June 2020 Watchlist: 23 highlights and UK TV air dates for this month
David Farnor | On 05, Jun 2020
Netflix. Amazon Prime Video. BBC iPlayer. NOW. Walter Presents. Apple TV+. There’s so much TV to watch these days in so many places that it can be hard to keep up. Every month, we boil down what’s on the box to the essentials you need in your streaming queue.
June marks the long-awaited return of several modern gems, from What We Do in the Shadows to My Brilliant Friend, The Sinner and Netflix’s Dark. But it’s the new shows that hold the most intrigue, from Michaela Coel’s provocative I May Destroy You to Betty, HBO’s new show inspired by the excellent indie film Skate Kitchen. We’ve sorted through All The TV to bring you your May watchlist – what’s worth watching and where you can find it online in the UK:
Alex Rider
The coming-of-age show is based on Point Blanc, the second novel in Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series of books, which has sold over 20 million copies worldwide and previously inspired the 2006 film Stormbreaker. It stars Otto Farrant as Alex Rider, a London teen who has unknowingly been trained since childhood for the dangerous world of espionage. Pressured to help investigate his uncle’s death, and how it connects to the assassination of two high-profile billionaires, Alex reluctantly assumes a new identity and goes undercover in a remote boarding school called Point Blanc, high up in the French Alps, where something sinister is happening beneath the surface.
Alex Rider air date:
When? 4th June (00.01am)
What channel? Amazon Prime Video
Watch online in the UK:
Amazon Prime Video (£5.99 a month)
Available all at once on-demand
The Other One
This amusing, moving, sharply written comedy follows a girl called Catherine Walcott. And another girl called Catherine Walcott – sisters who had no idea the other existed until their father dropped dead. If you missed the pilot when it was first on, don’t miss the chance to watch it again.
The Other One UK air date:
When? 5th June (9pm)
What channel? BBC One
Watch online in the UK:
BBC iPlayer
Available weekly live and on-demand
This Is Us: Season 4
Dan Fogelman’s unabashedly sentimental series chronicles the Pearson family across the decades: from Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) as young parents in the 1980s to their 37-year-old kids Kevin (Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown), searching for love and fulfillment in the present day. This grounded, life-affirming dramedy reveals how the tiniest events in our lives impact who we become, and how the connections we share with each other can transcend time, distance and even death.
This Is Us air date:
When? 5th June (00.01am)
What channel? Amazon Prime Video
Watch online in the UK:
Amazon Prime Video (£5.99 a month)
Available all at once on-demand
Queer Eye: Season 5
The Fab Five are back and heading to Philadelphia for another round of feel-good, empowering make-overs.
Queer Eye air date:
When? 5th June (8.01am)
What channel? Netflix UK
Watch online in the UK:
Netflix UK (£8.99 a month)
Available all at once on-demand
13 Reasons Why: Season 4
The teen drama, which is based on the book by Jay Asher, returns for its final season, which finds Liberty High School’s class preparing for graduation, as they are forced to make life-changing and heartbreaking choices about how their past will impact their future.
13 Reasons Why air date:
When? 5th June (8.01am)
What channel? Netflix UK
Watch online in the UK:
Netflix UK (£8.99 a month)
Available all at once on-demand
I May Destroy You
Michaela Coel stars, writes and exec-produces this frank drama, which explores the question of sexual consent in contemporary life and how, in the new landscape of dating and relationships, we make the distinction between liberation and exploitation. Set in London, where gratification is only an app away, the story centres on Arabella, a care-free, self-assured Londoner with a group of great friends, a holiday fling-turned aspirational boyfriend in Italy, and a burgeoning writing career. But when she is spiked with a date-rape drug, she must question and rebuild every element of her life.
I May Destroy You UK air date:
When? 8th June (9pm)
What channel? BBC One
Watch online in the UK:
BBC iPlayer
Available weekly live and on-demand
Sitting In Limbo
After 50 years in the UK, Anthony Bryan is wrongfully detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation in this shocking one-off drama inspired by the Windrush scandal.
