The 20 best shows to watch On Demand this weekend

Release time：2024-05-21 11:59:25 Source：Culture Capsule news portal

A Northern Irish cop show that strikes a chord, a man frozen in time during an avalanche and thawed out in 2024... there's so much to watch On Demand right now.

We've selected the 20 best offerings - sifting through thousands of options so you don't have to.

Looking for a new series or film to stream On Demand?

Read on to find out the shows worth investing your precious time in...

Blue Lights (Series 2)

Return of the explosive, character-led Belfast cop show

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on BBC iPlayer

This Northern Irish cop show struck a chord with critics and audiences alike, and now the 'Peelers' are back for a second series. Crime is flooding the streets of Belfast, but this first episode spends as much time reacquainting us with the characters - rookies, veterans and dearly departed - as it does establishing that there's a new crime gang in town. 

Partners Stevie and Grace are still flirting over their lunchboxes, Tommy (Nathan Braniff) catches the eye of the paramilitary task force whilst also trying to sort out his love life and Annie gets an eyeful of the hunky new guy Shane (Frank Blake). 

Jen (Hannah McClean), meanwhile, might have left the force, but has not forgotten her late comrade, Gerry. She's now working as a solicitor and sets out to investigate the chip-shop bombing that haunted him. 

As for that crime wave, you can expect plenty of nail-biting action for the response teams, from life-threatening stand-offs with desperate junkies to dramatic rescues from burning buildings. (Six episodes)

Our Living World

Cate Blanchett narrates an innovative series about the interconnected natural world

Year: 2024

Certificate: pg

Watch now on Netflix

Just what links the habits of hippos in Africa to the grazing patterns of reindeer in the Arctic? No idea? Don't worry - this four-part documentary series reveals all, as it sets out to uncover the interconnected web of natural life that covers our planet. 

Looking at everything from chimpanzees to penguins, hammerhead sharks to tiny bugs, the plants of the rainforests to the concrete jungles of humanity, it offers a fascinating new way to approach the concept of nature filmmaking. It's a memorable one too, with fantastic visuals bolstered by a powerful narration from Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett, who also happens to keep bees. (Four episodes) 

Feud: Capote vs The Swans

Tom Hollander plays Truman Capote in series two of this star-studded anthology

Year: 2024

Watch now on Disney+

With Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange excelling as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, the first series of this grand anthology show by TV giant Ryan Murphy set the bar punishingly high. This second run matches it, though, as British actor Tom Hollander takes on the role of waspish US writer Truman Capote as he faces off against a group of vengeful New York socialites after he reveals their dark and frequently twisted secrets in a magazine article. 

The female cast alone makes it worth streaming as Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore and Molly Ringwald all relish the chance to portray the iciest of high society queens. (Eight episodes)

Fallout

Explosive video game adaptation from the creators of the Westworld TV series

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Prime Video

Video game adaptations used to have a bad name - does anyone remember Bob Hoskins playing the Italian plumber Mario in 1993's Super Mario Bros film? It's probably best that you don't. 

Those days are now long though, especially after HBO's The Last Of Us upped the dramatic ante in 2023 and won eight Emmy Awards for its trouble. Fallout looks set to continue that trend, coming as it does from Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, a producing duo with great expertise in serving TV audiences big and complex worlds.

And Fallout is certainly that - the games are set in a sprawling, post-apocalyptic wasteland centuries after a nuclear war has devastated the planet's surface. Underneath that wasteland are The Vaults, in which cheery survivors have been living lives of order and relative luxury while those above scrabbled for scraps. 

That culture clash is at the centre of the series, following Lucy (Yellowjackets' Ella Purnell) as she leaves the safety of The Vaults for the chaos above. 'Practically every person I've met up here has tried to kill me,' she despairs in her opening week. There's a lot of comedy in that clash and we meet a lot of eccentric characters as it unfolds, too, especially Justified's Walton Goggins as a roaming bounty hunter. 

