What to watch on TV over the bank holiday weekend: from Britain’s Got Talent to The Handmaid’s Tale

Here’s our pick of the long weekend’s best TV shows including Liam Payne on Graham Norton and Paul Hollywood’s take on Top Gear
Top talent: BGT's last audition show airs on Sunday before the live semi-finals next week
Matt Crossick/PA

Ahh freedom. While this weekend promises to be an outrageously hot bank holiday, that extra day off work should still leave you some time to kick back in front of the box and recover from the inevitable sunburn.

Here’s what to watch when you’ve had enough warmth for one day.

Friday

The Graham Norton Show

This week's guests: Ed Westwick, James Buckley, Salma Hayek, David Walliams and Liam Payne
PA

It’s the usual boozy celeb-fest from Graham this week. Appearing on the red sofa this this time are former One Directioner Liam Payne, who chats about his love for children’s toys, Salma Hayek who shares her true feelings towards Trump, David Walliams who discusses his friendship with Simon Cowell and actors Ed Westwick and James Buckley who talk about their new sitcom White Gold.

BBC One, 10:35pm

Saturday

In the final round of auditions, there are just a few more spots to be filled before the judges whittle down all the acts that received yeses. Only the cream of the auditioning crop will get through to next week’s live semi-finals, with Simon Cowell, David Walliams, Aleisha Dixon and Amanda Holden making their cases for why their favourite acts should be one of the chosen 35. Spoiler: Simon almost always wins.

ITV, 8pm

Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors

Pride and property: Lucy Worsley explores Jane Austen's homes
BBC

Everyone loves a peek inside other people’s homes, and it’s even more intriguing if they belong to a famous figure. Taking Cribs back to the Georgian era is historian Lucy Worsley, who travels round the UK to the places Jane Austen lived and visited during her lifetime. One perhaps more for property and design-lovers than history buffs.

BBC Two, 9pm

Sunday

Damilola, Our Loved Boy

If you missed this poignant and hard-hitting film the first time round, BBC is giving you another chance to revisit the Damilola Taylor tragedy that shocked the nation back in 2000. Exploring Damilola’s journey from Lagos to London, the confusion and uncertainty surrounding his death and his proud parents’ crushing grief at their loss, this Bafta winning drama is a must-watch that will leave you weeping.

BBC One, 8:30pm

The Handmaid’s Tale

Disturbing drama: The Margaret Atwood adaptation comes to Channel 4 this week
Take Five/Hulu

Channel 4 secured the rights to this hotly-anticipated adaptation of the Margaret Atwood novel earlier this month. With Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss heading up the cast as handmaid Offred, the dystopian drama depicts a world in which women are held captive and forced to bear children to safeguard the future of the population. It’s a chilling look at a society built on subservience that concerningly doesn’t seem quite so farfetched anymore.

Channel 4, 9pm

The Durrells and Grantchester series finales

The ultimate in soft Sunday night viewing, family favourites the Durrells and Grantchester are both coming to a close this week. It’s a dramatic end to the series for Greek islanders the Durells with several characters on the brink of giving birth and Hugh still trying to persuade Louisa to return to England. Meanwhile in Grantchester, Sidney loses his faith in the church and decides to resign so he can marry Amanda, but soon discovers the community needs him more than ever as a little boy is abducted. The last episodes of both will air one after the other on ITV, so curl up for a cosy evening in.

The Durrells ITV, 8pm. Grantchester, ITV, 9pm

Paul Hollywood’s Big Continental Road Trip

The odd couple: Bruno Tonioli joins Paul Hollywood on the Bake Off judge's new show
BBC

The spin-off show nobody really asked for sees Bake Off’s surliest judge swap cream cakes for cars on a road-trip round Europe. In the first episode of the Top Gear-like show, he heads to Italy and is joined by another familiar primetime BBC One face – Bruno Tonioli. Highlights include Hollywood navigating a three-wheeled van around the streets of Verona.

BBC Two, 9pm

Monday

May v Corbyn Live: The Battle for Number 10

After dodging the first televised debate, this show – despite what the title would have you believe - sees the Prime Minister still manage avoid going head to head with the leader of the opposition. Rather they’ll both be grilled, or more likely thoroughly roasted, by tough-talking Jeremy Paxman. With Labour catching up in the polls and the leaders taking questions from the audience, this should hopefully prove illuminating, but it’s still safe to expect plenty of strong and stable sound bites nonetheless.

Channel 4, 8:30pm

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