Wondering what to watch over the long weekend? The Mail’s TV experts have handpicked 20 of the best shows and films to stream over the Easter break.
The Stolen Girl
Electrifying missing child thriller starring Denise Gough and Holliday Grainger
Year: 2025
Certificate: 15
If you’re a parent and have ever experienced misplacing a child, even for a moment – in the supermarket, at soft play or, heaven forbid, on holiday – then prepare to empathise with this high-tension, five-part British drama about a child who goes missing in the most horribly understandable of circumstances.
Based on the novel Playdate by Norwegian novelist Alex Dahl, it stars Andor’s Denise Gough as a mother who also works as a high-end flight attendant. One day, her daughter winds up on a playdate with a new schoolfriend whose mother (Holliday Grainger) seems very nice indeed, if a bit touchy about photographs.
Then the unthinkable happens and a Europe-wide hunt for the child begins. Gough is a dynamic actress who delivers the emotion of her part with mesmerising subtlety and power, and her scenes with the enigmatic Grainger here at the start are extremely charged and leave you wanting more. Then, the mystery of why the child has been taken comes into focus, just as an ambitious and spiky journalist (Ambika Mod) enters the story. So, who is hiding what and what will be the consequences of it all? There’s only way to find out… (Five episodes)
The Feud (2025)
Homegrown suburban thriller starring Jill Halfpenny and Rupert Penry-Jones
Year: 2025
Certificate: 15
Like Love It Or List It with extra helpings of intrigue, this suburban thriller stars Jill Halfpenny and Rupert Penry-Jones as Emma and John, a couple trying to decide whether to stay or sell up in their neat tree-lined street. Except the decision has already been made, by Emma, and it’s the fallout from the building of their extension that drives this compelling six-parter.
We’re introduced to Emma and John and their neighbours on Shelbury Drive during a jolly street party with bunting and bouncy castles. There’s Barbara and Derek (Grantchester’s Tessa Peake-Jones and The Vicar Of Dibley’s James Fleet), a sweet older couple who don’t like change, and ‘Crazy Nick’, who’s over-keen on rules and security, and Alan and Sonia (Fleabag’s Ray Fearon and Downton’s Amy Nuttall), Emma and John’s sociable friends.
Inevitably, there are secrets behind the doors of these pristine 1930s semis and soon the upbeat music is replaced by more sinister minor chords. The slow reveal of all that’s wrong in this slice of England is neatly drawn as the Nimbys make their presence felt and darker secrets bring a state of unease to the neighbourhood. (Six episodes)
The Last Of Us (Series 2)
Second series of the videogame adaptation starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey
Year: 2025
This second series has a lot to live up to after the acclaim showered on the first run. After crossing half of the fungal zombie-filled interior of the US in series one, series two picks up five years later with former smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) and rebellious teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) – secretly the only living human immune to the zombie plague – living relatively quiet lives in a walled town high up in the mountains.
The townsfolk think the cold will keep them safe from the zombies, but they’re just about to find out quite how wrong they are. Explosions and action litter the series alongside moments of almost tension, but it’s the characters that make this special. Pascal and Ramsey are again amazing, but Jeffrey Wright, Kaitlyn Dever, Catherine O’Hara and Joe Pantoliano all get time to shine as brand new characters. The first episode isn’t quite up the high watermark set by series one – you can feel the story gears grinding a bit too loudly – but it’s great to be back inside this vast and exciting world once again. (Seven episodes)
Just Act Normal
Three siblings try to keep their family together in darkly comic style
Year: 2025
Certificate: 15
This Birmingham-set dark comedy drama follows three siblings as they try to stay together after their mum leaves them under tragic circumstances. Tiana will turn 18 in a few months and will be old enough to take responsibility for her nine-year-old old sister Tanika and teenage brother Tionne. They just need to hold out until then, fending off Tanika’s worried teacher (Romola Garai) and the attentions of their mother’s drug dealer Dr Feelgood, never mind social services.
It’s not another downbeat urban drama about disaffected black youth, but has a sprinkling of surprising and surreal twists and an interest in quashing stereotypes that extends to the white characters, too. The youngster Tanika is especially likeable, running rings around her teacher, while resourceful Tiana holds the family together. (Eight episodes)
Ransom Canyon
Modern Western drama series about ranchers living near a Texan town
Year: 2025
Certificate: 15
Life in Ransom Canyon is dominated by the big ranches that surround a small Texan town. Some of the townsfolk, especially Staten Kirkland (Josh Duhamel), owner of the sprawling Double K Ranch, are determined to preserve the traditional cowboy way of life. Others, though, want to modernise the town and the ranches that surround it. And all while many of the town’s youngsters would be happy just to put the town in their rearview mirror and head to the big city.
