TV highlights – Sat 2 – Fri 8 March

Dallas (Tue, 10.35pm, C5)
It’s the end of an era – or two eras, really – as the rebooted ‘Dallas’ says its last goodbyes to the late Larry Hagman. Once it emerged how sick the star was, producers felt it was unsatisfactory for both actor and character to go out with a terminal illness storyline, instead creating a plot that updates and pays tribute to the show’s most famous moment of all, the “Who Shot JR?” puzzler. Prior to his exit, Hagman is in cracking form as the devious, devilish oil man, pulling strings here and there to help Sue Ellen in her political time of crisis and generally being agreeably dastardly. There’s also time for some tender scenes with Sue Ellen that will tug at the heart strings of long-time viewers. JR’s funeral is in two week’s time; in the meantime, a good old-fashioned whodunit is in store. A fitting send-off for one of television’s all-time great characters.

Broadchurch (Mon, 9pm, ITV)
This sober, classy eight-part drama looks at the effect of a tragedy on a small Dorset village. 11-year-old Danny is found dead on an idyllic beach, below the cliffs from whence he may have fallen. The case attracts huge national media attention, exacerbating the grief for his parents Beth and Mark (Jodie Whittaker and Andrew Buchan). Talented but difficult out-of-town police rising star DI Hardy (David Tennant) arrives to investigate the case, but he is soon at odds with the tight-knit community, not least his number two DS Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman). She not only believes that his job should have been hers. but is mother to the dead boy’s best friend. The first episode neatly puts the pieces into play and then it’s over to a superb cast to really explore the effects of loss and how nobody’s role in the situation is quite what it seems. Thoughtful and brilliant.

Mayday (Sun-Thu, 9pm, BBC1)
It’s a cracking week for drama, with this five-parter on the BBC that runs over consecutive nights from Sunday, a worthy opponent for ITV’s excellent ‘Broadchurch’. Well worth the investment of time, this looks at a rural village whose May Queen disappears in mysterious, eerie circumstances – a haunting early shot sees her abandoned bike in the woods with its wheel still spinning. The townsfolk, notably the men, are a rum lot – it seems that every one of them could be a good fit for the villain. There’s a drunk, bitter property developer, an intense, spurned young lover, the village bobby who seems to be hiding something and a lad who in less enlightened times we would have called a village idiot… Featuring an excellent cast headed by Peter Firth, Sophie Okonedo and Aidan Gillen, this has just the right blend of sadness, weirdness and mystery to really draw you in.

The Crash (Tue, 9pm, BBC3)
Not as thoughtful as ‘Broadchurch’ and ‘Mayday’, but this two-part story packs a real emotional punch and will be very relatable for any viewer living through or with late-teens. BBC3 continues to move away from the doldrums of ‘Two Pints Of Lager’ re-runs and crass sex shows with this drama about a group of likeable school-leaver friends who have their whole lives ahead of them until a devastating car accident. The crash happens very early on and then we flashback six months to see how the group came to be in that situation. It has its soapy elements but a really smart young cast – including Sacha Parkinson (Sian in ‘Corrie’), ‘Waterloo Road’s’ Georgia Henshaw and Lewis Rainer, late of ‘Grange Hill’ – do a fine job of conveying the seemingly insignificant details that can set a life-changing series of events in motion. Powerful stuff, apparently based on a real-life story.

Comic Relief’s Big Chat With Graham Norton (Thu, 7pm, BBC3)
The host is aiming to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for ‘Most Questions Asked On A TV Chatshow’. Erm, as records go, it’s not exactly the four-minute mile, is it? Still, working on the assumption that this even is a world record and not something hastily conjured up by marketers, Graham is going to give it a go in a six-hour chat marathon. Luckily for him, he can call upon the cast of thousands that is the BBC Light Entertainments booking roster, and we are expecting appearances from Sir Terry Wogan, Frank Skinner, Sarah Millican, Jimmy Carr, Martin Freeman, Elle Macpherson, Warwick Davis, James Nesbitt and Heston Blumenthal among many others. Music comes from Paloma Faith, Laura Mvula and Example. Even if he does break the questions record, Graham’s achievement will still pale in comparison to Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave’s 52 hour radio show for 2011 Comic Relief. Just the thought of listening to that is painful.

Also this week
Woof! It’s Crufts (Thu and Fri, 6.30pm, More4). Sure to be controversy over the black, black humour in Bluestone 42 (Tue, 10pm, BBC3), which is about an army bomb disposal unit and stars Oliver Chris from ‘Green Wing’ and Kelly Adams from ‘Hustle’. Gogglebox (Thu, 10pm, C4) is a sort of real-life ‘Royle Family’ in which we watch regular folk watching telly and yakking about it. The fun documentary series is narrated by Caroline Aherne. There is a new series of The Cube (Sat, 8.15pm, ITV). Back-to-back episodes of The Good Life (Sun, 7am, Gold) by way of a tribute to the late Richard Briers. A comedy gala in aid of an addiction charity: Russell Brand’s Give It Up Gig For Comic Relief (Wed, 10pm, BBC3). The Radford family (can somebody not give them a box of condoms?) feature in 16 Kids And Counting (Tue, 9pm, C4). Get ready to flirt with Sue and laugh at unfunny sports bants: it’s the 1,000,000,000th episode of A Question Of Sport (Mon, 8.30pm, BBC1).