If you're looking for some brilliant TV shows to watch this weekend, look no further.
From the latest dragon drama in the hit Game Of Thrones prequel to a gritty revenge thriller and the latest Taylor Swift documentary, there is something to suit every taste.
Our critics have picked out the must-watch movies, as well as laugh-out-loud comedy shows and series.
And for sports fans there is a fascinating documentary about one of the most iconic tennis stars ever to have played the game.
House Of The Dragon (Series 2)
Grisly Game Of Thrones prequel returns for a new series
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
A lot happened in series one of this Game Of Thrones prequel but the short version - stop reading now if you're yet to catch up - is that the Targaryens are poised on the edge of war with each other, and a lot of dragons are going to be involved.
The big, single development in the finale was the death of Rhaenyra's son Luke and that's still driving events here, as the opening episode takes us on a tour of what's what in Westeros. We open with a very familiar sight - the Frozen North, and the Wall - and the very familiar accent of the Starks, who tell us that 'winter is coming'.
That's an epic piece of scene-setting but at the core of this show is a drama about a wildly dysfunctional family who happen to be in charge of armies and dragons, and that's what's built over the course of the opener, as Rhaenyra mourns and rages, Daemon (Matt Smith) schemes revenge, and new King Aegon II starts to test his limits.
In between these scenes we see dragons cruising through the sky like huge airborne tanks, foreshadowing the long, bloody war to come, but this episode isn't all about building tension and reminding us who everyone is. No spoilers here, but you'll be wishing it was a box set drop by the time the first episode's final scene is over. (Eight episodes)
Trigger Warning
Jessica Alba punches her way to justice in this gritty revenge thriller
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
In the early 2000s, Jessica Alba showed us that she had the right stuff (and then some) to be an action star when she took the lead in Dark Angel, a TV show created by James Cameron about a genetically enhanced supersoldier. She hasn't always had the chance to fully stretch those muscles since, but this Netflix movie - her first film since 2019 - is ample proof of why she should.
Alba, whose real-life dad was in the US Air Force, stars as Parker, a Special Forces commando who, after coming home to bury her father, comes into contact with a distinctly dodgy-looking politician played by 1980s favourite Anthony Michael Hall.
The question of what he really wants - and why her dad died - takes up the rest of the movie, as Parker believably kicks and punches her way to justice, and even occasionally ties her hair back to do it. Give this woman a franchise. (106 minutes)
Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun: Bad Blood
The $300 million dispute between Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun, told from both sides
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Taylor Swift is one of the most successful musicians in history, with billions in earnings and millions of fans around the world. When the music mogul Scooter Braun bought the rights to the masters from her first six albums, Swift said she wasn't consulted and that she had no way of buying them back - and set about re-recording them. Her fans were outraged, and Braun was cast as the bad guy; for his part, Scooter claimed that Swift wouldn't negotiate and turned it into a feud using her fans, instead.
Swift's story has become the dominant narrative and this means the facts aren't always easy to discern on casual inspection. This insightful two-part dive into this 'Goliath vs Goliath' fight follows in the footsteps of Discovery's Jonny vs Amber and Vardy vs Rooney: The Wagatha Trial, detailing the $300 million spat from both sides - cheekily titled Taylor's Version and Scooter's Version - with insight from insiders and analysis from experts. If you think you know what happened, this may provide an intriguing re-education. (Two episodes)
Peaco*ck
British gym comedy about a wildly insecure personal trainer
Year: 2022-
If you like the BBC3 comedy People Just Do Nothing, give this gym comedy a whirl. Andy Peaco*ck (Allan Mustafa) is an out-of-shape personal trainer at a gym who talks big, but mostly misses the mark. There's a lot of posing, but Peaco*ck's ego is underpinned by insecurity and sensitivity - he wants to change, and the show follows his misfiring efforts at personal growth.
Allan Mustafa, who was also in People Just Do Nothing, is a great comic actor who excels at playing ordinary guys who are heroically deluded (a bit like The Office's David Brent). In Peaco*ck, you really hope he succeeds, but the problem with that is that, as soon as he does, the show will stop being funny. There's no sign of that at the start of the second series, which starts with a similar premise to the first - Peaco*ck is up for a promotion that, no spoilers, he is very unlikely to get. (Two series)
Sleeping Dogs
Russell Crowe and Karen Gillan star in this thought-provoking mystery about memory loss
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
How much do our memories shape our personalities? That question looms out of this noirish thriller starring Russell Crowe as an ex-homicide detective undergoing an experimental treatment for Alzheimer's.
