Truth Be Told, Apple TV+, 6th December
The first offerings from Apple’s new streaming service tended towards the starry, expensively produced and high-concept, helping it to make a splash. But the second wave may turn out to be more compelling. In Truth Be Told, for instance, a prisoner convicted of murder has been stewing inside for 18 years, 10 months and 24 days, when the woman who helped put him there starts to have doubts. With two fascinating actors in the lead roles, Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul and Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer it promises to be a gripping psychodrama.
Imagine... Lenny Henry, BBC One, December
The career traverse that Lenny Henry has made since he first became famous on ITV’s 1970s talent show New Faces, aged 16, is a remarkable one. From being the only black performer in The Black & White Minstrel Show for five years to reinventing himself as a serious stage and screen actor and political activist has taken the best part of a lifetime. In this Imagine… special Alan Yentob follows Henry as he releases his autobiography.
Whistleblower, Channel 4, December
Julie Bailey was running a dog-grooming parlour and a small café in Stafford when her 86-year-old mother was admitted to the local county hospital. What she saw there so appalled her that she started a campaign to bring to attention all the elderly people that she believed had died because of a lack of care. It was one of the worst scandals the NHS had ever faced. This dramatisation promises to capture the bravery of Bailey’s fight amid the abuse she had to endure and the divisions it caused in the town.
The first offerings from Apple’s new streaming service tended towards the starry, expensively produced and high-concept, helping it to make a splash. But the second wave may turn out to be more compelling. In Truth Be Told, for instance, a prisoner convicted of murder has been stewing inside for 18 years, 10 months and 24 days, when the woman who helped put him there starts to have doubts. With two fascinating actors in the lead roles, Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul and Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer it promises to be a gripping psychodrama.
Imagine... Lenny Henry, BBC One, December
The career traverse that Lenny Henry has made since he first became famous on ITV’s 1970s talent show New Faces, aged 16, is a remarkable one. From being the only black performer in The Black & White Minstrel Show for five years to reinventing himself as a serious stage and screen actor and political activist has taken the best part of a lifetime. In this Imagine… special Alan Yentob follows Henry as he releases his autobiography.
Whistleblower, Channel 4, December
Julie Bailey was running a dog-grooming parlour and a small café in Stafford when her 86-year-old mother was admitted to the local county hospital. What she saw there so appalled her that she started a campaign to bring to attention all the elderly people that she believed had died because of a lack of care. It was one of the worst scandals the NHS had ever faced. This dramatisation promises to capture the bravery of Bailey’s fight amid the abuse she had to endure and the divisions it caused in the town.
