What to watch on TV this week: Luther, Bo! Selecta, Love You To Death, First Dates: The Proposal (Dec 14)

Idris Elba’s gruff detective is back for a deeply absorbing new outing
He's back: Idris Elba returns as gruff London detective John Luther
BBC/Steffan Hill/Mikel Camara
Toby Earle14 December 2015

This week Luther’s coat is back. And so is John Luther in the first of a two-part special, Avid Merrion stalks his favourite celebs in Bo’Selecta! on London Live, and a ring is exposed in First Dates: The Proposal.

Bo’Selecta!, London Live, Monday 9.30pm

This is the programme which Craig David said had a negative effect on his work, due to his TV rubber-faced doppelganger greeting everyone with a broad Yorkshire accent and pet peregrine falcon, Kes.

I have to contend with Mr David on this – by his own admission he would take a girl for a drink on Tuesday, would be making love Wednesday, Thurs, Friday, and Saturday, they’d chill on Sunday, and then he’d be having a drink again on Monday. When does that leave any time for writing lyrics, hiring a studio, recording tracks, and organising a promotional tour?

The arrival of superfan Avid Merrion and this skewering of celebrity culture remains a perfect collision of subject and satire, and its depictions of Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, and Craig are still uproarious. Our introduction to Merrion’s life, spent mostly in a grotty flat with Craig off Big Brother held captive, includes how Craig David might spend his seven days and a tour of Michael Jackson’s crib, where we find a bowl of spoons permanently left out for whenever Uri Geller stops by to rub his magic fingers. Shazam.

Luther, BBC1, Tuesday 9pm

Idris Elba’s return in Luther brings an inevitable James Bond comparison. London’s copper who’s so street he eats three A to Zeds for breakfast and the Bond comparison is there right from the off: Bond has done a lot of standing on London roofs, gazing into the distance, and so too does Luther, with an even more baleful gaze.

Luther’s affection for vertiginous contemplation continues on his relocation to the coast, his hideaway from the police and his former life, and from his cliff-top spot he might even pick out David Tennant and Olivia Colman over in Broadchurch. Not that you want to become entangled in that, John.

This new life, one spent on cliffs rather than roofs, doesn’t last for long; the case which drags him back to the city inspired by a Hannibal, but not the one who drove elephants over the Alps.

This horror cop drama has always had tinges of graphic novels flecked throughout and John’s return, his donning of that faithful old coat, is a moment to match when Bruce Wayne pulls on his cowl. Luther’s London is one of spent gasworks and railings, a scuzzy, tired place where he tracks both a serial killer and mounts a personal vendetta, in what is a deeply absorbing and satisfying show.

Love You to Death, BBC2, Wednesday 9pm

BBC/Johann Perry

There are 86 names in this documentary. Those 86 names are of the women who were killed in a single calendar year by their male partner or ex-partner, the 86 victims of domestic abuse between 1st January and 31st December 2013.

Daughter. Best friend. Neighbour. Little sister. Nan. This is how these women are described by family members, friends, and neighbours in this documentary, which tells the story of seven of these women. To hear these friends and loved ones speak is to hear of slow-motion horrors, the women marginalised, isolated, harassed, and abused, until their death. In the case of Anne-Marie Birch, you hear her husband Lee phone the police and report her murder. ‘How do you know this has happened?,’ asks the operator. ‘Because I killed her, It’s my wife,’ is his flat reply. He made the call after he had been to the pub for two and a half pints.

First Dates: The Proposal, Thursday C4 9pm

What a special event. What a wonderful, special event to have so close to Christmas. What a way to make your stomach cosier than a freshly-lit turkey. Yes, Louisa, the girl who has dressed up as Exeter Cathedral, will be in the restaurant for another date. Unless she’s called upon by the parish to be on standby as an emergency cathedral.

Her return is one of many in this special and she is ‘ready to slay the males’, which doesn’t sound like a threat, but her lack of dating prowess might veer towards slaying confusion. That would be quite a show for the couples who met in the shadow of St Paul’s and have been invited back to celebrate Christmas. Out of those couples one person has made the biggest decision of their life; to fully commit to playing out their relationship on TV by proposing. Fred – better clear the eatery’s dairy for next year. We can work out where the reception will be.

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