Sunday

Line Of Duty

9pm, BBC One

LOD regulars might dimly recall last week’s episode ended at quite a critical moment…But let’s step back from that precipice, to sing the praises of Adrian Dunbar’s endlessly entertaining performance as the AC-12 gang’s fearless leader, “Super” Ted Hastings. With his “see heres” and “fellas” and “darlin’s”, Big Ted is a simmering rhapsody in throwback Northern Irish attitude; close your eyes, it’s almost as if Corrie’s Jim McDonald had joined the force, so it is. Tonight, this all factors into arguably the best line of dialogue this programme ever delivered, as a smarmy lawyer suggests to him, “C’mon: let’s dial down the Ian Paisley.” It comes during the first of two excellent interview scenes, one featuring nervous Nick Huntley (Lee Ingleby), the other his wife, Roz (Thandie Newton), who is maintaining her icy front, despite the fact she’s running a fever from her infected wrist. By now, her plots within plots have woven a ridiculously tangled web, as Jed Mercurio continues to write like a man with his hair on fire.

Monday

Hunting The KGB Killers

9pm, Channel 4

The appeal might be slightly unwholesome – we’re talking about real murder, after all, with real lives affected – but for anyone with any interest in the bleak, secret game of spying still going on just beneath the diplomatic surface today, this really is a fascinating film. The killers of the title are the assassins who silently executed former KGB man Alexander Litvinenko in the streets of London in November 2006, slipping the unspeakably deadly radioactive poison polonium 210 into a cup of tea – “a million times the lethal dose,” according to one of the detectives on the case here. The documentary explores the work of that Scotland Yard team, whose job began with following the toxic traces that the killers left through the heart of London. It was the start of an international manhunt that would lead them all the way to Moscow – where, the investigators claim, they were eventually poisoned themselves. The film recounts the political obstacle course they faced in investigating the killing, and there are contribution’s from Litvinenko's widow, Marina.

Tuesday

Billy Connolly & Me: A Celebration

9pm, STV

Marking his 50th year in the business of being funny, this sweet (if sweary) documentary is essentially an hour-long love letter to Mr C – a TV equivalent to one of those big cards that get passed around at work for a colleague’s birthday, where everybody scribbles a message inside. At the heart of it lies a new interview with the man, interspersed with archive clips of stand-up performances going right back to the banana-boots-and-banjo days, classic interviews, and some new clips of recent live turns. Studded around this come little video-diary style testimonies from fans around the world, talking about how much his work has meant to them, or recalling encounters with The Big Yin in the wild. (Connolly himself describes a time walking down Buchanan Street with his little daughter: “Daddy, do you know...everybody?”) Among these fans come more than a few familiar faces, from Elton John and Judi Dench, to Peter Kay, David Tennant, Eric Idle and Connolly’s wife, Pamela Stephenson, discussing life with Billy.

Wednesday

Corman’s World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel 9pm, SkyArts The subject of this enormously entertaining documentary is Roger Corman, of course, the legendary no-budget movie genius behind cults including Little Shop Of Horrors and biker flicks like The Wild Angels. If Corman had done nothing but direct films such as the startling X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes or his famous 1960s Edgar Allen Poe adaptations – films that struck a perfect balance between doomy gothic elegance and trippy psychedelic Pop – he’d be remembered. Meanwhile, as hustling producer of some 400 exploitation movies since 1955, he remains the most successful independent filmmaker Hollywood has ever known. As Stapleton stresses, though, Corman’s greatest legacy might be the incredible roster of talent he nurtured, giving breaks to names including the Easy Rider team Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jonathan Demme, Peter Bogdanovich, James Cameron and more. Many pay tribute to the great man (and roll eyes over his legendary economising) here – most touchingly, Jack Nicholson, chuckling, then choking up, as he confesses he owes it all to Rog.

Friday

The Story Of Funk: One Nation Under A Groove 9pm, BBC Four A repeat for this short but thick and fine documentary on funk’s development in restless 1970s America, which begins by pinpointing the form’s big bang as the day in 1967 that James Brown went off the soul train rails with “Cold Sweat.” Sections on Brown, Sly And The Family Stone and the great George Clinton (who features among the interviewees) leave you wishing for full fried nights devoted to each. But with contributions from members of those bands, Earth Wind And Fire, Kool And The Gang, War and many more, it does a fine job of covering the rise and fall of the music in a brisk, eye-popping, ear-worming, super squelchy 60 minutes. The archive performance footage is particularly amazing. The stuff gathered from the BBC archives for the Genius Of Funk compilation that follows at 10pm isn’t too shabby either, featuring most of the faces mentioned above, plus Average White Band, Herbie Hancock and others.