Fallout is primarily an epic action game though, and this ambitious and visually impressive series keeps that very much in mind. It should certainly please those in search of a little popcorn entertainment and, even if it doesn't quite reach the dramatic heights of The Last Of Us, it's also a rich evocation of an exciting world. (Eight episodes) 

Mammoth

Meet the 1970s PE teacher who was frozen in time, literally, as he tries to navigate the 2020s

Year: 2024

Certificate: 12

Tony Mammoth (Mike Bubbins) is the 1970s man who, a bit like Austin Powers, was frozen in time (during an avalanche in the French Alps) and thawed out in 2024. The world has changed, but Tony has no intention of keeping up. Sticking to his existing wardrobe (roll necks, medallions) and values (lots of booze, lots of women), he's back in his old job as a PE teacher and set for a surprising clash with an overprotective mum (Car Share's Sian Gibson). 

Bubbins, who used to be a PE teacher in real life, is clearly comfortable with his 1970s persona but none of the irony is lost on him. He's a dinosaur but it's not his fault, and while his continuous pursuit of women and self-belief could be irksome, Bubbins makes Tony just likable enough. As for nostalgia, if Tony's friend Roger looks familiar, then that's 1990s nostalgia you're feeling. Roger is played by Joseph Marcell who was dry-as-a-bone butler Geoffrey in Will Smith's sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. (Three episodes)

Bluey: The Sign

The much anticipated half-hour special for the delightful Australian family of dogs

Year: 2024

Certificate: u

Watch now on Disney+

If you've not heard of Bluey, the Australian cartoon about a loveable family of canines, it'll be hard for you to comprehend the level of fan anticipation that has surrounded this half-hour special of what is usually a seven-minute show. If you've seen even one of those seven-minute episodes, though, you may understand why so many people are so excited by the idea of it expanding to 30 minutes. Bluey is one of those rare children's shows that everyone in the family genuinely enjoys, because it tackles stories with a warm but philosophical and distinctly unpatronising point of view that plenty of 'adult' TV could learn from. You see children's stories and adults' stories unfold at the same time, and the children's ones often interrupt the adults' in exactly the way they do in real life. So what will its writer Joe Brumm do, given more space to roam?

'Everything will work out the way it's supposed to, Bluey,' says a voice in the trailer for The Sign, a story that mixes the sweet and the bitter to such a nice degree that it'll delight its younger fans and likely leave older ones with a tear in their eye by the end. We can't say much about the plot itself - we can say it involves some great dancing and a chase - but, suffice to say, this show stretches to half an hour far better than Peppa Pig ever did. Could a movie be next? (28 minutes) 

Baby Reindeer

Riveting drama based on comedian Richard Gadd's experiences with a stalker

Year: 2024

Certificate: 18

Watch now on Netflix

Described as 'not your typical bunny-boiler story', this bracing seven-part drama is based on Scottish comedian Richard Gadd's award-winning debut play of the same name.  That play came from his horrifying real-life experiences with a stalker who, at the very mild end of things, sent him 41,000 emails. 

When Gadd performed that play on stage, Martha was represented by a bar stool. In this TV series which he wrote, produced and stars in she's a loud and colourful presence, played with vulnerability and a dark, dangerous hilarity by The Outlaws' Jessica Gunning. She's a woman who Donny (Gadd) wants to understand - not your typical bunny boiler, in short, and it's this rounded approach to character that really marks the show out as something special. 

Gadd has been very clear that he made mistakes in the way he handled his stalker, and the honesty he's poured into the script translates into a show that's very hard to stop watching even when, at some points, you may really want to.

While far from an easy watch, Baby Reindeer (the title comes from Martha's nickname for him) is certainly a gripping one that plays with your sympathies throughout. And don't forget that Gadd is also, fundamentally, a comedian - so it's also a very funny show at times too, sometimes when you least expect it to be. (Seven episodes) 

Argylle

Henry Cavill and Bryce Dallas Howard star in a wacky spy film from the director of Kingsman

Year: 2024

Certificate: 12

Watch now on Apple TV+

If you like your spy movies big and silly, this barmy adventure from Kingsman director Matthew Vaughn is worth a look. It stars Superman's Henry Cavill as Agent Argylle, a superheroic spy. He's not a fully fledged character in the film, though - he's the creation of cat-loving novelist Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) in her best-selling book series. Or is he? One day, Elly learns that everything she's been writing for all these years may be a little closer to reality than she realised...

