The 20 best shows to watch On Demand this weekend -... trends now
A heart-rendering romance, deranged political satire and the horrifying tale of a real-life stalker... there's so much to sink your teeth into this weekend.
We've selected the 20 best shows to watch On Demand right now - sifting through thousands of options to save you the bother.
Looking for a new series to stream?
Read on to find out the shows worth investing your time in...
FranklinMichael Douglas shines as Benjamin Franklin in a drama about saving America from defeat
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
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There's a lot to recommend this rich, eight-part drama, and it's got a wonderfully simple premise: following Benjamin Franklin as he asks the French to save the Americans from defeat by the British.
This desperate quest for help makes it an underdog tale, which is always an appealing thing to watch, and they've got a coming-of-age story in there too, as Franklin is accompanied by his naive grandson, a boy who has a lot to learn.
It's also a political show about double-dealing and betrayal but, first and foremost, it's a character study of Franklin himself. You need a good actor for that and thankfully they have a great one in Michael Douglas, and watching this Hollywood legend twinkle and scheme his way through one situation after another is a delight in itself.
Daniel Mays is another bright point on the cast as Edward Bancroft, one of his allies in France, as is Ludivine Sagnier as Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy, a married Frenchwoman who catches Franklin's eye. The scenes between the two of them are the only time when Franklin fully lets his guard down, and give the show a real heart, too. (Eight episodes)
Baby ReindeerRiveting drama based on comedian Richard Gadd's experiences with a stalker
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
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Described as 'not your typical bunny-boiler story', this bracing seven-part drama is based on Scottish comedian Richard Gadd's award-winning debut play of the same name. That play came from his horrifying real-life experiences with a stalker who, at the very mild end of things, sent him 41,000 emails.
When Gadd performed that play on stage, Martha was represented by a bar stool. In this TV series which he wrote, produced and stars in she's a loud and colourful presence, played with vulnerability and a dark, dangerous hilarity by The Outlaws' Jessica Gunning. She's a woman who Donny (Gadd) wants to understand - not your typical bunny boiler, in short, and it's this rounded approach to character that really marks the show out as something special.
Gadd has been very clear that he made mistakes in the way he handled his stalker, and the honesty he's poured into the script translates into a show that's very hard to stop watching even when, at some points, you may really want to.
While far from an easy watch, Baby Reindeer (the title comes from Martha's nickname for him) is certainly a gripping one that plays with your sympathies throughout. And don't forget that Gadd is also, fundamentally, a comedian - so it's also a very funny show at times too, sometimes when you least expect it to be. (Seven episodes)
The RegimeKate Winslet delivers a fascinating performance as an embattled dictator
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
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You never know what's coming next in this six-part mix of drama and political satire, and that's the glory of it. A big part of why is Kate Winslet's deranged but somehow emotionally consistent performance as Chancellor Elena Vernham, the leader of a proud but economically hobbled Central European nation.
Vernham is a seemingly unstable woman full of contradictions, the most obvious of which is that she is a trained doctor but is terrified of invisible spores, and has ordered that her palace be constantly monitored for signs of mould. Is she really scared, though, or is her fear just a way of controlling her staff?
Into this nest of paranoia steps a troubled soldier recruited by Vernham to be her new assistant, and we learn steadily more about her regime from that point on. We won't spoil what happens because the unpredictability of the story and the way it plays with your perspective is part of the fun.
Of the cast, Winslet's performance is the undoubted centrepiece but there are other standouts, chiefly the chameleonic Andrea Riseborough as Vernham's most level-headed employee. Hugh Grant is in it too, but the less revealed about why the better - he's not part of either of the two musical numbers though, we'll say that much. (Six episodes)
FalloutExplosive video game adaptation from the creators of the Westworld TV series
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
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Video game adaptations used to have a bad name - does anyone remember Bob Hoskins playing the Italian plumber Mario in 1993's Super Mario Bros film? It's probably best that you don't.
Those days are now long though, especially after HBO's The Last Of Us upped the dramatic ante in 2023 and won eight Emmy Awards for its trouble. Fallout looks set to continue that trend, coming as it does from Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, a producing duo with great expertise in serving TV audiences big and complex worlds.
And Fallout is certainly that - the games are set in a sprawling, post-apocalyptic wasteland centuries after a nuclear war has devastated the planet's surface. Underneath that wasteland are The Vaults, in which cheery survivors have been living lives of order and relative luxury while those above scrabbled for scraps.
