Watch, listen and be inspired by Calum Henderson's definitive list of what's hot right now and from the vault.
The Essex Serpent (Apple TV+)
When your wealthy, abusive husband finally dies and you find yourself with the time and freedom to pursue your hobbies, what do you do? For amateur paleontologist Cora Seaborne (Claire Danes) the answer is obvious: you move to a small rural village and search for a mythical creature locals claim is lurking in the marshes.
The Apple TV+ adaptation of Sarah Perry's 2016 bestseller The Essex Serpent is like a deeply Gothic late-Victorian era X Files – in the best possible way. Curious widow Cora abandons London society for the windswept and permanently foggy Essex countryside after reading reports of a "monstrous serpent" in the paper. She arrives to some terrible news: a little girl has gone missing.
Gracie Banks was last seen leaving the village to sell lace, and hasn't been seen or heard from since. The locals are on tenterhooks, and vicar Will Ransome (Tom Hiddlestone) is trying his best to keep a lid on rumours it was the serpent what got her. In one of the great Gothic meet cutes, Cora bumps into him trying to rescue a sheep stuck in the marshes.
Vicar is, it seems, the only sceptic in the village, but seems to enjoy rigorous intellectual debates with the more open-minded Cora. "The serpent isn't real," he states unequivocally over dinner. "But what if it is?" she proposes. While these two are flirting up a storm, Cora also exchanges letters with her former husband's doctor back in London. Celebrity surgeon Dr Luke Garrett (Frank Dillane) makes his feelings very clear with his gift of a preserved slice of human heart.
Gloriously moody atmosphere, striking scenery and creeping sense of dread – it's all good stuff. Further proof that Apple TV+ is the place to be for consistently top-shelf TV these days.
Angelyne (TVNZ OnDemand)
Usually after reading a person's Wikipedia page you emerge with slightly a better idea of who they are and what they've done but this is not the case for Angelyne, who several hundred words later remains a total enigma. The very brief version of her bio is that she was a "blonde bombshell" famous for appearing on billboards around Los Angeles in the 1980s – a kind of proto-influencer, famous-for-being-famous type of deal. There's surely more to it than that, though, otherwise why would they bother to make a whole series about her life?
Night Sky (Prime Video)
Something about J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek as a couple just feels so right you'll probably want to do a quick search and check they're not actually married in real life. They're not, but In Night Sky they have been for more than 50 years – she's an English teacher, he's a retired woodworker, just a nice ordinary couple enjoying a nice ordinary life who it's also probably worth noting have a portal to a distant, deserted planet in their backyard. They do a pretty good job of keeping it on the down-low – but that all could change when a mysterious enigmatic stranger wanders through the portal.
Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (Neon)
Not one of Agatha Christie's better-known mysteries, but an Agatha Christie mystery nonetheless, and perhaps all the better for its relative obscurity. Why Didn't They Ask Evans? takes its title from the last words of a man found dying on a golf course, whose subsequent death is investigated not by the usual Christie detectives Marple or Poirot but by an amateur golfer turned amateur gumshoe (Will Poulter) and his well-heeled lady friend (Lucy Boynton). Hugh Laurie adapted and pops up in this three-part version, which also features turns from screen legends Emma Thompson and Jim Broadbent.
Movie of the Week: Together Together (Neon)
Patti Harrison has stolen every scene of everything she's ever been in (Shrill, I Think You Should Leave) by exclusively playing unhinged maniacs. Together Together proves she can do "normal acting" too, and is in fact very good at it. She plays the surrogate to a single 40-something square (Ed Helms, also playing it more toned down than usual) who decides to have a baby. Sounds like it could be very bad, but you'll be pleasantly surprised to learn it's actually an extremely likeable, heartwarming and well-crafted slice of comedy-drama.
From the Vault: Skins (2007) (TVNZ OnDemand)
Just as Euphoria offers an incredibly stressful glimpse into the secret lives of hard-partying US Zoomers, Skins took us deeper than anybody thought possible into the debauched world of British millennials. It was a different time – less social media, more bad haircuts and indie music – but the full range of hard-hitting issues was still well and truly on the table, in a way that felt groundbreaking then and still holds up better than most youth-oriented TV since. See for yourself now the full six seasons are available on TVNZ OnDemand.
Podcast of the Week: The Teacher's Trial
When it comes to providing real-life breakthroughs in murder cases, true-crime podcasts have proven only marginally more effective than the psychics on Sensing Murder. But one exception to this rule was the 2018 Australian sensation The Teacher's Pet, in which veteran journalist Hedley Thomas reinvestigated the unresolved 1982 disappearance of Lynette Dawson and quickly arrived at the conclusion she was murdered by her husband Chris, a teacher and former AFL footy star.
Now, as a direct result of the podcast, Chris Dawson is in court. And it's opened up a whole Pandora's box of problems, because it turns out the law takes a very dim view of true crime podcasts. This one's caused such a headache they've had to make it a judge-alone trial. In bringing the case to light and drawing new witnesses out of the woodwork, Thomas has accidentally broken the number one rule of old-school journos and put himself in the story – and in the dock as a witness.
That also means he can't actually report on the trial as it unfolds, so his colleagues have to take the mic for much of The Teacher's Trial. Whether you followed the original series or not, this is a fascinating study of what happens when true crime and real-life intersect.