The less said about the craziness that follows that twist the better but, suffice to say, it involves a much bigger role for Elly's cat than you might expect. The more than two-hour running time may be too much of a stretch for some, but that's much easier to deal with at home than it was in cinemas - and, if you like the sound of Elly's Argylle book, you can actually buy it. There was a rumour going round at the time of the film's release that 'Elly Conway' was actually Taylor Swift but, sadly, that turned out not to be true. (139 minutes) 

Michael Palin In Nigeria

Michael Palin embarks on an epic 1,300 mile journey across the 'Giant of Africa'

Year: 2024

Certificate: 12

Michael Palin is no stranger to tough travel, and his arrival in Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, is a full-on assault of the senses. Lagos has a population of 21 million - that compares to 13 million in London, the UK's most populous city - and it's a figure that is growing by the day. The sheer volume of people and noise is exhausting and you've got to hand it to Palin who, at 80 years old, is virtually undaunted.  

As a whole, Nigeria is buoyed by an oil-rich economy that generates around $600 billion a year, so it's staggering to learn that 60 per cent of the country's population lives in poverty. At the vast informal settlement, or slum, of Makoko, Palin meets schoolchildren who are among those defiantly making the best of things, even though the government wants to dismantle Makoko. 

Outside of the city, Palin finds some peace and quiet at a beach, but it's tinged with the dark story of slavery. He then meets Yeni Kuti, daughter of Afrobeats pioneer Fela Kuti, at a venue that celebrates the global influence of Kuti's music. Expect Palin's three-part series to be tinged with these kinds of incredible contrasts and for Palin to greet it all with his unique brand of open-minded wonder. (Three episodes)

Sweetheart

French drama exploring the fallout of a teacher-pupil relationship

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

A French TV series about a 38-year-old teacher falling for her 17-year-old student will make you think of Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte. The French president was 16 years old when he first met and fell for Brigitte, his then drama teacher, who is 24 years his senior. But this is no biopic of their much-discussed real-life relationship. 

Teacher Chanelle Chouinard is married with two children when she takes 17-year-old Sandrick under her wing. He's a sensitive young man whose home life is troubled. His mother isn't giving him much stability, with troubles of her own, and as teacher and student become close their relationship develops into something more. A great romance it is doomed not to be, but instead one that will have a damaging ripple effect for all in their wake. (Eight episodes)

Perfect Days

A Japanese janitor finds contentment in a beautiful film by director Wim Wenders

Year: 2023

Certificate: pg

Watch now on Mubi

Every day, manual labourer Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) sets off on his rounds, cleaning the public toilets on a route that takes him through an upmarket Tokyo neighbourhood. 

This Japanese-language film follows this gentle, philosophical man over the course of a few weeks as he meets and interacts with people on his route, reflects on existence and generally finds solace and contentment in a quiet life of hard work, books, music and kindness. It's is a simply lovely watch, beautifully shot and with a central performance from veteran Japanese actor Yakusho that is irresistible and compelling. He well deserved his Best Actor win at the Cannes Film Festival. (124 minutes) 

Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer

The king of taboo-challenging comedy directs himself in this bold stand-up special

Year: 2024

Certificate: 18

Watch now on Netflix

Jimmy Carr has made a career out of crafting comedy around subjects that few other comedians would dare to touch with a ten-foot pole. And this stand-up special from the 8 Out Of 10 Cats host doesn't see him becoming any more timid. 

Gun control, religion, cancel culture, and consent are just a few of the hot-button topics that he repeatedly jabs in a brilliant set that isn't afraid to draw sharp intakes of breath as much as it does very, very big laughs. His fourth Netflix special, this is the first one that Carr himself has directed, using camera moves and lighting changes to great effect to enhance the feel of different segments of the show. (59 minutes) 

Bottom: Exposed

Adrian Edmondson leads a hilarious retrospective of his and Rik Mayall's comedy

Year: 2024

'We used to be in a sketch group with some other people. Then we became a sketch group with two people in it.' Adrian Edmondson met Rik Mayall at Manchester University, where the two bonded over having the same C&A dressing gown and thinking that Waiting For Godot was 'the funniest play ever written'. The sketch group, and then their two-man sketch group (aka a double act) followed, before The Young Ones and then Bottom, the show Edmondson looks back on in this hilarious retrospective. 