It’s fertile ground for a modern Western drama series full of feuds, family intrigue and more than its fair share of romance. Duhamel is excellent as the square-jawed Kirkland, but there are plenty of other big characters scattered around Ransom Canyon, ranging from rival ranchers (James Brolin) and mysterious drifters (Jack Schumacher) to returning residents (Minka Kelly) looking to restart their lives back in the town. (Ten episodes)
1923 (Series 2)
Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren return in the second series of the Yellowstone prequel, all episodes of which are now available
Year: 2025
Certificate: 15
It’s been two years since the cliffhanger ending of series one saw Jacob and Cara Dutton (Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren) on the brink of losing their ranch to sneering developer Whitfield (Timothy Dalton).
The second and final chunk of the 1920s-set Yellowstone prequel sees the battle with Whitfield and his lackey Creighton (Jerome Flynn) intensify, and war hero Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) continues his arduous cross-country journey home – all while praying that his new wife Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer) will be able to escape her parents and meet him at the ranch. And all against the lethal backdrop of one of the harshest winters Montana has ever seen.
The result is an intense, cinematic and powerful Western finale that draws fine gritty performances from its starry cast, not least Ford and Mirren who are simply fantastic as the elder Duttons. Note: the final episode of series two is a two-parter, presented as one feature-length instalment. (Seven episodes)
The Diamond Heist
Guy Ritchie-produced documentary series about the attempt to steal one of the world’s largest diamonds from the Millennium Dome
Year: 2025
Certificate: 15
In 2000, the Millennium Dome played host to an exhibition that contained some of the world’s biggest diamonds. This small fact did not go unnoticed by a gang of London armed robbers who cooked up an audacious plan to barge their way into the arena using a bulldozer and then make their escape down the Thames on a speedboat. There was one little problem. The police were watching them all the way and the Flying Squad were lying in wait…
At the time people commented that it sounded like the plot of a Guy Ritchie movie, which probably explains why Ritchie himself is a producer on this chirpy three-part documentary that tells the story of the attempted crime from both sides, with both the gang’s leader Lee Wenham and the head of the police operation to stop them talking candidly about the events. (Three episodes)
Years And Years
Russell T. Davies’s six-part saga tracks one family through steeply changing times
Year: 2019
Certificate: 15
Russell T. Davies’s dazzling six-part saga takes a lot of issues – fake news, technology, extremism – and explores them through a family that’s a picture of social diversity. If that makes this sound a bit right-on, then it is, at first. But diversity is relative and, as the years pass here, it isn’t long before many in the Lyons clan feel at sea in a UK that’s changing around them.
Rory Kinnear, Russell Tovey and Anne Reid play some of the family, while appearances from Emma Thompson as a rising and divisive political voice punctuate the plot. Part two doesn’t pick up quite where you might expect considering where part ones leaves off, but we’ll leave you to experience that for yourself – no spoilers here, despite the fact that Years And Years originally went out on the BBC back in 2019. (Six episodes)
Government Cheese
Surreal US comedy starring David Oyelowo as a burglar-turned-inventor
Year: 2025
Certificate: 15
David Oyelowo stars in a surreal and hopeful ten-part American comedy that’s best watched with concentration. The Spooks and Lawmen: Bass Reeves star is Hampton Chambers, a burglar who leaves prison in 1969 in traumatic circumstances, then tries to start afresh by inventing a self-sharpening power drill.
There’s something of the Wes Anderson to it all – the way shots are framed, the rich colours, the odd pauses in dialogue – and there’s a fascination to watching it and trying to understand where it’s all going to end up. Most simply, will Chambers’ reinvention as an inventor mean good things for his fractured California family on the outside, or will he be forced back into a life of crime?
Amid all the questions, Oyelowo’s subtly shifting performance is the best thing to hold on to and, as for the title? You’ll have to watch to fully understand, but it’s something to do with Hampton’s mum and sandwiches. (Ten episodes)
Annika
Unforgotten’s Nicola Walker stars as an offbeat Norwegian detective
Year: 2021-
Certificate: 12
Nicola Walker first played detective Annika Strandhed on Radio 4 in 2013, and you can still hear those Oslo-based cases on BBC Sounds. Alibi’s series moves Annika and her daughter to Scotland, where she’s in charge of the new Maritime Homicide Unit.
A sharp investigator but a terrible manager, Annika is often only half there, the rest of her brain off pondering social awkwardness or Greek myths. That fondness for the classics gives her a Morse-like quality.
Offbeat detectives can be a cliche, but DI Strandhed is genuinely different and, as played by Walker, both compelling and human. One minute she’s coming up with a limerick about the strained relationship with her daughter, the next struggling unheroically with a fear of heights while talking down a suspect or cutting to the heart of a case with deadly accuracy.
