The 10 best TV shows to watch this week, from I’m a Celebrity to Squid Game: The Challenge

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Friday 17 November, Apple TV+

The second TV series in the MonsterVerse franchise (which includes King Kong and Godzilla) picks up after the 2014 Godzilla movie, in which the giant reptile flattened San Francisco in a battle with the MUTOs – that’s Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism for the uninitiated. As the world reckons with the terrifying realisation that monsters are real, two siblings trace their family’s connection to a shadowy organisation called Monarch. Told over three generations of characters, this thriller was made by Chris Black, the executive producer of one of my favourite sci-fi series, Severance.

Children in Need

Friday 17 November, 7pm, BBC One

Jason Manford, Ade Adepitan, Chris Ramsay, Alex Scott, Mel Giedroyc and Lenny Rush (the Bafta-winning breakout star of Daisy May Cooper’s comedy Am I Being Unreasonable?) are our hosts for this year’s annual charity do. MasterChef invites puppets into the kitchen, a Race Across the World parody sees TV characters race across Yorkshire and there’s music from Jerub, Leigh-Anne and the UK’s Junior Eurovision act STAND UNIQU3. The show will also reveal how much money Vernon Kay’s UltraMarathon challenge (he ran the 115 miles from Leicester to Bolton in four days) has raised.

I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

Sunday 19 November, 9pm, ITV1

Nigel Farage is this year’s controversial I’m a Celeb booking this year, following in the footsteps of 2022 finalist, former health secretary Matt Hancock. He’s joined by Britney Spears’ little sister Jamie-Lynn (who could also do with the good PR), JLS singer Marvin Humes, food critic Grace Dent, This Morning presenter Josie Gibson, First Dates maître d’ Fred Sirieix and a handful of other people you’ve never heard of. As ever, Ant and Dec will be on hand to guide us through their jungle journeys, but first they’ve got to get to camp – no doubt via an initiation trial involving heights and/or bugs. Rather them than me.

Boat Story

Sunday 19 November, 9pm, BBC One

What would you do if you accidentally came across a mountain of drugs aboard an abandoned boat? That’s the quandary facing Janet (Daisy Haggard) and Samuel (Paterson Joseph), two down-on-their-luck strangers who could do with the cash such a haul could bring in. Inevitably they decide to split the stash and sell it, attracting the attention of a terrifying (but very stylish) gangster known only as “The Tailor” (Tchéky Karyo). Boat Story is written by the same sibling team behind the Jamie Dornan-led thriller The Tourist, so expect twists.

Deal or No Deal

Monday 20 November, 4pm, ITV1

First Big Brother and now Deal or No Deal – ITV is making a habit of reviving old Channel 4 hits. Stephen Mulhern takes over from Noel Edmonds as host of the gripping game show, seven years after it was axed. Not much has changed format-wise – contestants will still open a series of boxes, each containing an amount of money (from the upsettingly low to the astonishingly high) all while fighting a battle of wits with a discorporate banker on the other end of a phone. There is one major difference however: the top prize has been reduced from £250,000 to a comparatively measly £100,000. Still wouldn’t say no, though.

Rooney

Monday 20 November, 10.15pm, Channel 4

Now that Coleen Rooney has had her say on the Wagatha Christie scandal in a three-part Disney+ docuseries, it’s time for her husband Wayne to step into the spotlight. This feature-length film examines the former Manchester United striker’s glittering professional football career, from his beginnings in the Everton youth team to playing for England to his current position as manager of Birmingham City. More interesting though (at least to me) is the insight into his life off the pitch. As well as interviews with the man himself, David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand and Thierry Henry are among the sporting legends who share their memories of Rooney’s greatest moments.

Squid Game: The Challenge

Wednesday 22 November, Netflix

As well as being a heart-stopping thriller, the original 2021 Squid Game series was a scathing critique of capitalism at all costs and the ever-widening chasm between the rich and the poor. I’m not sure Netflix got the message, though, as they’ve since made this reality series based on the drama, pitting 456 candidates against each other in a series of sadistic challenges, each based on a childhood game, in the hope of being the last one standing and taking home a life-changing $4.56m (£3.68m). At least Netflix won’t be killing off their real-life players…

Such Brave Girls

Wednesday 22 November, 10pm, BBC Three

The eponymous “girls” in this new sitcom from comedy writer Kat Sadler take the concept of unlikeable women to a whole new level. Sadler plays Josie, sister to Billie, played by Sadler’s real-life sibling Lizzie Davidson. Both live with their single mother Deb (Louise Brealey). Still recovering from the emotional scars left by their deadbeat father, all three women are vain, selfish, and heavily in debt – but their dedication to and support for one another lies at the heart of this chaotic comedy.

Fargo

Wednesday 22 November, Prime Video

As it does with every new season, the fifth series of crime drama Fargo takes place in an entirely new setting with a completely different cast of characters. This time we’re in Minnesota and North Dakota in 2019, where Dorothy “Dot” Lyon (Ted Lasso‘s Juno Temple) has got herself in trouble with the police – specifically Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm) who has been tracking down Dot for a long time. Helping Tillman pin old crimes at Dot’s door is his incompetent son, Gator (Stranger Things‘ Joe Keery), who will go to almost any length to prove his worth to his unbudging father.

Archie

Thursday 23 November, ITVX

In 1904, Archibald Leach was born into extreme poverty in the backstreets of Bristol. But despite his hardships, he would go on to become one of the most celebrated Hollywood actors in history: Cary Grant. Jason Isaacs plays the star in this four-part biographical series, following his rise to international fame and eventually, his withdrawal from both the entertainment industry and society in the 1960s, triggered by drug use and depression.