David Farnor | On 01, May 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.)

Angie Tribeca (All 4)

This police spoof, from Steve Carell and Nancy Walls Carell, owes a big debt to Police Squad and its brand of literal verbal gags and endless slapstick. That debt, though, is paid off in spades by the cast. Rashida Jones is Angie, an independent, fiercely fierce police officer, who works for the RHCU (Really Heinous Crimes Unit). She’s badass – as the opening montage of her morning routine (demolishing her entire flat in training gear) proves – and she doesn’t like working with partners. Enter Hayes MacArthur as Jay Geils, who is assigned to work with her by her “tough, but fair” boss (Jere Burns). Taking every cliche in the crime procedural book and mercilessly lampooning it, there’s an enjoyably old-school feel to the humour – one chase sequence, full of terrible Parkour, is laugh-out-loud funny – but most of all, it’s a pleasure to see Rashida Jones (after many years of playing second fiddle in Parks and Rec) given centre spotlight. She dives into it straight-faced, without holding back. You go, Angie Tribeca.

Available until: 28th May

The Secret (ITV Hub)

There’s something inherently creepy about watching James Nesbitt play a straight-laced, devout Christian man. You expect him to burst into a manic grin at any given moment. His casting as everyday Coleraine dentist Colin Howell, then, works brilliantly, as we watch him fix people’s teeth, chat with his Baptist pastor and play the guitar with a seemingly harmless smile. Then we watch him have an affair with Sunday school teacher Hazel (Genevieve O’Reilly) – and that image starts to unravel.

“This is God’s gift,” he tells her, after they’ve committed adultery. It smacks of hypocrisy, especially when the pastor innocently tries to unearth the truth and put things right. If that sometimes seems hard to believe, therein lies the strength of ITV’s four-part drama: the whole thing is based on the true story of an affair in Northern Ireland that climaxed in a shocking act by the transgressive couple. When Nesbitt’s dentist raises the idea at the end of Episode 1, his calm, rational logic is uncomfortably eerie. He doesn’t smile once.

Available until: 27th May

Photo: Hat Trick Productions

24 Hours in Police Custody (All 4)

True crime is all the rage in TV at the moment – and Channel 4’s 24 Hours in Police Custody is near the front of the pack. The broadcaster’s series doesn’t just focus on one case, but switches between real stories every episode. This week, we witness 41 year old Lee walk into Luton police station and confess to arranging to meet a 12-year-old girl, Sophie. Sophie, however, is an adult couple who pose as young girls online to catch paedophiles (one of them calls himself CHRIS Fear – “Children Have Rights in Society” and fear, “because we’re coming for you”). The programme’s fly-on-the-wall cameras capture the whole of the ensuing 24 hours, as the police have to search Lee’s house without telling his partner why – despite the fact that a video has been posted online by the paedophile hunters already. That mix of awkward, frank reality and the dilemma surrounding the fact that Lee hasn’t actually committed the crime makes for a fascinating, gripping exploration of morals and justice.

Available until: 27th May

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