Sitting in Limbo UK air date:
When? 8th June (9pm)
What channel? BBC Two
Watch online in the UK:
BBC iPlayer
Available live and on-demand
Betty
HBO’s newest series Betty is a spin-off of 2018 skateboarding drama film, Skate Kitchen. With most of the original cast, the series is about a diverse group of young women who are trying to navigate their lives and focus their groups efforts to stand out in New York’s predominantly male world of skateboarding. Starring Dede Lovelace, Moonbear, Kabina Adams, Ajani Russell and Rachelle Vinberg. The whole of Season 1 arrives at once on-demand.
Betty UK air date:
When? 9th June (9.35pm)
What channel? Sky One
Watch online in the UK:
Sky / NOW (£8.99 a month – an Entertainment Membership auto-renews at £8.99 a month until 1st September 2020, £9.99 thereafter unless cancelled))
Available weekly live and on-demand
Staged
Michael Sheen and David Tennant star in this lockdown comedy about the cast of a play who are furloughed when their upcoming West End production is suddenly brought to a halt. The series follows the actors as they try their best to keep the rehearsals on track from their respective homes – and it’s genuinely hilarious.
Staged UK air date:
When? 10th June (10pm)
What channel? BBC One
Watch online in the UK:
BBC iPlayer
Available all at once on-demand
What We Do in the Shadows: Season 2
FX’s vampire mockumentary, based on the Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement film of the same name, returns for another side-splitting season. In their second screen outing, the vampires find their way in the human and non-human worlds of the Tri-State area.
UK air date:
When? 11th June (10pm)
What channel? BBC Two
Watch online in the UK:
BBC iPlayer
Available weekly live and on-demand
F Is for Family: Season 4
Bill Burr’s comedy, co-created with Michael Price, takes us back to the 1970s for a slice of politically incorrect dysfunctional family comedy – with Jonathan Banks joining the show as Big Bill Murphy.
13 Reasons Why air date:
When? 12th June (8.01am)
What channel? Netflix UK
Watch online in the UK:
Netflix UK (£8.99 a month)
Available all at once on-demand
The Salisbury Poisonings
Anne-Marie Duff and Rafe Spall in this gripping three-part drama that focuses on the impact the 2018 Novichok poisonings had on the local community, after Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench. Airing nightly, with all episodes also available on BBC iPlayer.
Salisbury Poisonings UK air date:
When? 14th June (9pm)
What channel? BBC One
Watch online in the UK:
BBC iPlayer
Available all at once on-demand
LOL: Last One Laughing
Hosted by Rebel Wilson, this comedy-variety series sees a star-studded cast of 10 Australian comedic actors and stand-ups compete to make each other laugh first. The final one left standing will win the grand prize of AUD$100,000.
Last One Laughing UK air date:
When? 18th June (00.01am)
What channel? Amazon Prime Video
Watch online in the UK:
Amazon Prime Video (£5.99 a month)
Available all at once on-demand
The Great
The Favourite writer Tony McNamara creates another satirical royal gem with this comedy about the rise of Catherine the Great – from outsider to the longest reigning female ruler in Russia’s history. With a cast that includes Elle Fanning, Nicholas Hoult, Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley and Sacha Dhawan, who needs historical facts?
The Great UK air date:
When? 18th June
What channel? STARZPLAY
Watch online in the UK:
STARZPLAY / Amazon Prime Video Channels / Virgin Media (£4.99 a month)
Available all at once on-demand
The Sinner: Season 3
Bill Pullman reprises his role as Detective Harry Ambrose in the third season of USA Network’s hit crime thriller. It sees him begin a routine investigation of a tragic car accident on the outskirts of Dorchester, in upstate New York. Ambrose uncovers a hidden crime that pulls him into the most dangerous and disturbing case of his career.
The Sinner S3 air date:
When? 19th June (8.01am)
What channel? Netflix UK
Watch online in the UK:
Netflix UK (£8.99 a month)
Available all at once on-demand
My Brilliant Friend: Season 2
Set in a dangerous and fascinating Naples, this lushly produced miniseries follows the lives of two girls over six decades of their friendship and is based on Elena Ferrante’s bestselling book.
UK air date:
When? 19th June (9pm)
What channel? Sky Atlantic
Watch online in the UK:
Sky / NOW (£8.99 a month – an Entertainment Membership auto-renews at £8.99 a month until 1st September 2020, £9.99 thereafter unless cancelled))
Available weekly live and on-demand
The Politician: Season 2
Created by Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story), the show follows Payton Hobart (Ben Platt), a wealthy student from Santa Barbara, California, who has known since age seven that he’s going to be the President of the United States.
