While you could never quite set your watch to Windows releases, you always roughly knew that there would be a new version every three years. Windows Vista came out in early 2007, Windows 7 in late 2009, Windows 8 in late 2012, and Windows 10 in the middle of 2015. True, there was a gap of over five years between XP and Vista, but that was unusual. After previous flops (notably Windows Me), Microsoft was reluctant to replace a system that was hugely popular with users and businesses. Then everything changed with Windows 10 - or it appeared to. Microsoft said it would be the final version of Windows, meaning the company would regularly update it with features but never fully replace it with a brand new system. It stuck to this…

Above-inflation price rises shouldn’t be allowed next year I can’t say I’m holding my breath for any help from broadband providers on the cost of living (Issue 636, page 9). Raising awareness of their social tariffs is positive, but what about the millions of people in low-paid jobs? The only way providers can seriously help those is to scrap their inflation-linked price rises. I think the public swallowed these increases this year, albeit reluctantly, because it was the first big rises for a long time, if ever. It almost seemed like a novelty. But there’s no way they should be allowed to get away with it next year. Consumer groups should start putting pressure on them now. I know providers say that they need this investment in order to hit the Government’s gigabit…

What happens on 10 December? The date marks the death of Alfred Nobel, the 19th century industrialist who instituted five prizes “to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind” – in the fields of chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and the pursuit of peace. Since 1901, the first four prizes have been handed out on that date by the Swedish monarch before the “feast of feasts”, a royal gala banquet in Stockholm; in 1969, another prize, in economics, was added to them in Nobel’s memory to celebrate the 300th birthday of the Swedish central bank. On the same day, the peace prize is awarded in Oslo at a rather less grand celebration. Who was Alfred Nobel? He was a vastly successful chemist, engineer and businessman. Born into…

PICK OF THE DAY Viewpoint 9.00pm ITV DRAMA New series There are some early, uncomfortable (though accidental) real-life parallels at the start of Ed Whitmore’s thriller when a young woman disappears. There are appeals, “Missing” posters and vigils after primary-school teacher Gemma vanishes. But then we lurch into low-key thriller territory as police officer Martin Young (Noel Clarke), who’s suffered a catastrophic failure of confidence after A Bad Thing happened on another case, is brought in to conduct surveillance on Gemma’s boyfriend. Martin takes up his position in the flat of young mum Zoe (No Offence’s Alexandra Roach) on the opposite side of the street. But he quickly compromises himself after he responds to a family emergency, while Zoe seems to have a surveillance mission of her own. Viewpoint is more Front Window than Rear…

Actual size! If you tried balancing a computer on your palm a few years ago you’d be risking a night in A&E. Even so-called mini PCs were heavy enough to wreck your wrist. But the latest breed of these micro machines are so small and light you can easily hold one, whether you’re posing for the front of a computer magazine or picking it up to place wherever you like. That’s one reason why mini PCs are growing in popularity. Another is that they use less electricity than their larger siblings, which helps in this era of astronomical energy bills. However, the main reason why many people love them is that you don’t lose computing power as you reduce your computer’s footprint. Attach a keyboard and mouse and you can use one as…

It was the first time that BMW had approached the owners of Alpina to ask them if they would like to sell the brand, but the timing was astute. “The risks for small manufacturers are going up massively,” says Andreas Bovensiepen, who with his brother Florian runs Alpina, the company their father founded to tune BMWs back in 1965. “But the opportunities aren’t increasing in the same way.” Over an hour with Autocar, Bovensiepen outlines the dilemma facing Alpina, which from its modest tuning and racing roots has become an independent manufacturer in its own right, making fast, luxurious and discreet cars that are 80% finished in BMW factories, owing to a close partnership with the Munich firm. There’s a burgeoning order book: Alpina sold a record 2000 cars last year and expects…

Here at T3, when we talk about coffee makers, we generally mean espresso machines and bean-to-cup machines, because that’s what we generally get sent. Espresso, after all, is the most high-tech, expensive and sophisticated (or poncey, if you prefer) way to make coffee, and the results from the best machines are exceptional. It’s not by any means the only way to make coffee however – even the humble cafetiere and stovetop percolator can make a damn fine cup. And then there’s filter coffee makers such as this very fine specimen from Zwilling (£159, zwilling.com). Bearing the rather unimaginative name of Drip Coffee Maker, this vision in glass, LCD and plastique is part of the award-winning Enfinigy range. Yes, we know that sounds like a recently defunct electricity company; just go with…

PICK OF THE DAY Duran Duran: Radio 2 in Concert 9.00pm BBC2 MUSIC It seems like every time you turn on the TV at the moment, Duran Duran are there. Fresh off the back of their appearances at the Platinum Jubilee and the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, this latest outing is a televised version of the band’s December 2021 Radio 2 concert. Simon Le Bon struts his way through many of the band’s greatest hits — Hungry like the Wolf, A View to a Kill, Ordinary World etc — that have riffs and synths that, 30 or 40 years or so on from their release, are still as arresting. Newer material from their latest album, Future Past, released in October 2021, shows how they have continued to evolve, teaming up with collaborators including British…

“They will be so groundbreaking that you will say: ‘This is crazy. I didn’t see that coming’” BMW’s M performance division is preparing to launch its final purecombustion sports car in its 50th year, before embarking on a rapid-fire electrification programme that will bring the most powerful M5 yet, a Lamborghini Urusbaiting SUV and, ultimately, an electric successor to the M3. It has been a busy year so far for BMW’s performance arm, which has already revealed the stripped-back M4 CSL, the M3 Touring estate and its first endurance racer in 23 years, the V8 Hybrid LMDh. But still to come is the production version of the 740bhp XM hybrid SUV and long-awaited second-generation M2 Coupé. The upcoming M2 Coupé will be the final ‘full-fat’ M car to go without electric assistance, driven…