As Roy (Crowe) starts to pick at the loose strands of one of his old cases, he uncovers a tangled web of deceit that clearly threatens those around him with a more... complete recollection of what they've been through together. One of the most compelling threads he finds is a femme fatale with a taste for men, manipulation and whisky, played with vintage style by Karen Gillan.
The quality of the filmmaking isn't always quite up to the quality of the cast, and the script suffers the odd lurch into cliche, but watching Crowe's character slowly puzzle things out is a real pleasure, and the idea that it's hard to know what's real keeps you continually on your toes. Gillan's Laura Baines is a hugely enjoyable wild card, too, once you get beyond the clumsy scene in which she's introduced. All said and done, it's a good rainy afternoon movie. (110 minutes)
Super Surgeons: A Chance At Life
Behind the scenes as surgeons attempt pioneering treatments to save lives
Year: 2022-
Certificate: 12
This returning series comes from London's Royal Marsden Hospital, a world-leading centre for the treatment of cancer. This is the very extreme end of surgery, where specialists push the limits of what is possible. It's truly jaw-dropping stuff, delivered with great skill, care and compassion.
For 18-year-old Anthea, a cancer diagnosis at such a young age was a terrible shock but to learn that she would also lose her arm to treat the rare and sizeable sarcoma found there was even more devastating, and would put paid to her plans to become a midwife. Surgeon Andy Hayes had other ideas and opts to operate, navigating multiple blood vessels, muscle and nerve ('nerves really don't like being operated on') to ty to ensure Anthea would keep function in her hand. Cam, meanwhile, has been living with testicular cancer for many years and, despite multiple operations, chemo and stem-cell therapy, it has now progressed to the base of his spine. Another deeply complex operation awaits.
You will need to be prepared for glistening close-ups of tissue and organs, and for the fact that there are not happy endings for everyone. (Two series)
Federer: Twelve Final Days
Documentary recounting tennis great Roger Federer's retirement from the sport
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
In September 2022, Roger Federer retired from professional tennis following the Laver Cup team competition in London. This intensely personal documentary recounts those bittersweet final days of the great Swiss player's professional sporting life, while also looking back over an incredible playing career that saw him bag 20 major men's singles titles, including a record eight men's singles titles at Wimbledon.
Senna and Amy director Asif Kapadia crafts a poignant tribute to one of tennis's greatest talents, capturing Federer's incredible on-court athleticism and off-court graciousness, as well as his reflections on ageing, his sporting legacy and just how he came to the decision to retire.
Interviews with Federer's three main rivals - Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal - illustrate Federer's standing, while candid chats with the man himself offer a unique glimpse into the mindset of a true sporting great. (100 minutes)
The Assistant
An assistant fears her boss is sexually harassing the new girl
Year: 2019
Certificate: 15
Inspired by the Harvey Weinstein revelations, this powerful drama stars Julia Garner, the Emmy Award-winning Ozark actress, as a young woman facing a 'Me Too' moral dilemma in a workplace - a movie production company mirrored on Weinstein's Miramax - that is heavy with sexual harassment.
Garner's Jane is the entire focus of the film - the harassing boss himself is barely seen, but his presence looms in almost every discussion, in every scene. Taking place over a single day, the atmosphere of the film is cool and quiet, but the creeping sense of dread palpable. It's a crucial day for Jane, one in which she realises the rumours are true, and this successful company has no interest in doing anything about the situation.
Warner is fantastic in a more compliant role than her perpetually confrontational Ruth in Ozark, proving she's an actress with plenty more to give. (87 mins)
Black Barbie
Celebrating the women behind the first black Barbie doll
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
In the wake of the success of the 2023 film, Barbie has arguably never been as famous. But there are still parts of the iconic toy's history that remain little known, not least the 20-year struggle to create the first-ever black version of the doll. Executive produced by Bridgerton's Shonda Rhimes, this film tells that story, interviewing the trio of women who challenged the corporate structure at Mattel in the 1960s and 70s as they battled to get the new version of the doll onto the toy-store shelves of America.
It's a fascinating film that examines not just the entrenched and often outdated values of US business, but also the importance of representation and the need for generations of girls who weren't white and blonde haired to be able to see themselves in the toys that they played with. (100 mins)
Bread & Roses
Documentary film looking at the lives of three women under Taliban rule in Afghanistan
Year: 2023
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, the lives of millions of women were suddenly and brutally altered. The right to work and go to school vanished, and for many women even the ability to leave their home unaccompanied became just a distant memory.