Annika is also a woman of secrets, and getting to know her over the course of the first series is a fascinating experience. The second series, which is just as good as the first, begins with Annika mulling the consequences of the secret she revealed in the previous run. As it goes on, expect some lively detours into comedy alongside the cases and personal drama. (Two series)
Black Bag
Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett play married spies at odds in Steven Soderbergh’s classy thriller, now available to rent at home
Year: 2025
Certificate: 15
Imagine Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy but set in modern London with high-tech surveillance, a far sexier cast and a jazzy soundtrack and you’re most of the way to Black Bag, director Steven Soderbergh’s classy spy-vs-spy thriller.
It starts with what feels like a very conscious nod to John le Carré, as a quiet, bespectacled character named George is given a list with the names of five suspected traitors on it, one of whom is his wife. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett play the married spooks at the centre of the 94-minute thriller that takes off like a rocket from that point, focused around two evenings of dangerous games with guests at the couple’s house.
It’s the kind of film you’ll want to watch again straight away because the expressions on the cast’s faces will play a little different – and what a cast it is. Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page, Pierce Brosnan, Industry’s Marisa Abela, Strike’s Tom Burke and Naomie Harris (No Time To Die) play the slippery characters watching each other closely in a film that set a gold standard for its genre and is, by the end, also a pretty fascinating portrait of a marriage. (94 minutes)
A Simple Favor
Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick star in this fun, gripping suburban thriller
Year: 2018
Certificate: 15
There’s more than meets the eye in Bridesmaids director Paul Feig’s seventh feature film. Veiled in the initial form of a comedy, an enthralling mystery plot emerges as the movie plays on, with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively as its stars.
Stephanie (Kendrick), a lonely, widowed single mother, takes up Emily’s (Lively) request of ‘a simple favour’: to look after her son Nicky whilst she works late. A budding friendship ensues between the two as Stephanie becomes bewitched by the mother who seems to have it all: beautiful home, successful career, loving husband. That is, until Emily mysteriously disappears one day.
What ensues is a dark comedic thriller with unsuspected turns and a rather original plot, wonderfully adapted from Darcey Bell’s 2017 novel of the same name. A good bet for fans of thrillers like Gone Girl, A Simple Favor is sure to please, toeing the line ingeniously between humour and suspense. And its success led to a sequel, too, which arrives as part of the Prime Video subscription on 1 May. (112 minutes)
Chicken Run
Gloriously British Aardman spoof of The Great Escape, with Mel Gibson as rooster Rocky
Year: 2000
Certificate: u
The first feature-length film from Wallace and Gromit creators Aardman Animations is a cracking POW movie spoof, set on a poultry farm in Yorkshire. Rocky (voiced by Mel Gibson) is preening rooster Rocky, plotting a great escape to flee the coop, while Julia Sawalha voices the plucky heroine hen Ginger and Miranda Richardson is perfectly cast as an evil piemaker.
The film is a victory on so many levels, from the small but perfectly-formed plot to the detail in the characters and the wealth of cultural references – especially The Great Escape gags – that will amuse parents, too. Twenty three years later Aardman made a sequel for Netflix, Dawn Of The Nugget, which made for decent entertainment even if it didn’t feel quite as gloriously British as the original. Even if you’ve seen Chicken Run before, chances are you’ll spot something new to make you laugh in the background this time around. (84 minutes)
Upstairs, Downstairs (1971 series)
The classic costume drama following the lives of the Bellamy family, and their servants
Year: 1971-1975
Certificate: 12
Conceived originally as a sitcom, this story of toffs and servants became the quintessential costume drama. Gordon Jackson played the unflappable and endlessly loyal butler Hudson – a character who was without doubt the inspiration 30 years later for Mr Carson in Downton Abbey.
The cast was stellar, including Gareth Hunt, John Alderton, Pauline Collins, Lesley-Anne Down and Anthony Andrews. So was the writing team of Jean Marsh and Dame Eileen Atkins. Nicola Pagett played Elizabeth, a Tory MP’s flighty daughter, married to a sexually repressed gay man (Ian Ogilvy as the effete and artistic Kirkbridge). The sense of scandal that gripped Britain in 1972 when he handed her over to a friend so that she could conceive a child can scarcely be exaggerated.
One classic early episode sees the house in uproar before the visit of Edward VII for dinner. While the lady of the house worries that His Majesty might be bored by their conversation, the real royalists are in the kitchen, beside themselves with excitement. It’s a celebration of British snobbery at its best. The series as a whole now makes for rather poignant viewing in the wake of the sad death of Jean Marsh. (Five series)
The Piano
Claudia Winkleman’s tuneful talent show hits all the right notes
Year: 2023
If you travel by rail, you’ll often see pianos at train stations, where people are invited to tickle the ivories for the appreciation of commuters and other travellers. These pianos often provide some surprising and uplifting musical moments for the unsuspecting public as they go about their everyday business, and now they’ve also given us this refreshing talent show, hosted by Claudia Winkleman.
