PICK OF PAY TV AND MOVIES

NETFLIX

NEW! ELITE (Season 4) ★★★ The return of Netflix’s racy Spanish teen drama about working-class pupils at a fancy private school, where all manner of things happen – including murder. From Friday.

LAST CHANCE RED DWARF (Seasons 1-8) ★★★★ The BBC episodes of this great British space comedy leave Netflix, but can still be found on Britbox. Until Monday.

NEW! PENGUIN TOWN (All eight episodes) ★★★★ Every summer, African penguins come ashore at Simon’s Town in South Africa, and begin an extended mating ritual. This new documentary series, which loves to treat them like people, follows the endearing and endangered creatures as they pair up and try to repopulate the species.

From Wednesday. MOVIE FATHERHOOD (2021) 12 u ★★★

Uplifting, based-on-truth comedy starring Kevin Hart (Jumanji: The Next Level) as a widower parenting as best he can after his wife dies. It was originally destined for cinemas – and was meant to star Channing Tatum – but was picked up by Netflix during the pandemic. From Friday.

AMAZON PRIME

NEW! PRIME DAY SHOW (All three episodes) ★★★ This ‘immersive musical event’, featuring Billie Eilish, H.E.R. and Kid Cudi, will be available whether or not you have an Amazon subscription. It comprises three fusions of ‘performance and storytelling’ – essentially, hyper-produced half-hour musical shows – in settings inspired by Paris (Eilish), LA’S Dunbar Hotel (H.E.R.), and space (Cudi). From Thursday.

DRAMA CODE BLACK (Seasons 1-3) ★★★ This edgy LA hospital drama picks up a big star in season three – Rob Lowe as a heroic Army medic, who arrives in style.

MOVIE OUR FRIEND (2021) 12 u ★★★ Brad Ingelsby wrote

Mare Of Easttown, and also the screenplay for this much cleaner, life-affirming and fact-based story of illness and friendship. When couple Nicole (Dakota Johnson) and Matt (Casey Affleck) receive bad news, their pal (Jason Segel) moves in to help. From Friday.

MOVIE GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS

(2019) 12 u ★★★ Popcorn fantasy in which Godzilla faces an enemy who is not part of Earth’s natural order. Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler and Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown star. From Friday.

SKY / NOW

DRAMA MILDRED PIERCE (All five parts) ★★★★★ Mare Of Easttown was arguably Kate Winslet’s finest acting hour, and it came on TV. She’s also excellent in this HBO take on James M. Cain’s novel as mother-of-two Mildred, who must find her way in 1930s

California after her husband leaves. Mare’s Guy Pearce plays a romantic interest in this, too.

COMEDY LIVING THE DREAM

(Seasons 1-2) ★★★ A Yorkshire family run a caravan park in Florida in Sky’s cheery comedy drama, with Lesley Sharp.

DISNEY+

NEW! LOVE, VICTOR (Season 2, Episode 1) ★★★ Victor has come out to his parents as this sweet US high-school drama returns. He feels happier as a result, but their reaction to his sexuality is complicated.

A new episode arrives every Friday.

MOVIE LUCA (2021) PG ● ★★★ Pixar’s latest gorgeously animated adventure is about two boys having a lovely summer on the Italian Riviera in the 1950s. There’s just one problem: Luca and Alberto are both secretly sea monsters, and the locals love nothing more than fishing. From Friday.

BEST OF THE REST

NEW! PHYSICAL (Apple TV+) ★★★★ Rose Byrne (below) is the dynamite star of Apple’s dark, ten-part comedy about a housewife finding herself through aerobics in 1980s San Diego. It has a great sense of time and place, plus a sense of humour that twists like a knife. This could be Apple’s equivalent to Netflix’s Glow. Episodes 1-3 from Friday, then weekly.

NEW! BLINDSPOTTING

(Starzplay) ★★★ Lyrical and natural comedy series set in an offbeat California home. Helen Hunt co-stars. From tomorrow.

PAY MOVIES

AMMONITE (2020) 15 u (BT Film Store, Sky Store, Virgin) ★★★★ Saoirse

Ronan and Kate Winslet star in this subtle romance between two women in 1840s England. It’s based on the life of fossil expert Mary Anning, and there’s a lovely, unforced poetry to the way it plays.

UNDINE (2021) 12 u (BT Film Store, Virgin) ★★★★ Eerie, dark urban fantasy about Undine (an award-winning Paula Beer), a lecturer in Berlin, who may or may not be a mythical creature, and whose response to a break-up is startling. Both from Monday.