David Farnor | On 04, Sep 2016

What’s available on-demand on Freeview? Keep up-to-date with our weekly catch-up TV column, including reviews of shows on ITV Hub, new releases on All 4 and a guide to My5.
(For BBC TV reviews and round-ups, see our weekly Best of BBC iPlayer column. Or for reviews of the shows on All 4’s Walter Presents, click here.)
 

Victoria (ITV Hub)

Jenna Coleman as Queen Victoria. As soon as those words were put together, ITV must have known they were on to something special.

Read our full review

Photo: ITV

Newzoids Season 2 (ITV Hub)

With Victoria keeping costume drama fans happy, others browsing ITV Hub for something different to watch may well stumble across sketch show Newzoids, which returned this weekend for its second season.

The slapdash assault upon anything mildly topical remains, inevitably, hit and miss, but there are certainly more hits in this promising opener of the second run than the last time around; Will and Kate and their calculating kids are awkward and unfunny, while a James Corden skit about his carpool karaoke series doesn’t quite land, but the addition of a Jeremy Corbyn puppet – how the political targets have changed in the last 12 months! – and a Donald Trump puppet are both amusing additions, with even a familiar Ricky Gervais gag getting an unexpected laugh.

It’s a difficult balance to strike, between being edgy enough to actually pack a punch and simply being cruel, and Newzoids is still trying to perfect it, but the UK TV world is in sore need of regular, scathing satire. Compared to Dead Ringers, which has found new form on the radio in the last year, this isn’t quite the answer, but on the plus side, you can always admire the hypnotically grotesque handiwork on display.

Available until: 3rd October (Episode 1)

Photo: ITV

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