PICK OF THE DAY The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe 9.00pm ITV DRAMA New series The bizarre true story of insurance fraudster John Darwin, who in 2002 faked his own death by staging a kayaking accident off the Durham coast, is dramatised this week in four parts by Chris Lang, creator of the classy Unforgotten. Bedsit landlords John and his wife Anne (Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan) have overinvested and are heading for bankruptcy; to avoid that, he concocts the scheme that will ruin their oblivious sons’ lives. What feels like a clumsy-criminal farce when John lays down his idea the purposes of phase one of my plan, we will need to remind people of my historic love of canoeing”) soon becomes a grim and tawdry tale: he is a seedy, narcissistic manipulator…

PICK OF THE DAY The Bay 9.00pm ITV DRAMA This is as much a family drama as it is a whodunnit, and episode four devotes a fair amount of screen time to affecting funeral scenes that see Saif’s body being washed prior to his burial and mum Mariam (Rina Mahoney) breaking down in grief. Usually, suspects in police procedurals become little more than headshots on an incident board, but the Rahmans now seem like real human beings. And that’s all to The Bay’s credit. As for the investigation — well, we learn that stab victim Jordan Rooney (Conor Lowson) has come to and put Adnan (Michael Karim) in the frame for his attack. Though I think the solution to Saif’s murder will arrive from leftfield. At the moment, the family of girlfriend Molly have…

I suspect Alfie and Olive have seen it all before. The two powerfully built Belgian Draft horses stand at a gate like those critics on the Muppet Show, peering down on another star-struck visitor gawping at their owner’s 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera ‘RS 3.0’ (in quotation marks because it’s not all it appears). It’s one of three RSs and near-RSs of this era that Josh Sadler keeps in his outbuildings. This October will be 50 years since the first 911 Carrera RS was unveiled at the 1972 Paris motor show. By the end of the model’s production run, one year later, almost 1600 examples had been built and a legend born – one that would inspire ever more powerful successors, albeit none quite so special as the original. We’re accustomed to rare…

PICK OF THE DAY Our Yorkshire Farm 9.00pm Channel 5 DOCUMENTARY For many Our Yorkshire Farm fans, five-year-old Clemmy is a star of the show, with her sunshine face and endless chatter. So they’ll share her mum and dad’s mix of pride and anxiety as she leaves Ravenseat Farm in the Dales for her first day at school. You might remember that last year Amanda and Clive Owen decided to keep Clemmy at home for another year, but now, says Amanda, Clemmy is ready. It’s back to school for all of the younger Owen children who’ve been on the farm for the months of lockdown, helping out and learning along the way. As they spend the last few days of summer together, Clemmy prepares her beloved Tony the pony for her absence, and four-year-old…

Intel’s 11th-gen Rocket Lake chip won’t hit shelves until the end of March, but an unexpectedly early review of a retail Core i7-11700K labels the chip as power-hungry and unable to surpass AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X in many tests. The review, written by respected CPU expert Dr. Ian Cutress of Anandtech.com, was based on a Core i7-11700K that is presumably one of the hundreds of CPUs accidentally sold a month before launch by a German retailer. Benchmarks of the chip have been making the rounds ever since, but Cutress is the first experienced journalist to publish a review. Cutress stepped carefully in his story, avoiding mention of any information he had already been given by Intel under embargo during regular briefings for the chip. He said he informed Intel that he had the…

PICK OF THE DAY The Great Garden Revolution 8.15pm C4 GARDENING If your garden is less Chelsea Flower Show and more overgrown wasteland, this is the makeover show for you. Back for a second series, its idea is to inspire us to get out into our gardens and enjoy reconnecting with the natural world, but it’s aimed squarely at the novice. Down-to-earth presenters Joel Bird, Errol Reuben Fernandes and Bruce Kenneth are a cheery lot who don’t baffle us with horticultural science but instead offer wheelbarrow-loads of easy-to-follow tips and guidance. Errol’s masterclass on pruning and propagation make it look a cinch. They start with an “endless sea of gravel and weeds” in Chichester that its owners want to be transformed into an oasis of tranquillity and harmony. There are also film reports from the…

PICK OF THE DAY Rules of the Game 9.00pm BBC1 DRAMANew series Maxine Peake fans are in clover right now. She battled through five hours of Anne and The Real Anne last week and takes the lead in this slippery crime drama that starts with episodes tonight and tomorrow. Peake plays Sam, a sharp-tongued executive at a Cheshire sportswear firm where the workplace is a whirlpool of alcohol, drugs and sexism — as the new HR director, Maya, swiftly gathers on her first day. “If you snort coke and drop a pill, you can almost forget what it’s like to work here,” an underling suggests brightly. Maya (an excellently brittle Rakhee Thakrar) likes to play things by the HR book but that’s not the company way. She starts to wonder about Sam’s role in…

Ainsley’s Food We Love • FOOD / 11.35am / ITV Ainsley Harriott’s delicious cookery show continues to be a bright spot in the morning schedules and today he’s dishing up food to enjoy outdoors. First up are barbecued Cypriot lamb chops, cherry tomato skewers and potato salad. Chef Joseph Denison Carey pops in and prepares tagliatelle, inspired by fresh summer flavours. While Celebrity MasterChef finalist Dev Griffin is treated to Ainsley’s sesame and ginger sea bass with Asian noodle salad. Another lovely outing from the chef, complete with his trademark singing and storytelling. ★★★★ ER • See feature, page 12 Zara & Mike • DOCUMENTARY / 9pm / Channel 5 NEW When Mike Tindall was 13 he met the Queen at school in Wakefield, Yorkshire. He couldn’t have imagined then that 20 years later he would…

