears that he’s taken his own life, but as Alphy and Geordie dig deeper, they come to a shocking realisation.

The Apprentice (Thursday 27/02/2025, BBC One, 9pm)

Words by Richard Jones

Despite Lord Sugar’s cringeworthy puns and the format being labelled ‘tired’ and ‘samey’, The Apprentice continues to be one of the BBC’s most watched programmes.

But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, you could say.

Another criticism regularly levelled at the long-running business show is that although the quality of the candidates seems to be getting “better and better” (in Lord Sugar’s eyes, anyway), that upturn doesn’t always make for entertaining telly.

Sugar’s lieutenant Baroness Karren Brady is quick to defend the show’s rigorous selection process, saying: “I think they’re all credible; they’re diverse, they’ve got different business backgrounds.

“Of course, over the series, we really test their business acumen and their skills. I think they’re a serious bunch this series too.

“I guess as the series has progressed, candidates have got more and more serious.”

Lord Sugar’s other advisor, Tim Campbell, agrees, saying: “I think it’s a credit to the BBC, the production team and Lord Sugar, in terms of his gravitas, that we’ve got credible, diverse candidates from all viable business backgrounds.

“The reality is that if you look back over all previous series, we’ve got to the final stages with incredible business people who run successful businesses and I think we’ve got more this time.

“So, we’re really, really lucky that in the midst of lots of shows maybe going different ways, we’ve maintained that level of credibility.”

The 19th season of The Apprentice got under way four weeks ago, as viewers were introduced to the latest batch of cocky candidates.

They were immediately on the receiving end of a reality check, with Lord Sugar pointing out that some of their CVs have “more crap than the River Thames”, before packing them off to organise tours in Austria.

Predictably, both Team Glacier and Team Forest struggled to flog tickets and impress the travellers.

Then, the following week, the teams’ attempts at creating virtual pop stars failed to hit the right notes, while one group’s microphone logo was described as ‘looking like a tampon’ .

From there, it was onto the historic town of Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, where they were given nine hours to secure nine items. As usual, it was a comedy of errors.

In last week’s programme, the candidates were challenged to transform crops into cash, as they created a dish for the public, before delivering a bespoke corporate order and selling to trade.

We’re now onto week five and although Easter is still a month and a half away, The Apprentice is going early with themed task.

The candidates are challenged to create and brand a new chocolate easter egg, before pitching to industry buyers.

One team’s mild matcha egg is considered a rotten idea by the buyers, while the other team’s scrambled branding leads to confusion during the pitch – and for Lord Sugar.

Be warned, there’ll no doubt be plenty of not-so egg-cellent puns from the tycoon as he decides which candidate isn’t all they’re cracked up to be, and who is the next to be egg-spelled from the boardroom.

Around the World in First Class (Friday 28/02/25, Channel 5, 8pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

Sometimes, viewers sit down to watch a celebrity travelogue where the famous face is roughing it in harsh conditions, and think ‘rather them than me’.

However, Channel 5’s new series Around the World in First Class, which sees Josie Gibson checking out the booming market in luxury travel, is more likely to get people wondering just how they could get her job.

If it makes you feel better, Josie (who first found fame on Big Brother, before going on to be a presenter on This Morning) is well aware how lucky she is.

She says: “When I got the call, I thought this cannot be real. I thought it was a wind-up. If somebody had told the younger me that one day this would be my life, I would never have been able to believe it in a million years. It is better than I ever could have dreamed of.

“I don’t even want to sugar coat it. I’m jealous of me.”

It’s a far cry from her childhood vacations. Josie says: “I’m one of six so our holidays would have been in Brean or Butlin’s. I still go to those places now, mind. I’m still a fan.

“What my mum would do is put us in the back of the car and drive around for ages on the estate, so it felt like we were going somewhere really far but we were just being dropped off at this little field up the road by the quarry in Rangeworthy. We would camp there but when you’re a kid it doesn’t matter, does it? But this show is like travel on steroids.”

There’s no camping in this opening episode though as Josie arrives in Dubai, where she checks into an overwater villa at the Anantara Hotel on the Palm Jumeirah. Following seafood on the beach, it’s time to head out into the Arabian Desert for a night in the exclusive Al Maha resort, where her room goes for $20k a night. For that price tag, she gets a floating breakfast in her own private pool – perfect to set her up for a safari complete with champagne and a sunset camel ride.

She then flies to Doha in Qatar, ready for a stay at the Arabian wonderland-themed Mondrian Hotel, which made a big impression on Josie.

Josie says: “I didn’t think I’d like Doha, but I was really taken aback. I suppose all the architects there had a blank canvas, so they were able to design these buildings that are incredible. We had a fire and ice themed afternoon brunch at the Fairmont. It was insane. The DJ was amazing. These people are living a life, I’ll tell you that for nothing.”

She also discovered that not all the six-star hotels come with jaw-dropping price tags to match. According to Josie: “I have never been to places like that, but I must say that even there we did find affordable luxury for how incredible these hotels are.”

So, perhaps it’s time to start planning your own first-class break…