Mrs Maisel, The Who, and I'm a Celeb - what to watch (and what to avoid) on TV this weekend

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel returns for a third series this weekend on Amazon Prime

Pat Stacey

Pat Stacey has the lowdown on the best of the weekend's TV...

TONIGHT

Scandinavian television is synonymous with dark, brooding thrillers rather than comedies. A Very Scandi Scandal (All 4, from today), a 12-part Swedish series showing under the Walter Presents banner, may just change that perception.

Two middle-class women in late middle age suffer a financial blow and realise the years of dedication they put into their work as, respectively, a doctor and a teacher, were a waste of time. But then a dying man comes up with a suggestion, which just happens to be illegal.

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For anyone who believed country music was just about blokes in absurdly large hats, Country Music by Ken Burns (BBC4, 9.30pm and 10.20pm) must be, even in this chopped-back version, a considerable eye-opener.

Tonight’s double-bill, covering the years 1964 to 1972, focuses on topics including how the country responded to an America changed forever by the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War; the rise of Merle Haggard (an ex-con with movie-star looks) and Kris Kristofferson (a painfully shy janitor); and the descent into drug-fuelled self-destruction of Johnny Cash.

I haven’t seen any of Amazon Prime’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (the American spelling is the one the title uses, obviously), which has been garlanded with awards, so I can’t offer an opinion on it. Season three, landing today, finds the 1950s housewife-turned-comedian (Rachel Brosnahan) heading off on an eye-opening cross-country tour.

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Truth Be Told (Apple TV+, from today) focuses, in a fictional manner, on the increasingly controversial subject of true-crime podcasts. Octavia Spencer plays a podcaster and journalist who fears her work on a decades-old murder trial may have sent an innocent man (Aaron Paul) to jail.

The Name of the Rose (BBC2, 9pm) may be more faithful to the complexities of Umberto Eco’s breathtaking novel than the 1986 film (which was excellent nonetheless), but the decision to add characters and elements of its own has often slowed the pace. This is the penultimate episode.

SATURDAY

Music documentaries are often the saviours of increasingly weak Saturday night schedules. From Elton John to Gary Barlow: Celebrating 100 Concerts Live at Eden (BBC4, 10.25pm) — quite a mouthful of a title, that — looks back on the highlights of 17 years of gigs at the beautiful Eden Project in Cornwall.

The star of the 100th show, Nile Rodgers, introduces clips of the likes of Duran Duran, Muse, Bastille, Lionel Richie, Van Morrison and the band that kicked off what became known as the Eden Sessions, Pulp.

Almost Fashionable: A Film About Travis (Sky Arts/NOW TV, 10pm) promises fun. Fran Healy, frontman with Scottish band Travis, who enjoyed massive sales of their 1999 album The Man Who, invited music critic Wyndham Wallace to follow them on tour. There’s a twist: Wallace loathes them more than any other band. Not your usual rock doc, then.

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Genuine rock legends show up in a special edition of The Jonathan Ross Show (ITV, 10.25pm) devoted entirely to The Who.

Surviving members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, supplemented by touring regulars including Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son) and Pete’s brother Simon, perform tracks from their first studio album in 13 years, entitled simply Who.

SUNDAY

The standalone film Elizabeth is Missing (BBC1, 9pm), based on Emma Healey’s 2014 bestseller, counts as the first major offering of the Christmas season — and what a way to kick it off. The incomparable Glenda Jackson, appearing on television for the first time in 27 years, plays Maud, an active grandmother in her 80s who is convinced something has happened to her friend, Elizabeth.

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But her attempts to solve the mystery (if there is one) are hampered by the fact that her memory is being cruelly erased by creeping dementia. The disappearance of Maud’s sister in 1949 begins to intrude on the present. The question is, what’s real and what’s not?

Here we are again at the end of another I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! (Virgin Media One/ITV, 9pm) and it’s time to crown the new king or queen of the jungle. I haven’t been following it closely, but by all accounts it’s been an underwhelming season, marked by a serious drop in viewing figures. Time for a rethink and a refresh, maybe?

Following the shocking death of little Billy Costa in last week’s His Dark Materials (BBC1, 8pm), we now know what the evil Gobblers are up to: separating children from their daemons. But why? That’s what Lyra (Dafne Keen), who’s joined the other children as a prisoner in the Bolingvar research facility, needs to find out. A very dark instalment.

There’s a twisty irony about new seven-parter The Killing of Jessica Chambers (Sky Crime, 9pm), which opens with a double-bill. It feeds the hunger of true-crime enthusiasts while simultaneously illustrating the threat they pose.

Online amateur sleuths descended on rural Mississippi in 2014 to “solve” the murder, causing havoc in a grieving community already rife with racial tension.