PICK OF THE DAY Before We Die 9.00pm C4 DRAMA OF THE WEEK New series It’s a striking opening for a crime drama: Bristol detective Hannah leads a raid on a drug-fuelled rave and her officers arrest a young dealer, Christian (Patrick Gibson). As he is led away, he sees Hannah. “Mum!” he gasps. “What have you done?” It’s the set-up for a story that will involve Hannah and Christian in more of the kind of high-stakes across-the-lines interplay you won’t find in any parenting manuals. Hannah is played by Lesley Sharp with her air of seen-it-all wisdom and a face that is so magnificently lined and creased it must be a cinematographer’s dream. From the keep-it-in-the-family arrest (a spell in prison follows), we jump forward two years and find Hannah in an affair…

PICK OF THE DAY Diana’s Decades 9.00pm ITV DOCUMENTARY In terms of actual distance, it’s just three miles from Coleherne Court in South Kensington to Westminster Abbey. But for Lady Diana Spencer, it would turn out to be something of a seismic trip as she went from Sloaney playgroup worker to superstar princess. A fairy tale? Well, not exactly, as Diana was upper crust to begin with (as a child she knew the Queen as “Aunt Lilibet”) and, as is recounted again here, her wedding day wasn’t exactly the stuff of dreams. In fact, she was tempted to pull out mere days before saying “I do” after learning of her husband-to-be’s friendship with Camilla Parker Bowles. But this lively new life-and-times of Di doc explores how the royal story being sold to the public…

PICK OF THE DAY The Great British Sewing Bee 8.00pm BBC1 CRAFT Patrick Grant dressed as Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer — could there be a better Christmas present for Sewing Bee fans? This hilarious fancy-dress outfit is made by the Rev Kate Bottley for the transformation challenge, in the first of two celebrity editions over the holiday fortnight — with Sara Pascoe hosting now Joe Lycett has become Channel 4’s Travel Man. Anneka Rice seems to prefer using a staple gun rather than doing any actual sewing, but then, as she says, “I’m better at building a community centre.” And Ghosts’ Kiell Smith-Bynoe forgets to thread his sewing machine at one point. Antony Cotton, however, has obviously seen the show before because he puts the world’s largest bow on his made-to-measure dress — and…

The Rescue ● DOCUMENTARY / Disney+ NEW When a junior football team and their coach became trapped inside a flooded cave in Chiang Rai, Thailand, in 2018, the daring attempt to rescue them made headlines all over the world. This documentary tells the story from the perspective of the rescuers – ordinary recreational cave divers who turned out to be the only people with the skills and equipment to carry out such a risky mission. Director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi expertly captures the sense of claustrophobia inside the flooded cave, while drawing out the details of the rescue by the incredibly humble heroes. ★★★★★ SP Greta ● FILM / 11.55pm (times vary) / BBC1 (not Scotland)/iPlayer PREMIERE Sweetly innocent out-of-town girl Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz) returns a lost handbag she has found on the New York…

Richard_Ingram@autovia.co.uk @rsp_ingram “Plant your foot and the EV6 pins you to your seat, with the speed building at an alarming rate” Practicality Boot (seats up/down) 480/1,260 litres Performance 0-62mph/top speed 3.5 seconds/162mph THE electric car power war shows no signs of slowing. Even some family SUVs now boast upwards of 400bhp, matched with mind-bending torque, big batteries, and dual-motors for all-wheel drive. Now it’s the turn of the Kia EV6, which has been given a once-over by former brand R&D chief-turned executive technical advisor Albert Biermann to create this GT variant. Biermann told us: “The idea with this car is for it to be a fast car, but not necessarily a true high-performance model. That’s not what the EV6 GT is about; the clue is in the name: it’s a fast grand tourer.” And we’ve now had chance to get behind the…

New safety regulations introduced last month have made at least 20 technologies standard on all new cars sold in the EU and the UK – and will legislate some out of existence. The new arsenal of standard safety equipment, brought in under the anonymously titled General Safety Regulations 2 (GSR2), will also add more costs to cheaper cars, most likely increasing their prices. The changes had been in discussion at the UN and the EU for a decade before the EU finalised its proposals in 2019. They are being introduced in two main phases. The first went live on 6 July and the second will come in 2024, although some technologies are on a slightly different timetable. That means all new cars launched after 6 July 2022, regardless of price or engineering suitability, have…

PICK OF THE DAY This Time with Alan Partridge 9.30pm BBC1 (BBC2 in Wales) COMEDY OF THE WEEK We haven’t got far into this week’s show before Alan’s indelible sexism breaks cover. He congratulates co-presenter Jennie on her recent grilling of a politician, then veers off on an ill-advised spiel about why vocal woman are, of course, a good thing: “At the end of the day, hen-pecking works,” Alan (Steve Coogan) explains. “That’s why hens do it.” It’s one of many golden moments of awfulness, as another edition of This Time stumbles onto the airwaves, taking in Alan’s bizarre on-air present to Jennie (Susannah Fielding) and more tense exchanges with reporter Ruth Duggan (Lolly Adefope) and graphics wrangler Simon (Tim Key). I’m sworn to silence on the identity of the final studio guest, but it’s…

PICK OF THE DAY Time 9.00pm BBC1 DRAMA OF THE WEEK The first episode of a drama lays out the ground, but often it’s the second that really gets to work on the meat of things. Writer Jimmy McGovern certainly gets into his stride here. With a top-notch cast he delivers scene after scene full of quiet, crushing pain — then the occasional burst of horror for good measure. There are nicely sketched subplots showing how minor characters ended up inside — casualties of violence or poverty or pride. But our main focus is prison officer Eric, now caught in an impossible bind: if he refuses to help the wing’s drug dealers, his son (who is doing time at another prison) could be killed. Stephen Graham gives a numb, dead-eyed performance of a man…

