What's on? Top 10 TV and streaming tips for Friday

October 11, 2024

It's all-star Friday as Cate Blanchett leads in psychological miniseries Disclaimer, horror thriller The Beast Within features Kit Harington, Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth align in Lonely Planet – and there’s The Late Late and Graham Norton!

Pick of the Day

Disclaimer, Apple TV+

The magnificent Cate Blanchett stars in this psychological thriller miniseries written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Renée Knight.

Blanchett plays Catherine Ravenscroft, a respected journalist and documentarian, long renowned for uncovering difficult truths. Here, there’s a secret she’s trying to keep hidden.

Also starring are Kevin Kline as Stephen Brigstocke, a retired private school teacher who harbours a grudge against Catherine, and Sacha Baron Cohen as Robert Ravenscroft, Catherine's husband.

Lesley Manville - who seems to be in everything these days - pops up as Nancy Brigstocke, Stephen's late wife.

Don’t Miss

Dara Ó Briain, Angela Scanlon and Jason Donovan are among this week's guests.

Dara will drop by to chat about his new show Re: Creation as well as his summer of sport and the piece of music that's haunted him at every turn.

Galway hurler Joe Canning will be in studio as his new book My Story, with Vincent Hogan, is published, while aeronautical engineer Dr Norah Patten explains how her dream of being the first Irish person in space will soon become a reality.

Victim of coercive control, Nicola Hanney, will discuss her new book, a harrowing account of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her ex, former Garda Paul Moody.

Australian star Jason Donovan will also be on the show Friday night chatting about his time in Neighbours, being a teen icon of the 80s, reuniting with Kylie, and going on tour to celebrate 35 years of hits.

Jason will also perform one of his chart-topping hits.

The Coronas will also pop in to playa song from their new album.

Barbie’s Dirty Secrets, 8.00pm, Channel 4

In this Dispatches special, journalist Isobel Yeung investigates one of the world's most iconic brands and its owner Mattel.

The toy maker has greatly profited from global 'Barbiemania' through giving Barbie a makeover as a 21st-century feminist.

But through filming undercover in one of Mattel's factories for the first time, Yeung exposes the daily reality for workers producing the famous dolls and other products.

The Graham Norton Show, 10.40pm, BBC One

More showbiz glitz, glam and gab with Graham.

Hollywood stars Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana (above) discuss appearing together in acclaimed musical comedy drama Emilia Perez.

Comedy actress Miranda Hart talks about her funny and revealing memoir I Haven't Been Entirely Honest with You and Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa reflects on taking to the National Theatre stage in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Plus, Rag'n'Bone Man performs a track from his new album What Do You Believe in?

Elvis Presley: '68 Comeback Special, 9.00pm, BBC Four

This classic gig kicks off a night of cracking concerts.

Elvis's classic TV special, which saw him make a return to live performance after years in Hollywood features an array of musical set-pieces, with performances of Hound Dog, All Shook Up, Heartbreak Hotel and more.

Followed at 10.15pm, by Aretha Franklin in Amsterdam 1968, a performance by the American soul singer recorded at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on Sunday April 28,1968.

Aretha sings a selection of hits, including Respect, Chain of Fools and Satisfaction.

Then at 10.50pm there’s Frank Sinatra in Concert at the Royal Festival Hall.

It’s a 1970 concert at the London venue by the singer and actor (below), featuring performances of I've Got You Under My Skin, The Lady Is a Tramp, My Kind of Town and My Way.

Joni Mitchell in Concert follows at 11.45pm, from a concert in 1970, featuring hits such as Chelsea Morning, Cactus Tree, My Old Man, For Free, California, Big Yellow Taxi and Both Sides Now.

Finally, at 12.15am there’s Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom, a showcase featuring Dylan with his band in an intimate setting as he performs songs from his extensive back catalogue.

They include Forever Young, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight and It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.

New to Stream

The Last of the Sea Women, Apple TV+

This is an American documentary film, directed by Sue Kim, that profiles the haenyeo, a declining community of women in Jeju, South Korea, who dive in the ocean to collect seafood to feed their communities.

The Beast Within, Paramount

Kit Harington, Ashleigh Cummings, James Cosmo, and Caoilinn Springall star in this mystery horror-thriller film directed and co-written by Alexander J Farrell.

After a series of strange events, 10-year-old Willow (Caoilinn Springall) starts to question her family's isolated life on a fortified compound deep in the English wilds.

She then follows her parents on one of their secret late-night treks to the heart of the ancient forest.

There she witnesses her father undergo a terrible transformation, and she becomes ensnared by the dark ancestral secret they've tried so desperately to conceal.

Lonely Planet, Netflix

Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth star in this romantic drama.

Dern plays a reclusive novelist who arrives at a prestigious writer's retreat in Morocco, hoping the remote setting will unlock her writer's block.

While there, she meets a young man and what starts as an acquaintanceship evolves into an intoxicating, life-altering love affair.

"Katherine has spent her life dedicated to narrative and therefore [hasn’t spent] much time looking at deep truth within," Dern told Netflix.

"She is at a turning point in her life where she is looking for a softening and deeper understanding, and she finds it in a love story."

In Her Place, Netflix

From Chile, this drama was directed by Oscar nominee Maite Alberdi.

Set in Chile in 1955. After famous writer María Carolina Geel murders her lover, the case captivates Mercedes, a shy secretary, triggering an unexpected connection between the two women.

Ending Today

Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar, 9.00pm, BBC Two

The final part of this profile of the legendary actress, whose private life was as fascinating as many of the screen roles she portrayed.

Elizabeth's seventh marriage takes her to Washington DC, but she struggles to reinvent herself as a senator's wife.

Her addiction to painkillers and alcohol grows, and her family is forced to intervene.

After the death from Aids of close friend Rock Hudson and a family member falling ill with the disease, Taylor turns campaigner, changing public perceptions of the disease and saving countless lives by raising millions for research.

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