The week ahead's TV highlights, by Damien Love

It might sound counterintuitive, but much of the reason for this was the show’s utter lack of a sense of humour. Not every drama has to verge on comedy to succeed, of course, but a core of wry humour runs through all the greatest dramatic writing, from Shakespeare to Samuel Beckett to The Sopranos. One of the best series on TV at the moment, Black Earth Rising, deals in serious, profoundly horrific stuff, but a sharp, odd, absurd, gallows tone flickers constantly, like a candle in the dark.

The Informer, a six-part series written by Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani, illustrates the point perfectly. A thriller that deals in the same topical, potentially controversial subject matter as Bodyguard – a counterterrorism police unit, and the grey areas they enter and dubious tactics they employ – it’s a serious and considered piece of work. Yet the dialogue is written and performed with a deftness and lightness of touch that makes the whole thing come alive and breathe.

Characters are almost constantly cracking gags about their situation, but they don’t come across as jokers; they come across as real human beings. As a result, the dangers around them feel real, too. Compared with this, the stern-jawed Bodyguard feels like a Gerry Anderson production.

We’re in a decent spell of British TV drama, but The Informer’s first episode stands out as one of the strongest of the year, and introduces an actor we will surely see a lot of in years to come, Nabhaan Rizwan, who plays Raza, the reluctant informer of the title.

We meet him on his home patch, east London, a smart young guy going about his day: working; flat hunting; picking up his kid brother from school; getting ready for a night out. These early minutes flow effortlessly, yet have more texture and pointed attitude than many entire series, touching on everything from the gentrification of the city, to unconscious racism, to the way Raza cannily uses stereotyping as a tool. (Amid a welter of great details is the way he customises his brother’s school blazer as a suit jacket for his night out.) Unfortunately for Raza, his clubbing ends in police cells, arrested for possession. Here, by unfortunate coincidence, he falls under the gaze of Gabe (the magnificent Paddy Considine, on quite tremendous form), a counterterror cop looking to “recruit” – ie, coerce – a new British-Pakistani informer to help track rumours of an Islamist cell possibly plotting a bombing. Meanwhile, we catch glimpses of Gabe’s own experiences undercover among a right wing group, and the effect it has had on him. Constantly wrong footing, always believable, packed with incident, hard-eged and written for a reason, it’s a fantastic opening.

If you flip to BBC Four straight after The Informer, another notable, entirely different kind of series begins, There She Goes, with David Tennant and Jessica Hynes as Simon and Emily, whose nine-year-old daughter Rosie (Miley Locke) has a severe learning disability. The script flashes back and forth across a decade, from the present, to when the couple first grew concerned about how their baby was developing. Based on comedy writer Shaun Pye’s own experiences, it’s sitcom on top, but candid and sometimes almost painfully tender beneath the skin.

Sunday October 14 Dr Who 6.45pm, BBC One

“It’s an old Police Box!” And so it is. The question is: where is it? Last week’s opening episode ended with the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her new chums Graham (Bradley Walsh), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Yasmin (Mandip Gill) dumped unexpectedly into deep space on the trail of the missing blue box. Tonight’s fairly excellent little adventure picks up exactly where we left off, as the human trio find themselves visiting an alien planet for the first time. But it’s a very desolate place, and there are dangers lurking everywhere (including some monsters that might have given MR James the vapours). Good stuff, with hints of bigger mysteries to come, Whittaker effortlessly in her stride, Bradley Walsh being fantastic, and some lovely missing-Tardis action.

Monday 15 Black Earth Rising 9pm, BBC Two

Kate realises the danger around her is very real. Nevertheless, she presses on, searching for the old case file her mother compiled, then heading toward the heart of the case, and of her own history, by journeying to Rwanda for the first time since she was an infant. Tonight’s episode comes bookended by two scenes that are ominous for entirely different reasons, and manages to fit in an action-movie scuffle and chase in the middle, spiced with some very odd touches. Yet what really marks this stunning thing out is the steady pull of its intelligence, and how it credits viewers with intelligence, too. The complex plot about the Rwandan genocide offers a lesson in recent history, but this is also a lesson in drama. Few series have so heroically disregarded focus-group thinking about what audiences will sit still for.

Wednesday 17 Professor Green: Hidden And Homeless 12.15am, BBC One

This sobering documentary on youth homelessness in the UK (one of the first films to highlight the growing problem of spice on the streets) was originally shown in early in 2016, but sadly seems even more relevant today than it was almost three years ago. Travelling the country, exploring some of the reasons for the recent explosion in homelessness, and explaining how and why the real numbers are much higher than officially recorded, rapper Professor Green is a candid presenter – his own shock and despair is often plain to see. At the heart of the film is Luke, then 20, who had already been living rough in Manchester five years. Using the then-still-legal spice as a way to blot out his situation, he was caught in an ever-downward spiral.

Thursday 18 Child Of Mine 10pm, Channel 4

This measured and intimate documentary about stillbirth is a sad and often difficult watch (probably more difficult from some viewers than others; one in two hundred babies is stillborn in the UK today). But it’s also an important and carefully considered film, and succeeds not only in showing the pain of this very private and rarely discussed tragedy, but also showing how people slowly move through it. Made with astonishing access to couples who learned during pregnancy that their unborn children might be at risk, the documentary considers some of the medical aspects of such cases. But it’s the parents themselves who make it, including Vicki and her partner Bruce, whose story is followed over several months. “She’s still our baby,” she says, as she holds her newborn, stillborn daughter, Ruby, immediately after delivery.

Friday 19 Synth and Beyond with Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert 8pm, BBC Four

For this wondrously amiable canter through the archives, Stephen and Gillian (the Bogart and Bacall of New Order) sit on a sofa, stick on old music clips they like, and then mutter about them, like a million other couples flicking through Youtube on a Friday night. It’s like a post-punk Gogglebox. Amid a playlist running from Can to Candi Staton, some clips are perhaps predictable (Kraftwerk, Bowie, Roxy), but Stephen lets his weird-beard shine with the might of Captain Beefheart, while Gillian goes dark pop with Soft Cell. Elsewhere come Grace Jones, Kate Bush and fellow Manchester immortals Magazine. There’s also a snippet from New Order’s own memorably intense 1984 performance for the BBC’s Rock Around The Clock live marathon. But the best story concerns Stevie Wonder.

Saturday 54 Hours: The Gladbeck Hostage Crisis 9pm, BBC Four

When watching events escalate and get increasingly, madly, and disastrously out of hand in this German drama, it pays to bear in mind that the story unfolding isn’t a work of fevered fiction. Although it unfolds with the grip of a gritty thriller, this short, sharp series is a retelling of one of the most infamous crimes in postwar Germany. In 1988, two armed men staged a bank job that went wrong, and then went on the run across West Germany with their hostages. As police made one mistake after another, and a media circus joined in on the chase, a small crime soon spiralled into a black, tragic fiasco that altered the course of policing (and reporting) in Germany. Whether you know the details or not, this is an enthralling reconstruction.