PICK OF THE DAY Saved by a Stranger 9.00pm BBC2 DOCUMENTARY New series Anita Rani presents a series that owes a clear debt to Long Lost Family and the Thank You slot on Radio 4’s Saturday Live. Here, too, we see moving human stories culminating in tearful reunions that radiate emotion in ways you would need a heatshield to withstand. The difference is, the contributors here are hoping to find not relatives, but strangers who played a role at a defining moment in their lives. Karl was in the London tube carriage where a terrorist bomb exploded on 7 July 2005. In the darkness and confusion, a woman reassured him and they held hands. To his shame, he later edged ahead of her on the way to safety. He would love to meet her…

PICK OF THE DAY MasterChef 8.30pm BBC1 FOOD Although my taste in food is not the same as Gregg Wallace’s (I’m not really a pudding person), I do agree with him about the standard of cooking on MasterChef this year. It’s been higher than ever. One or two of the home cooks have been serving restaurant-quality food from the very start — and by that, I mean dishes you’d be happy to pay a lot of money for. That’s not to say there haven’t been any disasters. This year’s “chocolate fondant” — as John Torode and Gregg describe the show’s famous culinary landmines — was rack of lamb. They were served undercooked meat with lumps of unrendered fat so many times, they started to cringe whenever anyone said they were doing lamb. However, it’s unlikely…

PICK OF THE DAY Line of Duty 9.00pm BBC1 DRAMA OF THE WEEK Last Sunday left us dangling from the cruellest of cliffhangers. We never saw what happened at the vacant lot where Jo lured Kate for a fateful stand-off with Ryan Pilkington. The screen cut to black and shots were fired. But… but… who died and who survived? My lips are sealed. Tonight’s entire plot is under embargo — and we’ve all seen what happens to rats. But as Ted, Steve and Chloe arrive at the scene, it’s acid ice-queen DCS Patricia Carmichael who takes charge. Deliciously played by Anna Maxwell Martin, Carmichael is quite the piece of work. With her weary tone and glazed smile, she treats Ted like an old has-been even as his time in the job ticks down. “It’s…

The pioneers of personalised sound have upgraded their true wireless in-ears with a world first… • Sexy CD Nura makes headphones that are tuned for each listener – but no matter who’s wearing them, the new NuraTrue Pro earbuds could be the best-sounding pair yet. These are the first wireless buds anywhere on the planet to support aptX Lossless over Bluetooth, which means CD-quality 16-bit audio without any wires. The bad news? You’ll need a phone that has one of Qualcomm’s latest 8+ Gen 1 processors and is certified for aptX Lossless through Snapdragon Sound, such as the Asus ROG Phone 6 or… well, not much else. More will be here later this year, but for now you’re probably stuck with slightly lower-res audio. • Hey skewed Even without that selling point, these buds…

BRIAN GREENE, MILTON KEYNES Q Guru, my pizza is awful! A Perhaps the problem isn’t so much your pizza but your oven? You could try switching out your dough recipe for the excellent River Cottage one that you can find online, but it’s more likely it’s that pathetic excuse for a hot box that’s doing you dirty. You need a hot thing that goes really hot, and if yours can only reach a nominal 200 or 220 degrees (which is likely to be a bit less than that in practice) you’re not going to get the best out of your pizza, fancy stone or not. Permanent outdoor ovens are impractical, expensive and they’ll annoy your neighbours no end, which makes them an exceptional option in Guru’s eyes. If you don’t share his selfish…

PICK OF THE DAY Innocent 9.00pm ITV DRAMA OF THE WEEK If you’re one of the many viewers mourning Unforgotten, this might help. It, too, comes from the mighty pen of Chris Lang (who co-created this with Matt Arlidge) and uses the same basic idea of multiple characters connected to one appalling murder — though we can’t be sure how — as well as Lang’s brilliance at sketching lives that hold secrets. You may remember the first series, from 2018, which starred Lee Ingleby. Here another protagonist is released from prison when their conviction for murder is overturned. Sally (Katherine Kelly) was a Keswick school teacher accused of killing a student with whom she was said to be having an affair. Now, after five years, new evidence exonerates her and she walks free. Of course,…

PICK OF THE DAY Ant and Dec’s Limitless Win 8.30pm ITV GAME SHOW New series It may seem as though Ant and Dec have the Midas touch, but there are some dud quizzes in their back catalogue. Remember PokerFace? Push the Button? Red or Black? None of them lasted long, so it’s no biggie if you don’t. But what of this latest vehicle, which sees contestants climbing an ever-increasing, never-ending ladder of cash? Well, imagine Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with a huge Blue Peter totaliser and you have some idea as to the gist. Yet what seems initially like a simple system is soon complicated by a torrent of clauses and caveats. There are dials to turn, buttons to press, as well as lifelines to be won and lost. And at times,…

PICK OF THE DAY First Night of the Proms 7.15pm BBC2 MUSIC Verdi’s Requiem feels like the perfect choice to launch the 2022 season. After two years of scaled-back concerts with reduced ensembles on stage, the Royal Albert Hall can now entertain something colossal, a work encompassing death and rebirth, even the wrath of God — belted out by the massed forces of the BBC Symphony Chorus and Crouch End Festival Chorus. No stranger to the First Night (he’s been in charge four times in the past decade), Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Also front of stage will be the four soloists: mezzo Jennifer Johnston, tenor Freddie De Tommaso, bass-baritone Kihwan Sim and soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, who bagged the Song Prize in last year’s BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. Clive Myrie…

