TV guide: 12 of the best new shows to watch, beginning tonight

David Morrissey and Lesley Manville return for a second season of the crime series set in Nottinghamshire, and they’re joined by new cast members including Robert Lindsay, David Harewood and Monica Dolan. Morrissey is DCI Ian St Clair, and in the first series he investigated a murder with connections to the miner’s strikes of 1984-85. In series two, again written by James Graham, the former mining town remains divided, and the Sparrow crime family retains a huge influence in the area. The storyline takes its cue from the gun violence that racked Nottingham in the early 2000s, when it was nicknamed “Shottingham”, and how the legacy of that turbulent period still resonates in the present.
He’s known as a comedian and presenter who enjoys getting out of his – and everyone else’s – comfort zone, but in this new series he’s trying on a new deerstalker hat as he turns celebrity sleuth. Ranganathan is taking on four cold cases with a difference, investigating the deaths of such cultural icons as guitarist Jimi Hendrix, Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen and, in the first episode, rapper Tupac Shakur. Ranganathan has always been fascinated by these famous deaths, and here he enlists the help of clinical psychologist and writer Dr Julia Shaw and a number of experts, eyewitnesses, friends and family members to get to the bottom of these enduring mysteries.
Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden had just got married and was about to go on honeymoon when she found a lump on her breast. This programme follows the dancer on her arduous, emotional journey from diagnosis to treatment to eventually returning to the line-up of professionals for the latest season of Strictly. “I’ve learnt so much about myself and what a cancer diagnosis means on this journey. I hope others find hope and strength from this film, and that it encourages everyone to check themselves, no matter what age you are,” she says.
How did more than 80,000 young women find themselves incarcerated in mother and baby homes during the 20th century, having committed no crime? And how did 9,000 infants die in these institutions, five times the average mortality rate for infants in Ireland? Stolen looks at the scandal of mother and baby homes, and the cruel, inhuman treatment by the Catholic Church of young unmarried women who became pregnant. Many had their children taken from them and put up for adoption, or fostered out as child farm labourers. When the scandal broke in recent years, it shocked the nation and sparked a government inquiry, and this programme will look at how this terrible injustice was allowed to happen in the first place.
They swarm in the summer months by rivers and lakes, annoying us while we try to have a picnic. But spare a thought for the people of Scotland, because they have to deal with the fearsome Scottish midge, a bloodsucking species of fly that causes havoc for anyone working or exercising outdoors. In this documentary, insect scientist Dr James Logan of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine goes in search of the Scottish midge (don’t worry – they’ll find you) and explores ways to avoid getting eaten alive by these Highland terrors.
This programme explores Traveller culture and tradition, and also advocates for greater respect for the rights of Travellers, looking at the challenges faced by the Traveller community in the areas of health, education and living conditions. Travellers discuss their hopes and aspirations for the future as many of them make the difficult transition from a nomadic to a settled life. The programme will also examine the huge contribution made by Travellers to Irish life throughout history. Contributors include Catherine Joyce of the Blanchardstown Development Group and playwright Michael Collins.
July 10th, 1999, was the day the world sat up and took notice of women’s sports, as the US women’s soccer team played a thrilling match against China to win the Women’s World Cup. The game was played in front of a sold-out crowd of 90,000 fans at California’s Rose Bowl, with the US winning a penalty shoot-out. This documentary revisits that pivotal moment for women’s sport, reunites key players from the squad of ‘99, and reflects on how women’s sport has evolved since that magic moment.
It’s the seventh series of Rob & Romesh vs, and this time Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan may have pushed the envelope a bit too far. In this series, they’ve decided to take on the stunt men and women of Hollywood – this could end in tears or broken limbs. The pair travel to Hollywood to meet Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, the stars of new movie The Fall Guy, and train with the film’s director, David Leitch. With their newfound knowledge, they’re ready to head back home to Blighty and try out their daredevil stunt skills – on the set of Hollyoaks.
Melanie Chisholm is best known as Sporty Spice, the Adidas-clad one in The Spice Girls, but what she really, really wants is to learn about her family roots in Liverpool, and her journey takes her to Croom in Co Limerick, where her great-great-great-grandfather Patrick Flaherty was born. In Liverpool, Mel C learns a shocking fact about her great-grandmother Mary Bilsborough: she was a moneylender in Liverpool. Local historian Pat Ayers explains that many working-class women registered as moneylenders, because the high interest rates were very lucrative.
Hot on the heels of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon comes the fourth-spin-off of the relentless zombie apocalypse series, and this one finds Negan and Maggie heading to Manhattan, where the bright lights and bustling streets have been replaced by dark shadows and shuffling figures in search of human flesh. Maggie is searching for her son, Hershel, so she makes an uneasy alliance with her old foe Negan, but how long before the bad blood between them boils over into full-on conflict? Let’s just go full CSI and franchise this out to cities around the world – Walking Dead: Dublin, anyone?
Here’s a nature series with a difference, focusing on efforts to bring species back from the brink of extinction. Barra Best explores how small changes in human behaviour can lead to a big resurgence for endangered animals, as he travels around the UK and Europe to meet the people working hard to reverse the decline and restore balance in the natural world. He heads to Rathlin Island off the coast of Northern Ireland, where conservationists are trying to protect puffins from predators such as rats and ferrets, then on to Scotland, where beavers are being rehomed, and Spain, where a simple solution is being tried out to prevent orcas from attacking boats.
The good news for fans of the moped-riding, crime-solving nun is that the programme will be back for a fourth series this autumn, with a feature-length Christmas special also in the offing. Lorna Watson will be getting back into the habit to crack more cases in the Cotswolds, but meanwhile here’s a chance to catch up on the first series. In this episode, a film crew is making a spy TV series at the convent when the lead actor is almost killed by a live bullet fired on set. But it turns out that the intended target was the show’s philandering producer, who is found dead in another grisly recreation of a scene from the show.