'It's not about bottoms, it's about bottom of the pile,' clarifies producer Paul Jackson, and being bottom of the pile is what Waiting For Godot is all about, of course. Writing the lives of Eddie and Richie, the show's desperate duo, sounds like it brought Mayall and Edmondson a lot of joy, though. Edmondson looks back on it very fondly indeed: 'We acquired an office space and it was right next door to a pub. What could be better?' 

Aside  from all the inside stories and very funny clips in this one-off, the programme also gives you a fresh appreciation for the sheer amount of skill that went into creating the show. Edmondson recalls some episodes of Bottom having around 300 stunts, describing it as like a live-action Road Runner cartoon. The glory of it all was that it still, on the screen, just looked like two people having the best time of their lives. (120 minutes) 

Franklin

Michael Douglas shines as Benjamin Franklin in a drama about saving America from defeat

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

There's a lot to recommend this rich, eight-part drama, and it's got a wonderfully simple premise: following Benjamin Franklin as he asks the French to save the Americans from defeat by the British. 

This desperate quest for help makes it an underdog tale, which is always an appealing thing to watch, and they've got a coming-of-age story in there too, as Franklin is accompanied by his naive grandson, a boy who has a lot to learn.

It's also a political show about double-dealing and betrayal but, first and foremost, it's a character study of Franklin himself. You need a good actor for that and thankfully they have a great one in Michael Douglas, and watching this Hollywood legend twinkle and scheme his way through one situation after another is a delight in itself. 

Daniel Mays is another bright point on the cast as Edward Bancroft, one of his allies in France, as is Ludivine Sagnier as Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy, a married Frenchwoman who catches Franklin's eye. The scenes between the two of them are the only time when Franklin fully lets his guard down, and give the show a real heart, too.  (Eight episodes) 

Scoop

Gillian Anderson stars in a drama that tells the inside story of the BBC interview with Prince Andrew

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

The BBC journalist Emily Maitlis's 2019 interview with Prince Andrew about the allegations linking him to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was a properly seismic moment in the relationship between the royals and the media. But the behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing that went on to arrange and air the interview were just as groundbreaking. This film tells that frankly fascinating story, deploying an almost unbelievably good cast to spectacular effect and telling the tale with no shortage of cheek.

Gillian Anderson is predictably perfect as Maitlis, facing off Frost/Nixon-style with an almost-unrecognisable Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew, but Billie Piper almost nicks the film as Sam McAlister, the brilliant Newsnight producer who arranged the whole thing. The actual interview itself makes for electrifying viewing, particularly in its emotionally-arrested portrayal of Andrew, and it's a testament to everyone involved in the film that they've managed to make this such a compelling experience. When making movies about recent history, particularly when it involves the Royal Family, it's all too easy to play it safe and make something boring - this is very much not that. (102 minutes)

The Last Post

Steamy and soapy dive into the last gasp of empire in the Middle East

Year: 2017

Certificate: 15

Written by Peter Moffat (The Village, Your Honor, and Scoop), this six-part series is full of passion and intrigue. Set at a Royal Military Police station in Aden, a British protectorate in the Middle East, it's 1965, and the sun is setting on the British Empire. 

Rather than sinking deep into the politics of the time, the story follows the military men trying to keep order among the restless locals, while their loyal - and not so loyal - wives wait for them back at base. 