PICK OF THE DAY My Name Is Leon 9.00pm BBC2 DRAMA “You’re a special kid,” an adult tells ten-year-old Leon at one stage in this touching drama adapted from Kit de Waal’s 2016 novel. He certainly is, and newcomer Cole Martin plays him with incredible poise as a child wise beyond his years caught in a strange and upsetting adult world. We join Leon as his baby brother Jake arrives and their mum struggles to cope. The boys have different fathers, both absent, and as Leon tries to take care of the baby, his mother goes on a downward spiral and social services must step in. We’re in Birmingham in the early 1980s when, we gather, child protection could be a dicey business and, while kindly foster-parent Maureen (Monica Dolan) does her best, Leon…

PICK OF THE DAY This Time with Alan Partridge 9.30pm BBC1 COMEDY Alan has one of his on-air bust-ups: Guardian journalist Dan Milner (played by a big guest star) has dared to criticise This Time for being shallow — the very thought. Alan’s riposte is almost too good, ranting that The Guardian is full of “posh men pretending to be ordinary because they’ve got teenage sons and a messy hallway”. But as usual, it’s his casual asides that deliver the most laughs, his mad digressions about hand-dryers on trains, Hamilton or Spaghetti Junction. You have to love the way he’s always on the brink of self-destructing, a brink he might cross during a segment testing champagne cocktails. Alan sober is a handful; Alan tipsy is a fiasco. The show opens with a set piece, Alan’s…

PICK OF THE DAY Close to Me 9.00pm C4 DRAMA New series When we first see Jo Harding (Connie Nielsen) she’s unconscious at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding heavily from head wounds. She survives, but has amnesia. But it’s not simply that she can’t recall a password or find her mobile (let’s be honest, that’s normal for many of us). She can’t remember why she fell or anything about the past year — dyeing her hair, arguing with her best friend or the name of her good-looking young gardener. More disturbingly, she’s forgotten some quite major family events. Jo’s apparently solicitous husband Rob (Christopher Eccleston) takes her back home — and of course it’s one of those stunning, isolated, modern places psychological thrillers love (remember the ones in ITV’s Finding Alice and BBC1’s The…

PICK OF THE DAY Extraordinary Twins 9.00pm ITV DOCUMENTARY Programmes about conjoined twins can appear difficult to watch, initially, but this two-parter (concluding tomorrow) is very much worth it, a life-enhancing look at how people — twins, parents, surgeons — adapt to the most extreme challenges. The main focus is a family in Idaho: Nick and Chelsea face an impossible decision over whether to have surgery to separate their twin daughters, joined from the chest down. To help decide, they meet 20-year-old Carmen and Lupita (featured in Channel 4’s excellent Two Sisters, One Body last year), who have remained joined, but also five-year-old twins in California who were successfully separated. Which route is better? There is no right answer. Meanwhile, we follow the risky surgery involved in separating Turkish twins Yigit and Derman at Great…

PICK OF THE DAY The Bay 9.00pm ITV DRAMA The first week in a new job ordinarily involves getting a computer log-in from IT support. Maybe sussing out the office politics. Finding space in the communal fridge. Certainly not mobilising the workforce to help find your missing teenage son, who’s disappeared off the face of the earth. But this is the crisis that DS Jenn Townsend is now facing and, despite a night spent searching the streets of Morecambe, young Conor has yet to turn up. Unsurprisingly, this tense situation has resulted in her stepping back temporarily from the Saif Rahman case. Which is a shame, as the team left in the office has now hit a brick wall. “We’ve got nothing. We’re back at square one,” says a despondent DI Tony Manning, as…

PICK OF THE DAY H2 O: the Molecule That Made Us 9.00pm BBC4 DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK New series Clouds churn. Rivers splash. Deserts bloom. This US series about water is full of dream-like visuals, beautifully filmed. They illustrate a well-crafted story about what the programme calls “Earth’s bloodstream” — the “pulse” of water cycles that human societies have harnessed so successfully, but also to breaking point. Engaging experts talk us through the big picture: a biologist tracks the astonishing lifecycle of a dragonfly that migrates from India to Africa. A Brazilian Earth scientist tracks “aerial rivers” that flow from forests. And a South African botanist illustrates how some plants can “resurrect”: despite drying to the point where their internal tissue is like glass, they can rehydrate and soften back to life, in the…

PICK OF THE DAY Springwatch 8.00pm BBC2 NATURE You don’t have to be a naturalist or have a PhD in zoology to enjoy this BBC perennial. As the series demonstrates in its commentary-free “Mindfulness Moments”, there are huge mental-health benefits to watching scenes from nature. Such was the theme of host Chris Packham’s 2021 documentary The Walk That Made Me (which is still on iPlayer). For the next three weeks he and co-host Micheala Strachan will marshal all the wildlife action from their “hide” at Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk (boars, badgers, bees and bats are anticipated), while trying (not) to make each other laugh. Iolo Williams will be back on the Isle of Mull, where eagles both white-tailed and golden are to be found, as he explores a wild meadow that’s home to small…

PICK OF THE DAY Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-up Star 10.45pm BBC1 (11.15pm in Northern Ireland) REALITY Ding dong and boom-shaka-laka! The three young MUA (make-up artist) finalists are all, without doubt, extraordinarily skilful make-up artists. Even if you’re someone who reckons anything other than a slick of lip gloss is unnecessary, you can’t fail to be impressed at what they have been able to achieve. Sometimes it’s jaw-dropping. The first of their challenges is to present a live online make-up masterclass to a panel of industry giants. It’s vital they do well at this because beauty vlogs are massive: guest judge Lisa Eldridge (who recently presented BBC2 series Make-up: a Glamorous History) has two million subscribers to her tutorials. There’s also the chance that one of the experts will be impressed enough to…