The Politician S2 air date:
When? 19th June (8.01am)
What channel? Netflix UK
Watch online in the UK:
Netflix UK (£8.99 a month)
Available all at once on-demand
The Luminaries – 21st July
Eva Green stars in this reworking of Eleanor Catton’s 2013 Man Booker Prize-winning novel. Adapted by Catton herself, it introduces us to Anna Wetherell’s (Eve Hewson) as she arrives in New Zealand in 1865. She is fresh-faced and full of promise. After a romantic first encounter, she agrees to meet with fellow passenger, Emery Staines (Himesh Patel), but the scheming fortune-teller Lydia Wells (Eva Green) has other designs. Anna is taken under Lydia’s wing, and Emery under the wing of former convict, Francis Carver (Marton Csokas). The result is a tale of mystery, love and revenge that unfolds across two timelines – and, with the gorgeous landscapes and talented cast behind it all, it’s a compelling, if complicated, watch. Episode 1 and 2 air on consecutive nights, with the remainder airing on Sunday nights.
The Luminaries UK air date:
When? 21st June (9pm)
What channel? BBC One
Watch online in the UK:
BBC iPlayer
Available all at once on-demand
Perry Mason: Season 1
While the rest of the country recovers from the Great Depression of 1932, the city is booming! Oil! Olympic Games! And a child kidnapping gone very, very wrong. Perry Mason’s (Matthew Rhys) relentless pursuit of the truth reveals a fractured city and just maybe, a pathway to redemption for himself.
Perry Mason UK air date:
When? 22nd June (9pm)
What channel? Sky Atlantic
Watch online in the UK:
Sky / NOW (£8.99 a month – an Entertainment Membership auto-renews at £8.99 a month until 1st September 2020, £9.99 thereafter unless cancelled))
Available weekly live and on-demand
Talking Heads
10 of Alan Bennett’s classic monologues have been remade at Elstree Studios in recent weeks, plus two new monologues by the playwright. Produced by Nicholas Hytner’s London Theatre Company and Kevin Loader, they star Jodie Comer, Monica Dolan, Martin Freeman, Tamsin Greig, Sarah Lancashire, Lesley Manville, Lucian Msamati, Maxine Peake, Rochenda Sandall, Kristin Scott Thomas, Imelda Staunton and Harriet Walter. Excellently performed, they’re all full of the same wry and poignant human insight that made them so timeless in the 1980s.
Talking Heads UK air date:
When? 23rd June (9pm)
What channel? BBC One
Watch online in the UK:
BBC iPlayer
Available all at once on-demand
Dark: Season 3
The streaming giant’s first German original drama, created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, returns to continue the story of four families and their attempts to change their fate within their tightly knit community. Now, the final cycle is about to begin. Will the loop finally be broken?
Dark S3 UK air date:
When? 27th June (8.01am)
What channel? Netflix UK
Watch online in the UK:
Netflix UK (£8.99 a month)
Available all at once on-demand
Dead Still
Acorn
Offering a contemporary take on the genre, we’re transported to Victorian Dublin, in the heyday of the macabre practice of post-mortem photography. This six-part series follows a renowned memorial photographer, played by Michael Smiley, who is drawn into an investigation of a series of suspicious deaths. After an unfortunate accident and waning patronage take their toll, Brock Blennerhasset (Smiley) must take on his would-be actress niece, Nancy Vickers (Eileen O’Higgins), and a new, eager assistant and former grave-digger, Conall Molloy (Kerr Logan) to help keep his macabre memorial photography business afloat.
Dead Still UK air date:
When? 29th June
What channel? Acorn TV
Watch online in the UK:
Acorn TV (£4.99 a month)
Available all at once on-demand
Behind the Filter
This isn’t how Ruby imagined her life – unemployed, single, living with her parents. However, the time has come for her to truly make her mark on the world. To make a podcast. Expect Phoebe Walsh’s comedy to be a wry satire of influencer life.
Behind the Filter UK air date:
When? 29th June
What channel? BBC Three
Watch online in the UK:
BBC iPlayer
Available on-demand