In this arid desert, it's not just the weather that's hot and steamy. First broadcast on Sunday nights, the show favoured sex and glamour over dust and guns, with headline stars Jessica Raine (who'd made her name in Call The Midwife) and Jessie Buckley (who had just started her dramatic ascendancy with War & Peace) keeping the melodrama steamy, but also interesting, and Ben Miles and Stephen Campbell Moore among the men taking more of a backseat to the action. (Six episodes)

Ripley

Andrew Scott stars in an eight-part take on the 1960s-set con artist story

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

The 1999 movie of Patricia Highsmith's novel, The Talented Mr Ripley, left you wanting more of the con artist character at its centre. Andrew Scott gives you just that in Netflix's eight-part take on the same source material, following Ripley from New York to Italy as he insinuates himself into the life of clueless American playboy Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) and his justly suspicious fiancée, Marge (Dakota Fanning). 

Set in sunny Italy but filmed in black and white, the series has much more space to give us a rounded portrait of Ripley, to the extent that you may even find yourself sympathising with him early on: he's ripped off by an Italian taxi driver and trudges around the country, unable to speak the language, desperately looking for his ticket to a better life. 

You see a lot of his struggle, in short - perhaps a little too much for some tastes. Still, it scarcely matters as Scott is, of course, brilliant in the lead. The character of Ripley is a mimic and Scott, as an actor, is fantastic at that - when he starts to copy Dickie it's genuinely unsettling and weirdly accurate, despite the fact that Scott looks nothing like Flynn. And that performance is allowed to stand largely on its own, with no fancy cuts and barely any background music. Flynn and Fanning are both excellent too, and Fanning in particular does a lot with a look. But this is Scott's show, and justly so. (Eight episodes) 

The Circle

The US version of the social media reality contest

Year: 2020-

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

Previous series of this US reality show, based on the British original, were filmed in the same block of flats in Manchester, but the latest sixth run relocates to an apartment block in Atlanta, Georgia. Not that the contestants will see much of the new location, mind you. As always they're going to be closeted away in separate rooms from each other, communicating only through a specially designed social media app that allows them to present whatever appearance and character they desire as they compete for popularity and a chance to win the huge cash prize. There is another change they won't be aware of at all, though - one of the contenders in series six is actually an AI bot.

It's fun stuff, designed to appear to younger viewers ready to embrace its heady trademarked combination of flirting, deceit, hashtagging and catfishing. (Six series)

Charmed

Magical cult series about a trio of witches in San Francisco

Year: 1998-2006

Certificate: 12

Witchcraft and romance with a distinctly soapy vibe, this feels like Beverly Hills 90210 with added spells. No wonder, as it's from the same producer, the prolific Aaron Spelling, who as well as 90210 brought us Hart To Hart and Dynasty in the late 1970s and 1980s, as well as Melrose Place in the 1990s. 

The show follows the Halliwell sisters, a trio of good witches - Shannen Doherty's Prue, Holly Marie Combs as Piper, Alyssa Milano as Phoebe (with Rose McGowan as half-sister Paige from series four) - as they put on a united front to battle demons and warlocks in present day San Francisco, all while trying to find love and happiness. It was a huge hit internationally and has retained a devoted cult following ever since. (Eight series)

Constellations

Zoë Wanamaker and Peter Capaldi are among four pairings performing an unconventional romance

Year: 2021

Watch now on National Theatre At Home

A quantum physicist and a beekeeper meet at a barbecue. It sounds like the opening line to a joke, but it's also the set-up of Nick Payne's dizzyingly clever love play, a poignant story that shows us the same romance with four different casts. 

You can watch one, two or all four pairings on National Theatre At Home but, before you do, there's another wrinkle to understand: each pair aren't just performing a romance. They show us how each choice at each stage of the relationship could have played differently, as if we were seeing the same couple in multiple realities across a single hour. 

Zoë Wanamaker and Peter Capaldi are the most high profile pair, but there's also Sheila Atim (The Woman King) and Ivanno Jeremiah (Humans), Russell Tovey (Him & Her) and Omari Douglas (It's A Sin), and Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland) and Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids). 

If you like a love story this is a great twist on that; if you like quality acting it's a great lesson in how different choices with the same lines can yield subtle variations; and if you like thought experiments, there's a really interesting through line in this about free will. Long story short, this is a concise argument for the power of performance and utterly gripping to boot. (240 minutes - 60 each)

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