PICK OF THE DAY Hollington Drive 9.00pm ITV DRAMA The way the lives of the characters in Hollington Drive are painted is clearly a bit silly, but it’s also riveting in the most achingly joyless and tormented way. The misery is precisely rendered by writer Sophie Petzal, director Carolina Giammetta and whoever it was that created those antiseptic, show-home interiors. Even the police station is stark and bare, for heaven’s sake — more OCD than CID. Meanwhile, the ugliness of the story is ticking away nicely. The time bomb still to explode is the secret affair between head teacher Helen (Rachael Stirling) and Gareth (Jonas Armstrong), brooding father of the dead boy. But there’s also the small matter of Theresa (Anna Maxwell Martin) inventing/improvising a story to protect her son, which has led to the…

PICK OF THE DAY Irma Vep 9.00pm Sky Atlantic DRAMA New series French director Olivier Assayas returns to the subject of his 1996 cult hit, in which Maggie Cheung played a Hong Kong actor remaking a real silent-era French film serial, Les Vampires. Now he’s got more time and a bigger budget to try again. Alicia Vikander plays Mira, an American star who has come to France to play Les Vampires’ evil muse Irma Vep. Mira is smart and professional, but there is a vulnerability to her — especially in relation to her ex, who used to be her assistant — until she puts on Irma’s slinky velvet catsuit, at which point her personality seems to change. Assayas captures brilliantly the general chaos of TV production under a maverick director who’s undergoing a crisis of…

PICK OF THE DAY No Return 9.00pm ITV DRAMA New series For the second week running, Sheridan Smith’s face is the picture of anguish as she again plays a character plunged into a nightmare scenario. In Channel 5’s The Teacher, she was an educator thrown into a tailspin following allegations of sexual misconduct. And here Smith faces more agony as Kathy, a Mancunian mum on a family holiday in Turkey who’s left reeling when her 16-year-old son Noah is arrested on suspicion of committing a serious crime. With her on-screen life so full of trauma, we can only hope Smith fills any downtime with yoga and meditation. Because, if this first episode of four is anything to go by, there’s not going to be much let-up for her here. As soon as the Turkish police…

PICK OF THE DAY Stephen 9.00pm ITV DRAMA New series Thirteen years after 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racially motivated attack at a south-east London bus stop, his parents were still waiting for justice to be done despite three investigations, six investigating officers and a public inquiry. As his mother Doreen subsequently said about the police’s incompetence and institutionalised racism: “To them it was just another black boy who’d been stabbed.” This sequel to the 1999 Bafta-winning drama The Murder of Stephen Lawrence traces the efforts of DCI Clive Driscoll (a very believable Steve Coogan as a policeman with integrity) to solve a case that “nobody wants to touch with a barge pole” by using what he calls common-sense coppering. No matter how often you’ve heard the details of the case, it’s…

“Silly or not, a drift mode allows it to oversteer keenly and predictably” While we review new EVs as individual cars, some are also transforming the companies that create them. The Kia EV6 is already a fine example of this trend, with its combination of technology, design and pricing leapfrogging many rivals that would until recently have been regarded as sitting higher in the brand prestige hierarchy. Here’s some bad news for those rivals: the new EV6 GT moves the game on considerably further. The range-topper’s performance has been boosted by an extent that takes it out of the mainstream and into very distinguished company. Its 77.4kWh battery (the same as in the standard EV6) is relatively small compared with posher EVs’ and its 263-mile range is unexceptional. But 800V electrical architecture gives…

PICK OF THE DAY The Syndicate 9.00pm BBC1 DRAMA Newsagent Frank (Neil Morrissey) has scarpered overseas with his customers’ lottery cash. The lousy swine is currently in a Monaco casino, acting like James Bond. If James Bond sold papers for a living and owned a big Irish wolfhound, that is. He ought to be watching his back, because Keeley (Katherine Rose Morley) isn’t admitting defeat. Despite having no luck with the police, who don’t believe her, or the lottery company, who are essentially incompetent, she’s rallying the rest of the syndicate to take action. And, as we saw in last week’s flash-forward, they’re set to make it to Monte Carlo. They’ll need to find Frank quickly or there won’t be enough money left to buy a packet of bonbons. It looks as though, from here…

MONDAY New cars are the bread of life for us, but some create such a frenzy that we fight every day to be first with the latest. One prime target lately has been Prodrive’s P25, the £500,000-plus, 25-off, all-sold iteration of the famous 1990s Subaru Impreza 22B homologation special, based on rare genuine bits but optimised with new materials and technology so that it’s lighter (1100kg) and more powerful (400bhp) than before. After some polite hounding from me, Prodrive boss David Richards sent a note to say that while official drives aren’t yet on the agenda, I was welcome to drop into the company’s Banbury headquarters to hear the latest. The prototype is being enthusiastically beaten up on various UK test tracks by David Lapworth, Prodrive’s resident 22B guru. Richards has also been…

PICK OF THE DAY The Grand National From 2.00pm ITV SPORT Britain’s favourite horse race returns, after an enforced fallow year in 2020. Runners and riders for the Grand National (5.15pm) weren’t confirmed as RT went to press, but it seems there will be a strong favourite in the form of Cloth Cap, trained by Jonjo O’Neill. It scored a good win at Kelso in March, a race that came too late to affect the handicaps here, so it has a weight advantage. The prospect of carrying too many pounds is what’s made the trainers of Tiger Roll — which would otherwise have been going for a third straight National — swerve the contest this time. Armchair punters looking to back a familiar name each way will likely have their cash on 2019…

EBOOK MANAGER Calibre 6.1 www.snipca.com/42716 What you need: Windows 10 or 11, macOS or Linux This brilliant open-source program is the best way to read and manage ebooks on your computer without being tied to a single service such as Amazon’s Kindle Store. It lets you convert ebooks easily from one format to another, edit their contents, download articles from the web, back up and share your library, and much more. Calibre 6 is the first big update for a year-and-a-half (the 6.1 refers to a few bug fixes implemented shortly after its release) and somehow finds space for even more features without making the interface overcrowded. The most significant is a full-text search tool, which indexes all the ebooks in your collection, so you can quickly find mentions of specific names, words and phrases.…