That culture clash is at the centre of the series, following Lucy (Yellowjackets' Ella Purnell) as she leaves the safety of The Vaults for the chaos above. 'Practically every person I've met up here has tried to kill me,' she despairs in her opening week. There's a lot of comedy in that clash and we meet a lot of eccentric characters as it unfolds, too, especially Justified's Walton Goggins as a roaming bounty hunter.
Fallout is primarily an epic action game though, and this ambitious and visually impressive series keeps that very much in mind. It should certainly please those in search of a little popcorn entertainment and, even if it doesn't quite reach the dramatic heights of The Last Of Us, it's also a rich evocation of an exciting world. (Eight episodes)
Unlocked: A Jail ExperimentCan prison inmates successfully govern themselves? A documentary series tries to find out
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
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American jails are understaffed and overfilled, leading to circumstances in which inmates are regularly locked up in their cells for 23 hours a day, simply because there aren't enough correctional officers available to supervise them. One sheriff at an Arkansas jail, however, thinks that he's hit on a solution: unlock the individual cell doors, remove the wardens and allow the prisoners to govern their time and - more crucially - their behaviour themselves. It's a bold idea, but can it really work?
This genuinely fascinating eight-episode reality series follows this social experiment in progress. Can the men work together for their own good? It's hard not to root for them. (Eight episodes)
The Greatest HitsTime-travelling romantic drama about music, a young woman and her dead boyfriend
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
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Harriet (Lucy Boynton) has been unable to move on with her life since her boyfriend Max (David Corenswet) died in a car crash. When she discovers that certain old favourite songs can literally transport her back in time to moments from their time together, she wonders if perhaps she's discovered a way to save him and herself.
The neat fantasy concept powers an enjoyably romantic heart-render that is - predictably enough - full of great tunes as well as impressive performances. Bohemian Rhapsody's Boynton is convincingly bereft as Harriet, with likeable turns from Corenswet as her old love in the past and The Umbrella Academy's Justin H Min as the new man she might just be falling for in the present. (94 minutes)
RipleyAndrew Scott stars in an eight-part take on the 1960s-set con artist story
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
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The 1999 movie of Patricia Highsmith's novel, The Talented Mr Ripley, left you wanting more of the con artist character at its centre. Andrew Scott gives you just that in Netflix's eight-part take on the same source material, following Ripley from New York to Italy as he insinuates himself into the life of clueless American playboy Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) and his justly suspicious fiancée, Marge (Dakota Fanning).
Set in sunny Italy but filmed in black and white, the series has much more space to give us a rounded portrait of Ripley, to the extent that you may even find yourself sympathising with him early on: he's ripped off by an Italian taxi driver and trudges around the country, unable to speak the language, desperately looking for his ticket to a better life.
You see a lot of his struggle, in short - perhaps a little too much for some tastes. Still, it scarcely matters as Scott is, of course, brilliant in the lead. The character of Ripley is a mimic and Scott, as an actor, is fantastic at that - when he starts to copy Dickie it's genuinely unsettling and weirdly accurate, despite the fact that Scott looks nothing like Flynn. And that performance is allowed to stand largely on its own, with no fancy cuts and barely any background music. Flynn and Fanning are both excellent too, and Fanning in particular does a lot with a look. But this is Scott's show, and justly so. (Eight episodes)
Oppenheimer (2023)Christopher Nolan's epic biopic about the atom bomb inventor
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
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Two films dominated the summer of 2023. One was Greta Gerwig's brilliant, neon-bright Barbie movie, but the other was this darkly stunning account of obsessive scientist J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) and his part in the Second World War Manhattan Project that created the world's first atom bomb.
Visually stunning and intellectually complex (it is shot through with foreboding about just what Oppenheimer's terrible creation might mean for all mankind), it's a film packed with great performances, with Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt all on fine form. The film is dominated by Murphy's Oscar-winning turn as the titular scientist, though, a driven, hypnotic figure creating something that only serves to destroy. Murphy's gong was one of seven wins for Oppenheimer at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for Downey Jr. (181 minutes)
ScoopGillian Anderson stars in a drama that tells the inside story of the BBC interview with Prince Andrew
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
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The BBC journalist Emily Maitlis's 2019 interview with Prince Andrew about the allegations linking him to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was a properly seismic moment in
