The best UK TV this week from Only Murders in the Building to Alone

David Brown
·5-min read
Alone, Only Murders In The Building, Painkiller, and new BBC wedding series are among the UK TV highlights for the week ahead. (Channel 4/Disney+/Netflix/Alibi/BBC/ITVX)
Alone, Only Murders In The Building, Painkiller, and new BBC wedding series are among the UK TV highlights for the week ahead. (Channel 4/Disney+/Netflix/Alibi/BBC/ITVX)

On UK TV this week Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep join the cast of Only Murders in the Building as the cosy comedic whodunnit returns for a third season.

Plus gruelling survival series Alone arrives in the UK, The Last Leg’s Adam Hills is looking to fulfil his rugby dream, ITVX is investigating disgraced comedian Bill Cosby, and Nicola Walker returns to the Scottish waters for a new series of Annika…

Here's Yahoo's guide to the best UK TV to tune in to over the coming seven days.

Sunday 6 August, 9.00pm: Alone | Channel 4

Naomi - Alone. (Channel 4)
Naomi - Alone. (Channel 4)

This extreme and uncompromising survival series has already proved to be a hit in America, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. But now we get the UK version, which will see 10 contestants dropped into the remote northern Canadian wilderness, where they’ll be tasked with surviving completely alone.

Read more: Is Alone Channel 4's toughest reality show yet?

Equipped with just basic tools (and a camera to film their ordeal), each participant must battle adverse weather, loneliness – and maybe even the odd wild bear. The incentive, though, is a strong one, as whoever lasts longest out in the elements bags a £100,000 prize.

Tuesday, 8 August, 9.00pm: Ultimate Wedding Planner | BBC2

Ultimate Wedding Planner,08/08/2023,Series,Series,(Judges) L-R: Raj Somaiya , Sara Davies, Fred Sirieix,Portrait,BBCS Production,Graeme Hunter
Raj Somaiya , Sara Davies, Fred Sirieix, (BBCS Production, Graeme Hunter)

In another variant on the Bake Off/Sewing Bee/Pottery Throwdown style of talent contest, we now see eight wedding planners going into battle to prove that they are Britain’s next best wedding expert.

Their task? To design spectacular ceremonies for six couples. And judging their efforts? Dragons’ Den’s Sara Davies, First Dates favourite Fred Sirieix and industry expert Raj Somaiya, who’ll be tasked with sending home the weakest planner each week until just two remain in the final. It’s a familiar format – but this time there’s extra tulle and taffeta.

Tuesday 8 August: Only Murders in the Building (season 3, episodes 1 and 2) | Disney+

Only Murders in the Building -- “Thirty” - Episode 309 -- The trio have amassed a plethora (oh yes, a plethora) of clues, suspects & theories but find no concrete answers about Ben’s murder. They devise a peculiar method of throwing themselves into the actual case to recreate the final moments of Ben’s life. Oliver (Martin Short), Mabel (Selena Gomez) and Charles (Steve Martin), shown. (Photo by: Patrick Harbron/Hulu)
Oliver (Martin Short), Mabel (Selena Gomez) and Charles (Steve Martin) (Patrick Harbron/Hulu)

There’s an even starrier line-up for season three, which sees our trio of crime-solving podcasters Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez joined by a couple of Hollywood A-listers: Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep.

Read more: Only Murders successfully updates its formula in S3

Rudd, of course, put in a brief appearance at the climax to the previous season in a scene that saw his alter-ego Ben Glenroy drop down dead after taking the lead in a play directed by Oliver (Short). As the events leading up to his shock demise are charted, Streep’s mysterious new character will also find herself part of the ever-engaging mix of comedy and sleuthing.

Wednesday 9 August, 9.00pm: Annika (season 2) | Alibi

Annika S2 - Series Image Picture shows: (L-R) Katie Leung as DC Blair Ferguson, Ukweli Roach as DS Tyrone Clarke, Nicola Walker as DI Annika Strandhed, Jamie Sives as DS Michael McAndrews and Varada Sethu as DC Harper Weston (Alibi)
Katie Leung as DC Blair Ferguson, Ukweli Roach as DS Tyrone Clarke, Nicola Walker as DI Annika Strandhed, Jamie Sives as DS Michael McAndrews and Varada Sethu as DC Harper Weston (Alibi)

Scotland’s waters continue to be a perilous place to be, with DI Annika Strandhed (Nicola Walker) and the rest of the Marine Homicide Unit set to be kept busy in the second series of the quirky crime drama.

These latest episodes will feature more complex murders to investigate, while on the domestic front, Annika’s family dynamics start to prove tricky when long-held secrets from the past start to threaten her relationships. Ukweli Roach – also a current key player in the BBC’s Wolf – co-stars.