PICK OF THE DAY The Lakes with Simon Reeve 9.00pm BBC2 DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK New series In so many TV documentaries about our countryside, the presenter has a jolly chat with someone and then “has a go” at an artisanal craft or skill. Not Simon Reeve. He clearly has too much respect for what people are doing. So, when he joins Cumbrian youngsters learning how to build a dry-stone wall, an upland sheep farmer releasing two fell ponies into the wild, or a woman running a domestic violence charity in Barrow-in-Furness, he observes, he asks questions and he listens, instead of turning it into an entertaining sequence about himself. Reeve always takes his subject seriously, digging beneath the surface, no matter how grubby it gets. So don’t expect much admiring of views and…

Synology is best known for its NAS drives – external storage devices that connect to a router rather than your PC, so that the hard drives inside them can be accessed by any device on your network. However, it also makes its own routers. The Synology RT6600ax is the latest model and brings Wi-Fi 6 to the range. The router costs £280 and is available to pre-order from Scan. At the time of writing it wasn’t widely available elsewhere, but it should be appearing in other online stores by the time you read this, so we encourage you to shop around for the best deal. “A plain slab of a router that provides solid speeds and easy-to-use controls” The router isn’t much to look at – a black plastic slab with six antennas…

Can certain supercar makers get away with offering an engine that isn’t an event in its own right? Undoubtedly, but Ferrari isn’t one of them. You might therefore have reservations about the 296 GTB, driven here for the first time in the UK. This is a car whose hybridisation and 250 LM-inspired design are big talking points but not the really big talking point, which is the engine: never before has a mere V6 found a home inside a Ferrari road car. In cold terms, it represents something of a downgrade from the V8 configuration the company has used for its mid-engined mainstays since 1973. More to the point, when was the last time anyone gave us an outstanding V6, Alfa Romeo’s Busso aside? There are other non-trivial concerns. Compared with the…

It’s a very hot day on the GH cover shoot and Monica Galetti is sitting beside me when her phone suddenly pings. She reads a text message, frowns – and then laughs. ‘The extraction fan in the kitchen of my restaurant just blew,’ she says. ‘You have to laugh. Otherwise, you might cry!’ It’s been a testing few months for the Samoan-born chef. Monica, 46, has been busy dealing with the effects of the pandemic on her restaurant, Mere, which she runs with her sommelier husband, David. She’s also been dealing with a family crisis: in February, her 15-year-old nephew, Otis, who lives in New Zealand, was diagnosed with a desmoplastic small round cell tumour, a rare form of cancer. It was a huge blow and in May Monica took the difficult…

PICK OF THE DAY Who Do You Think You Are? 9.00pm BBC1 (10.35pm Wales) GENEALOGY There are some outings in this series that you’re best not knowing too much about in advance. Part of the pleasure is experiencing the ancestral bolts-from-the-blue as they happen, particularly for this series opener, where comedian Josh Widdicombe gets bolt after bolt — and is enjoyably dumbfounded. “I’m not who I thought I was,” he muses at one stage, his mental furniture shifting to accommodate a fresh set of revelations. At another point he wonders aloud “if this is all a big prank” — very understandable. Widdicombe grew up in a remote Devon village and after chatting to his parents, he starts by investigating a rumour that one of their forebears came from the Barings banking family. It seems a…

The car industry has so far ridden out the shocks of Covid and subsequent supply chain disruption surprisingly successfully, at least as far as profits show. But the greatest shock might yet be around the corner and prove far harder to overcome: a collapse in demand. The consumer’s desire for new cars has so far outstripped the limited supply, allowing car makers to pare back marketing costs, including discounts, and focus on the pricier cars making the most profits. Car makers have even been able to pass on the cost of rising raw materials without worrying too much about orders. However, a new survey from Autocar sibling What Car? that canvassed the opinion of those in the market for a new car showed that 37% had decided to delay their purchase as they…

PICK OF THE DAY Sherwood 9.00pm BBC1 DRAMA New series There may be times watching this masterly drama from writer James Graham when you find yourself needing one of those police display boards with photos on and lines showing the connections between people. It’s complicated. There’s a rich web of characters, each of them fully formed and played by someone who, in other circumstances, might be top of a cast list. Put simply, we’re in a Nottinghamshire mining town, where the community still bears scars of divisions from the miners’ strike of the 1980s. Grudges are held. History matters. “We never forget round ’ere,” says one local. And at a wedding reception Gary (Alun Armstrong) notes that “If looks could kill, we’d have a dozen knives in us back.” Graham is best known for…

PICK OF THE DAY Toast of Tinseltown 10.00pm BBC2 SITCOM New series It had to happen. Jobbing actor Steven Toast, worn down by pedant-controlled voiceovers and run-ins with virtually everyone, is finally offered the chance of a lifetime: an audition to appear in a Hollywood film. Matt Berry’s ego-driven antihero has moved from Channel 4, too, after three successful series of Toast of London. But first we find Toast in familiar territory: back in the recording booth, irked by both producer Clem Fandango and a fussy novelist (an awesome cameo that’s a feather in the show’s cap). His agent Jane Plough (Doon Mackichan) has good news, but Toast is so surly and oppositional now that he’s forced to visit an anger management guru called Des Wigwam (Kayvan Novak, who does fine work wherever he…

PICK OF THE DAY This Time with Alan Partridge 9.30pm BBC1 COMEDY OF THE WEEK Steve Coogan has said that he fully expects to keep playing Alan Partridge “in one form or another, till I die”. The great man’s current gig — 30 years on from his beginnings as a spoof sports reporter on Radio 4 — returns for a second series as he again grapples with the demands of not fluffing his lines, insulting the guests or letting his bitterness show on live television, alongside beaming co-host Jennie Gresham (Susannah Fielding). Coogan has teased that in this series we can expect more of the presenters’ private lives running in parallel with the on-screen shambles. No previews were available, but the first series set the bar high, written (by Rob and Neil Gibbons) to…

