Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson team up in the cracking new thriller from Slow Horses creator Mick Herron, and Jimmy Carr’s new comedy will draw gasps by the minute. Plus: there’s a new Witcher!
When a gas main explodes in a quiet Oxford street it initially comes as a merciful respite from the awkward dinner party being hosted by Sarah Tucker (Ruth Wilson). But soon, the fallout from the explosion becomes more disconcerting. Sarah (by day, a bored art historian) turns detective when an attempt to deliver a card to a child injured in the blast drags her into a conspiracy; soon she’s in cahoots with Emma Thompson’s spiky PI Zoe Boehm and getting entirely out of her depth. As befits a thriller adapted from a novel by Slow Horses creator Mick Herron, it’s an enjoyably astringent, increasingly nervy mixture of edgewalking intrigue and unsentimental, pitch-black humour.
Apple TV, from Wednesday 29 October
Fresh from lampooning a repressive theocracy at the Riyadh Comedy Festival via the neat satirical device of accepting their money, Jimmy Carr returns to TV in this series derived from a popular Reddit subreddit. Ironically, it’s a show about, as Carr puts it, “defining the parameters of morality” - admissions of questionable behaviour are submitted to Carr (and his panel of Jamali Maddix and GK Barry) before an audience vote. The infractions are light-hearted, although one woman draws gasps for admitting to pushing her brother out of his wheelchair during childhood. Carr is clearly well placed to pass judgment.
