Chances are, you've been out this week. Probably having a damn good time and now that it's the weekend, you're in need of some quality television to entertain you through the rainy afternoons.
We've taken a scour of all the new titles added to iPlayer this week and here's our pick of the best that the BBC has to offer from the past seven days.
(Images: BBC/AllStar)
Teenage Tommies
Around 250,000 boys under the age of 18 signed up to fight in World War I. Fergal Keane traces some of their descendants to try and find out what made the teenagers enlist; was it patriotism, or the spirit of adventure? This programme explains how the child soldiers coped with the realities of war, and how, as the casualties began to mount, a movement grew in Britain to get them home.
The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity
Thanks to the Philae mission, we know what can go wrong when you land a probe the size of a washing machine on a comet. However, this 1975 Gerry Anderson sci-fi classic asks a much more interesting intergalactic question. Chiefly, what happens if you pelt Brian Blessed with meteors? Of course, no man was ever better equipped – none bushier of beard or boominger of voice - to be Britain’s answer to Buck Rogers. Worth watching just to see the old ham crammed into his astronaut’s onesie.
Puppy Love
From Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine, co-creators and co-stars of the Jo Brand comedy Getting On, comes this new BBC Four comedy about dog trainers in the Wirral. In episode one, Nana V (Scanlan) and Naomi Singh (Pepperdine) find themselves vying for the attention of local widower Alexander Moss (Tobias Menzies), whose dog can’t stop eating other dog’s doings. Think Best In Show, only with Terri from The Thick Of It and jokes about dogging.
The Fall
It has been 18 months in the making, but the second series of this chilling and intense drama is finally underway. Episode one picks up the story of DSI Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) and her pursuit of murderous bereavement counsellor Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) from almost exactly where we left off. Spector flits from compassionate and loving father to night-stalking serial killer with an ease that makes your skin crawl. Turns out there are skeletons in Stella’s closet, too. (Though not as bad as multiple homicides, obviously.)
Mastertapes - Rufus Wainwright: Want One
Rufus Wainwright recounts the making and legacy of his 2003 album Want One. In conversation with John Wilson at Maida Vale studios, Wainwright performs some songs from that record, as well as a moving a capella tribute to his mother, the late Kate McGarrigle. The programme also features Rufus’ first-ever recorded performance, as part of a Canadian children’s film.
Doctor Who: Death In Heaven
The Thick Of It