Up and down the country, performers are secretly watched by pop star Mika and, in the first series, by renowned concert pianist Lang Lang, with multi-award-winning musician and composer Jon Batiste (Soul) taking over for series three. Not only are the pianists unaware they’re being observed, but they also don’t know that the judges will be selecting a line-up to play in the show’s grand finale, a live concert at a prestigious venue.
The show has been developed by the creators of The Great British Bake Off and shares the same gentle feel, rather than the aggressive style of other talent shows such as The X Factor. So sit back and prepare to be wowed as the pianists – who range in age from 11 to 92 – display their incredible, surprising and toe-tapping skills. (Three series)
The Glass Dome
Swedish crime thriller about the disappearance of a young girl
Year: 2025
Certificate: 18
Criminologist Lejla (Léonie Vincent) has a thriving career but is still haunted by an incident from her childhood that saw her kidnapped and held hostage by an unknown perpetrator in a strange glass box. After returning to her small Swedish home town for a funeral, Lejla has to confront her past when the daughter of an old friend suddenly vanishes without a trace. Could the missing girl really have been abducted by the same person who took Lejla all those years ago? And have other girls also been taken?
Tense and powerfully atmospheric, this Swedish thriller series channels the bleak snowy pine forest vibe of classic Scandi Noir and pairs it to a plot full of physical shocks and psychological questions. The result is a dark and compelling series where no one can really be trusted. (Six episodes)
Licorice Pizza
Oscar-nominated teen romance set in early 1970s Los Angeles
Year: 2021
Certificate: 15
The story of a girl and a boy (Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman) and the elaborate money-making schemes they cook up in the Los Angeles suburbs of the early 1970s. In anyone else’s hands it would be a simple teen romance but director Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master and Phantom Thread) makes the bittersweet, Oscar-nominated movie richer and infinitely more complicated (not least because of the age gap between the 15-year-old boy and the twentysomething girl).
Watch out for cameos from Sean Penn and Bradley Cooper, but it’s the understated lead performances from Haim and Hoffman that shine here. If the latter looks familiar, it’s probably because he’s the son of Anderson’s frequent collaborator, the late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. (128 minutes)
Smile 2
Supernatural horror movie sequel about a murderous grinning demon
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Possessing its victims and forcing them to either commit suicide in front of another person or to commit a gruesome killing before a witness to pass its curse on, the smile demon at the black heart of this horror franchise is a truly terrifying creation. This second outing sees it infecting a troubled pop star Skye (British actress Naomi Scott) as she recovers at a drug rehab centre ahead of a comeback tour.
Full of creeping paranoia and hallucinations, this is another supremely chilling supernatural horror movie outing. It’s not for the faint-hearted or the easily disturbed, but fans of the genre are going to find a lot to gorily relish here as writer/director Parker Finn stretches his chilling horror concept to its extremes. It won’t be the last outing for the franchise either, with a third film already receiving the green light. (127 minutes)
The Lost City
Sandra Bullock stars in this hilarious old-school comedy adventure
Year: 2022
Certificate: 12
Few films have ‘Friday Night Treat’ written across them quite so large as this crowd-pleasing comedy adventure. Sandra Bullock is on top form as the publicity-shy romance novelist who’s kidnapped by a billionaire (played with scenery-chewing relish by Daniel Radcliffe), while Channing Tatum portrays her cover model-turned-incompetent rescuer.
A proper old-school blockbuster is the result, one that recalls the likes of Romancing The Stone, but which plays with considerably more modern comic edge. Bullock in particular is a delight. There are few actresses around who can match her talent for slapstick – it’s not for nothing that she was one of the romcom queens of the 1990s and 2000s. (112 minutes)
Knuckles
Idris Elba returns as the alien warrior in this Sonic movie spin-off series
Year: 2024
Certificate: pg
As you’d expect from video game adaptations, the two Sonic movies to date have been frantic freewheeling affairs full of frothy silliness. But they got an injection of sombre oomph at the end of the second movie when Idris Elba arrived as the voice of Knuckles, an honourable alien warrior who vowed to protect the earth… and who just happens to look like a muscular cartoon echidna (just go with it).
This fun-filled six-part series picks up where Sonic 2 left off as Knuckles agrees to train hapless deputy sheriff Wade (Adam Pally) in the way of the warrior, little knowing that an old ally of the evil Dr Robotnik is drawing plans against them both. (Six episodes)