Thursday 10 August: The Case Against Cosby | ITVX

From Rive Gauche Productions THE CASE AGAINST COSBY streaming exclusively on ITVX from Thursday 10th August 2023 Pictured : Andrea Constand Andrea Constand was assaulted by Cosby on January 6, 2004 and spent the next 15 years of her life pursuing justice. Of the sixty-three women who have come forward to accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault, only one was able to gain a conviction. This is her story. In January 2004, a beautiful, young former basketball player in the prime of her life is invited to visit the home of her mentor. A man forty years her senior whom she has known for two years, who has guided her and offered to help her with her career. A man she has come to consider a friend; known to millions as “America’s Dad:” respected, loved, and trusted. Andrea reported the assault to police, but the DA at the time refused to take the case to court, certain the evidence would not lead to a conviction. She says, “I wanted Bill Cosby in jail for what he did to me, but I couldn’t get that, so my lawyers launched a civil suit in 2005.” During a deposition in that civil suit, Cosby admitted to using drugs in the pursuit of sex with young women. That admission was followed quickly by an offer to settle and an iron-clad NDA. The truth of that admission, that Andrea was one of many women drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby, was locked away for a decade until a young black comedian called Cosby a rapist on stage. A journalist sitting in the audience pulled out his phone, and the video went viral overnight. The viral video would cause more women to come forward, revealing five decades of predation. A new DA is elected in Philadelphia who approaches Andrea offering finally to take Cosby to court on criminal charges. The announcement is made just a week before the statute of limitations is due to run out on her case. After spending close to a decade repairing her life bound by a non-disclosure agreement, Andrea at last can step forward to defend her truth in court, in front of the world. That trial ends in a hung jury, but then, amidst the world-changing events of the #MeToo movement, a new trial finally leads to the guilty verdict and conviction and incarceration of Bill Cosby. With intimate access to Andrea and her family, Cosby’s prosecutors, journalists in the courtroom, and experts on predation, pedophilia, and trauma, we are taken on a journey that will leave us shocked, informed, and deeply changed. Woven throughout the riveting legal story are the first-person accounts of five Cosby survivors as they confront the impact of sexual trauma with world-renowned physician and best-selling author Gabor Maté. We will bear witness to the power of healing as these women find strength in one other. A heroine’s journey, The Case Against Cosby is a 2 x 1hr documentary that reveals how one woman’s unstoppable courage and search for justice helped raise the voice of an entire generation of women seeking lasting change. (C) Rive Gauche Productions For further information please contact Peter Gray Mob 07831460662 / peter.gray@itv.com This photograph is (C) Rive Gauche Productions and can only be reproduced for editorial purposes directly in connection with the programme or event mentioned herein. Once made available by ITV plc Picture Desk, this photograph can be reproduced once only up until the transmission [TX] date and no reproduction fee will be charged. Any subsequent usage may incur a fee. This photograph must not be manipulated [excluding basic cropping] in a manner which alters the visual appearance of the person photographed deemed detrimental or inappropriate by ITV plc Picture Desk. This photograph must not be syndicated to any other company, publication or website, or permanently archived, without the express written permission of ITV Picture Desk. Full Terms and conditions are available on the website www.itv.com/presscentre/itvpictures/terms
Andrea Constand (Rive Gauche Productions)

The downfall of Bill Cosby has been charted once already this year in W Kamau Bell’s We Need to Talk about Cosby (still available on BBC iPlayer). But this new true-crime documentary spotlights the woman who was able to gain a conviction against the comedian: Andrea Constand.

The production team has gained access to Constand herself as well as family members and Cosby’s prosecutors. But threaded through too is testimony with five Cosby survivors, who discuss the impact of sexual trauma.

Thursday 10 August: Painkiller | Netflix

Painkiller. (L to R) John Rothman as Mortimer Sackler, Matthew Broderick as Richard Sackler, Sam Anderson as Raymond Sackler in episode 103 of Painkiller. Cr. Keri Anderson/Netflix © 2023
John Rothman as Mortimer Sackler, Matthew Broderick as Richard Sackler, Sam Anderson as Raymond Sackler (Keri Anderson/Netflix)

The invention of OxyContin comes under the spotlight in this new limited series about the origins and aftermath of the opioid crisis in America. Based on the book of the same name as well as the New Yorker article, ‘The Family that Built an Empire of Pain’, this six-part drama looks at a country forever altered – and a system that has failed hundreds of thousands of citizens.

Matthew Broderick stars as Richard Sackler, the US billionaire, physician and one-time president of Purdue Pharma, the company best known for its development of OxyContin.

Friday 11 August, 11.05pm: Adam Hills: Grow Another Foot | Channel 4

Adam Hills enters The Physical Disability Rugby League World Cup. (Channel 4)
Adam Hills enters The Physical Disability Rugby League World Cup. (Channel 4)

He may have been born with only one foot, but comedian and The Last Leg host Adam Hills has always dreamt of emulating his Rugby League heroes. Now, thanks to the Physical Disability Rugby League World Cup being held in the UK during 2022, he may well get to achieve his goal.

But before playing the sport he loves at an international level, Sydney-born Adam has a big choice to make: does he wear the green and gold of Australia or play alongside his regular rugby family who are competing in the England team? This 60-minute documentary reveals the decision he makes – and captures the bone-crunching action that follows.

Watch a trailer for Painkiller

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