What to watch on TV this week

Vienna Blood, BBC Two

Steven Moffat’s iteration of Sherlock changed the detective format with three glorious, feature-length episodes per season. He re-shaped Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories into cinematic events, avoiding being just another formulaic detective drama. Vienna Blood looks to achieve the same objective.

Based on the Liebermann novels by Frank Tallis, this three-part series from screenwriter Steve Thompson (who worked on Sherlock) follows a detective and a psychologist in 1900s Vienna. Studying under Sigmund Freud, Max Liebermann (Matthew Beard) is keen to understand the criminal mind and so observes Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt (Juergen Maurer) during an especially confusing case.

Dolly Parton's Heartstrings, Netflix

Last year’s Netflix pleasure Dumplin’, starring Jennifer Aniston, re-ignited the love for country singer Dolly Parton. But Netflix wasn’t content to just leave it at that. This year, they’re plunging deep into the hits that made Dolly a legend.

Dolly Parton's Heartstrings is an eight-part anthology series, with each episode adapted from one of Dolly’s songs; exploring the the stories, memories and inspirations behind them. This includes Jolene (of course), which wraps around the tale of a free-spirited woman in Georgia who becomes a singer-songwriter.

Heartstrings is a must for any fans of Dolly, country music, and music full-stop.

The Knight Before Christmas, Netflix

This will be one of many cheesy Christmas movies to swarm Netflix in the coming weeks. The Knight Before Christmas looks to dial up all the romance and magic and nonsense that the season inspires.

Starring Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical) and Josh Whitehouse (Poldark), this film features a 14^th century knight-in-shining-armour (Whitehouse) who mistakenly travels forward in time to modern-day America. He’s taken in by Brooke (Hudgens), a high school teacher, who takes a shine to him. And — would you believe it? — they fall in love.

Johnson vs Corbyn: the ITV Debate, ITV

Another (yes, another) election is on the way, and the two primary candidates go head-to-head on ITV this Tuesday.

Prime minister Boris Johnson will undoubtedly spell out his vision for Brexit, and might even repeat his endlessly satirised catchphrase of an ‘oven-ready’ deal. As well as sketching out his own strategy for leaving the E.U., Labour candidate Jeremy Corbyn might expand on his promises of free broadband for everyone. The debate is hosted by newsreader Julie Etchingham.

The War of the Worlds, BBC One

Peter Harness's excellent retelling of the H.G. Wells sci-fi classic continues on BBC One, and plunges into scary and harrowing territory.

In episode two, George (Rafe Spall) scrabbles through the rubble of Woking to find his partner Amy (Eleanor Tomlinson). But she's managed to escape to London, where she meets George's brother Frederick (Rupert Graves) and helps explain the enormity of the situation to the politicians in charge.

Read our review