PICK OF THE DAY Hemingway 9.00pm BBC4 DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK New series The opening shot pans slowly over a handwritten page of one of Ernest Hemingway’s manuscripts, animating the crossings-out and revisions. It’s a vivid way to bring his writing process to life, and because this is a Ken Burns series, there are other neat touches, as well as his subtly edited use of monochrome stills in a way that makes us almost feel we have seen film footage when we haven’t. You don’t need to be a great Hemingway fan to become absorbed in his life story, and it is beautifully told here, digging beneath the myths. When he lived in Paris in the 1920s, for instance, Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, were not in fact penniless, as he later…

PICK OF THE DAY Grace 8.00pm ITV DRAMA Arthur Darvill is this week’s guest star and he’s playing the kind of wealthy socialite that Columbo would have relished bringing to book in the 1970s. You’ll recognise the type: smug, arrogant and crying out to have his pomposity pricked. But Kit Bishop does differ from those lubricious antagonists in one key respect, as we can’t be certain that he’s murdered his wife Katya. He definitely has motive, with a life insurance policy recently taken out in her name making him look particularly guilty. But as the police team gathers evidence, it quickly becomes apparent that if Bishop did the deed, he’d have needed to be in two places at the same time. Before the two-hour running time is up, expect twists aplenty (some convincing, others ludicrous),…

PICK OF THE DAY Have I Got News for You 9.00pm BBC1 ENTERTAINMENT Panel shows are of-the-moment. They come and go. Yes, a lucky few of them come, go and come back again years later, like Never Mind the Buzzcocks, recently revived by Sky, or (at the less rock’ n’ roll end of things) Blankety Blank, which returned on Saturday to BBC1. But only one series emerged from the early-1990s panel-show boom and has simply kept going ever since, fronted by the same team captains now as it was for series one in 1990. Tonight marks the start of series 62 of Have I Got News for You and at its best the comedy still feels sharp, the satire still has teeth – or perhaps dentures at this point. As RT goes to press there…

PICK OF THE DAY The Great British Sewing Bee 9.00pm BBC1 CRAFT Someone’s got to win. It is a competition, after all. But the last three amateur sewists — who are all incredibly young — are equally talented and charming, so it’s impossible to choose between them. Even the little films about their family life and how they got into sewing didn’t make it any easier for me to pick a favourite. The theme is celebration and the bridesmaid dresses they make for their first challenge are so lovely that Esme Young announces she’d have them at her wedding… to Boy George. Patrick Grant, meanwhile, is so enamoured with one fabulous festival outfit in the transformation round that he can’t resist modelling it. Thankfully, though, he doesn’t try on the off-the-shoulder gown in the…

TED BAKER REVERSIBLE BELT Black? Brown? Can’t choose? This 100% bovine leather belt is the solution with black on one side and dark brown on the reverse. Both sides are high-shine while the brushed dark silver buckle features a Ted Baker logo. £40, mainlinemenswear.co.uk PAUL SMITH OLIVE JACKET While this shirt jacket is a bit of an investment its classic cut works with both a casual and a tailored look so it will earn its keep over the years. Dark green suede is embellished with logo-engraved snap fastenings. £1,500, paulsmith.com CAMPERLAB DERBY SHOES Smart doesn’t mean a compromise on style. These black 1978 Derby shoes balance a classic aesthetic with contemporary charm featuring a squared-toe and block heel. The rubber sole is topped with leather upper and Derby lacing system. £255, matchesfashion.com TOM FORD SILK TIE Ease the pain of…

PICK OF THE DAY The Girl Before 9.00pm BBC1 DRAMA New series If we can take away one message from 2021’s TV dramas, it’s don’t trust a hi-tech house. Finding Alice, Close to Me, Angela Black — all had modern homes where you’re only ever a stumble on the stairs away from disaster. Entire dramas could have been avoided with banisters. Here, we’re at a minimalist pad in north London, rented out by weirdo architect Edward (David Oyelowo). The story unfolds in separate timelines as two women — Jane (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Emma (Jessica Plummer) — decide to move in, despite the strict rules Edward imposes (no books, no pictures, no children). Both women have trauma in their recent past, and Jane gets wind of the fact that Emma’s spell in the house did…

PICK OF THE DAY Chloe 9.00pm BBC1 DRAMA New series Becky (Erin Doherty, most recently seen as Princess Anne in The Crown) has a boring, low-paid job as a temp and lives with her mother, who has early-onset dementia. Lonely and insecure, she yearns for the picture-perfect Instagram life of her former school friend Chloe (Poppy Gilbert), who she follows obsessively on social media. When Chloe suddenly and mysteriously dies, Becky reinvents herself as the confident and worldly Sasha and infiltrates Chloe’s friendship group. But why? Is it to find out what really happened to the friend she idolised, or could it be for some darker, more twisted purpose? Whatever the reason, she does it very cleverly, engineering a “chance” meeting with Chloe’s friend Livia (Pippa Bennett-Warner) and gradually gaining her confidence. Alice Seabright has written…

We had a December wedding, primarily so there would be no expectations about weather and we could sing cheerful carols in church. On the day, we had perfect blue skies and a sprinkling of snow, making me feel like I’d landed in a fairy tale as I walked towards the village church where I was christened, in a full-length ivory wedding dress. I don’t remember feeling any nerves. The person waiting for me at the end of the aisle was so familiar that the fact we were committing to spend the rest of our future together felt totally natural. I could tell Bruce felt exactly the same as I approached him. He gave me a cheerful grin, then glanced up at my head to check out my tiara. Possibly that was…