Produced by Jennifer Lawrence and directed by Afghan director Sahra Mani, this unmissable documentary highlights a tragedy that the world is seemingly willing to ignore by telling it through the eyes of three specific young women.
Zahra, Taranom and Sharifa risk everything to protest against a regime that refuses to allow them to have any agency of their own, and imposes brutal sanctions on any woman who does not slot into the box of virgin child or obedient housewife. It's a must-watch documentary full of sadness, passion and huge amounts of courage. (90 minutes)
Bohemian Rhapsody
Freddie Mercury biopic starring an Oscar-winning Rami Malek
Year: 2018
Certificate: 12
Rami Malek won an Oscar for his triumphant portrayal of Freddie Mercury in this blockbuster biopic of the Queen front man - to a collective cheer from fans. In spite of a lukewarm reception from critics, the film went on to rock the box office - much like the band itself and the song the film is named after. Panned by critics, operatic epic Bohemian Rhapsody became a global hit, launching Freddie and the band into packed stadiums around the world.
In the film, we follow Freddie as he emerges as a confident showman with a big, big voice and, even though his story is tempered by the sadness of what is to come, the bold songs are the best way to remember him - and they are here in all their crowd-pleasing glory. (135 minutes)
Jack Whitehall - The Gala
Jack Whitehall hosts a comedy special at Canada's Just For Laughs festival
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
When he's not acting in comedy shows like Bad Education, presenting the BRIT awards, starring in Hollywood blockbusters with Dwayne Johnson (Jungle Cruise) or travelling the world with his dad, Jack Whitehall is also a stand-up comic. His most recent arena tour, 2023's Settle Down, is available as a Netflix special.
Also in 2023, Whitehall hosted a gala at the legendary Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, Canada, where he introduced a star-studded line-up from around the world, including Irish trio Foil Arms and Hog, Americans Judy Gold and Langston Kerman, and Kiwi Melanie Bracewell . A must for live comedy fans.
Before We Was We: Madness By Madness
The British two-tone-pop band tell their colourful story in their own words
Year: 2021
Certificate: 12
Find out where the band came from, the London they grew up in, and the events that shaped them and their music, in this entertaining look at their formative years. The band members are all great raconteurs, with many a colourful story to tell about their youth, misspent and meandering around the bleak landscape of London in the late 1960s and early 1970s - until they formed the band and found a purpose.
Many of the original band members were working-class lads, or came from broken homes, their young lives marked by boredom, petty crime, and an awful lot of, as frontman Suggs puts it, 'farting about'. Examples include climbing up drainpipes to get into cinemas and breaking into the home of singer Lynsey de Paul (but not stealing anything). A few had stints inside when the hijinks went too far - and they got caught.
By the end of the first episode, they had nothing else to do but form a band. The remaining two episodes chart those stumbling early years before the big-time hit and their breakout at home and in America, scoring 16 top-ten singles including House Of Fun, Baggy Trousers and It Must Be Love. (Three episodes)
We Were The Lucky Ones
Drama series about the members of a Jewish family battling to survive the Second World War
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
In the days before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Jewish Kurc family lived comfortable, happy lives in Poland. But as the anti-semitism of the Nazis swept across the country, the family members found themselves separated across Europe and beyond, battling for survival, unsure if they would ever see each other again.
Based on a true story, this sprawling eight-part drama spans the entire war, stretching from the Warsaw ghetto to wartime France, from Soviet prison camps to the battlefield of Monte Cassino, as the Kurcs struggle to survive in the face of almost unimaginable horrors.
It is tense and tragic, as well as brutal and hard-hitting, but it's also ultimately hopeful, with a fine ensemble cast including Joey King (The Act), Logan Lerman (the Percy Jackson movies), Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Archie) and Sam Woolf (The Witcher). (Eight episodes)
James Blunt: One Brit Wonder
Documenting the comeback of the You're Beautiful singer known for his self-deprecating tweets
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
James Blunt is best known for his hit single You're Beautiful, which shot to number one in the UK and US after it was released in 2005. A vicious backlash followed the enormous fame that came from that song, even from people in the industry - Paul Weller said some famously unpleasant things about what he'd rather do than work with Blunt, for instance.
The Army officer-turned-singer endured some 'lonely moments' as a result of all that, but he became known for something else as a result - writing his own hilariously self-deprecating tweets. 'If someone's just going to come up and punch you, you might as well just punch yourself first,' he reflects in a documentary for which he ponders that the perfect ending would probably be his demise, and it's that very British sense of humour that makes his comeback story so appealing. It was filmed during his 2022 tour and released in cinemas, fittingly enough, for one night only in 2023. (94 minutes)
Yellowstone: One-Fifty
Kevin Costner fronts a documentary series look at Yellowstone National Park
Year: 2022
Certificate: pg
Don't go into this documentary series expecting the latest spin-off from the Yellowstone drama show. It may feature Kevin Costner, but it's very much the actor being himself rather than hard-nosed rancher John Dutton.
