The must-see TV shows this week: From Top Gear to Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule

I may be unusual in this, but I prefer Top Gear without Jeremy Clarkson and the other two. That still doesn’t necessarily make the “new, new Top Gear” much of a show, because they’re still trying to do the sort of larks that the Clarkson-May-Hamster team used to do, but, being rather insipid imitations of the real thing, to me that was actually a better mix. This is because the “real thing” was very often a string of racist politically incorrect gags and scandals usually, I suspect, played up to manufacture some real and synthetic outrage, publicity and, in due course, higher ratings, higher fees and higher royalties.

Everyone’s a winner?

No. What’s been long lost in all this is, er, the cars. We all like a bit of car porn, obviously, and if 11-year-old kids living in poverty want to read a group test of the new Rolls-Royce against the new Bentley and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class Maybach limousines, then that’s fine by me. One day they might be able to buy all three. But I want a telly show that tells me much more about the cars, the designers, the companies that compete in a market like no other, the huge personalities who built the industry, the exciting future technologies for driverless and electrically propelled vehicles, the people who build them, the marketeers, the ad folk… it’s the most amazing industry ever. But Top Gear is about driving a Toyota pickup into a tree and going on about quick a Porsche can be. Boring.

Buying a car is the second biggest expenditure you’re likely to make in your life, and, even if you lease one, it is still a substantial financial commitment. The old Top Gear, the one that had William Woollard, Angela Rippon, Sue Baker and – even – Noel Edmonds in it, would at least tell you whether the thing is likely to break down. And, actually, whether it’s any good to drive. Who’s doing that now? I’d be delighted to think that the Top Gear team of Chris Harris, Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness would be testing the electric Nissan Leaf against the electric Kia Niro to see which has the bigger range between recharges. However I fear they’ll be driving Lamborghinis across Africa, or blowing up caravans or torturing an old Ford Focus instead.

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I can recommend much more heartily Years and Years. Anecdotally, it seems not yet to have caught the public imagination as much as, say, Line of Duty or Bodyguard, but it is still a frighteningly plausible glimpse in to the Britain and the world of the 2020s. I can’t give that much away about Tuesday’s finale, obviously, but I can say that all the cast are superb, and in this episode there are some exceptionally powerful scenes involving Rory Kinnear (playing Stephen Lyons), T’Nia Miller (Celeste Bisme-Lyons as his ex) and Edith Lyons, a militant environmental activist (Jessica Hynes).

As the story of a world in financial, political and environmental crisis run by cynical populists (yes, I know, we’re there already) but told through the extended Lyons family, it has thus far been mostly about the Lyons’ loves, lives and, sadly, deaths; but we’re now into full-blown political thriller mode, and it’s time for some proper action. It’s a pacey finale, but emotionally charged with it. Plainly someone has an idea for a second series, and I think it’d be worth the punt. If we all survive log enough to watch it. By the way, a bottle of house wine will be about £56 in a decade’s time, and Brexit will indeed have definitely happened by 2031. The bad/good news is that the whole of the rest of Europe will be in as big a mess as Britain. Thought you’d like to know.

It’s all also the final finale for Mum. In its third (and definitely final) series it has been edging towards resolving two crucial elements for its highly committed fans. First, offering some answers about the family dynamics that make it so tricky for Cathy (Lesley Manville) and Michael (Peter Mullan) to make their relationship work. And, second, what are the dynamics going on in their own hearts and minds that make what they call on Love Island “a coupling” such an apparently intractable challenge.

If you’ve not had enough yet of cynical populists, Emily Maitlis is due to chair a special Our Next Prime Minister telly-hustings just before Emma Thompson appears as the murderous maniacal PM Vivienne Rook in Years and Years. Great timing, BBC1!

Assuming some or all of the surviving candidates turn up to be asked questions by random viewers, it should make for interesting viewing. Maybe someone form a remote studio in the regions will get a straight answer out of them about drugs. Maybe not.

I must say that Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule doesn’t quite live up to its promise, despite Hill’s innate comic genius and intergalactic-grade wit, and the quality of the guests this loveable personality attracts – Kevin Whately, Konnie Huq, Georgia Taylor and William Roache. I’d rather he went back to doing TV Burp, though. I do miss it.

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We’re into summer now, though you’d never guess it, which traditionally means rather a fallow season for viewers. Not in 2019, though, Apart from all the above, there’s plenty more continuing excellence on your screens – Gentleman Jack, and the adventures of the “first modern lesbian”; Killing Eve, intense assassination thriller; Year of the Rabbit, amusing Ripper satire, Famalam, brilliant BBC3 sketch show; and Thatcher: A Very British Revolution. This documentary series is in in fact essential viewing for the many people who didn’t live through the 1970s and 1980s, and who would like to have some of the caricatures of those times perhaps corrected. In its way it is almost as scary as the 2020s in Years and Years.

Top Gear (BBC1, Sunday 8pm); Years and Years (BBC1, Tuesday 9pm); Mum (BBC2, Wednesday 10pm); Our Next Prime Minister (BBC1, Tuesday 8pm); Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule (ITV, Saturday 7.30pm)