This four-part series sees Costner following in the footsteps of geologist Ferdinand Hayden, whose exploration of the area helped lead to it being set aside as America and the world's first national park. It's stirring stuff full of snippets of letters and journals and some stunning wildlife footage.
Costner is an affable, determined everyman at the centre of it all, trekking through snowdrifts and staring out across the rocky landscape as he investigates just how much - if at all - the park has changed in the century and a half since it was established. (Four episodes)
Dead Calm: Killing In The Med?
Hard-hitting investigation into the handling of illegal migrant boats in Greek waters
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
When you think of coastguards, you think of heroic search-and-rescue workers plucking unfortunate mariners from the sea - you don't think of masked men in black shirts and fatigues who look more like commandos or mercenaries. This deeply depressing documentary raises serious concerns over the way the Greek coastguard is patrolling the waters and using extreme and deadly measures to curtail illegal migration by boat.
We hear from survivors of the 2023 Adriana disaster, which claimed the lives of an estimated 500 men, women and children from Syria, Palestine and Pakistan, and from reporters who question the official account of how the boat went down. The accusations don't end there, with chilling reports of what is done to the illegal migrants that do make it to shore.
The question mark in the title of this documentary is telling, but if any of the accusations - strenuously denied by the Greek government who say they observe a 'tough but fair migration policy' - are true, they represent a damning rejection of international law by Greek authorities. (90 minutes)
Porters
Rutger Hauer features in Dan Sefton's sitcom about a hospital's less glamorous staff members
Year: 2017-2019
Rutger Hauer - yes, Rutger Hauer, of Blade Runner - co-stars in this sitcom from ex-doctor Dan Sefton, which was originally shown on the Freeview channel Dave and is set among the porters at a hospital. Kelsey Grammer and Mathew Horne also pop up in the first episode but it's Hauer as a veteran porter from Germany, with a fondness for the music of the Backstreet Boys, who lifts it into the extraordinary across the three episode first series.
Our main character, and way into the world of the hospital's less glamorous staff, is actually the hapless Simon Porter (Edward Easton) and that's still the case in the longer, six-part second series. Hauer is, sadly, less of a presence in series two but that's mostly offset by the arrival of Daniel Mays as Anthony De La Mer, a porter who once hoped to be an actor. The show feels more like a sitcom in series two - still funny, but in a less singular way than series one, which feels more like a film broken into three parts. (Two series)
Cult Massacre: One Day In Jonestown
Documentary series telling the story of the 1978 Jonestown massacre
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Against the background of racial strife in 1970s America, church leader Jim Jones decided to set up his own idealised community far away from it all in the jungles of Guyana. Jonestown was created with the idea of founding a Utopian paradise on earth but it swiftly became a hell of abuse, manipulation and domineering control that ended in 1978 with the murder-suicide of 918 people.
This gripping three-part documentary series tells the story in full, from Jones's early days through to the horror of the end as rumours of the deaths spread and the US dispatched troops to try to halt what was going on. Testimony from survivors and eye-witnesses only adds to the shuddering power of the films as they recount the unfolding of a genuine tragedy. (Three episodes)
Adam Lambert: Out, Loud & Proud
The Queen front man celebrates British LGBTQ+ musical trailblazers
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Adam Lambert is your host for this whistlestop tour of the highs and lows of being LGBTQ+ in the music industry. Lambert has toured as the front man of Queen for ten years, being careful to say he's there to pay tribute to the late great Freddie Mercury, and certainly not to replace him. It won't have escaped anyone's notice that while Freddie never publicly discussed his sexuality, Lambert is, today at least, out and proud.
Lambert speaks to a host of artists but starts by sitting down with his Queen bandmates Brian May and Roger Taylor to reflect on how times has changed. First the vocabulary: Queer was not a word used in the 1970s or 80s and Freddie, as May points out, would have said: 'I'm not queer, I'm normal, darling.'
Nowadays, the term is one of affirmation not abuse and as Lambert meets more queer artists, including Erasure frontman Andy Bell and Skin from Skunk Anansie, there's anger and frustration at the hom*ophobia that has stalked them and other great artists, including George Michael and Elton John. But ultimately, this comes across as a celebration of great musical artists being true to themselves. (60 minutes)
