The Shows Must Go On: The Best TV To Watch this April

Dead Hot (Amazon Prime, out now) 

From the makers of It’s A Sin comes this whip-smart dramedy which has a similarly banging soundtrack and a cast of young stars, Peter Serafinowicz and Rye Lane’s Vivian Oparah among them, who are clearly having an absolute ball. The action centres around Elliot and Jess, two Liverpudlian bezzies whose lives are turned upside down when a supposedly dead loved one gets in contact.

Ripley (Netflix, April 4)

Having struck out at the BAFTAs with All Of Us Strangers – we demand a recount! – Andrew Scott stars in this black and white re-imagining of the Talented Mr. Ripley, which follows the titular grifter as he indulges in an orgy of deceit, fraud and murder. Darker in tone than the Matt Damon movie, it also stars Dakota Fanning and sometimes musician Johnny Flynn with The Irishman’s Steve Zaillian on showrunning duties.

The Sympathizer (Sky Atlantic, April 14)

Based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel of the same name, this gripping seven-parter follows a group of high-ranking South Vietnamese army officers as they abandon fallen Saigon for a shiny new life in Los Angeles. What they don’t realise is that there’s a Viet Cong spy in their midst who’s determined to make them pay for their role in the twenty year-long war. Joined by a who’s who of Asian acting talent, Robert Downey Jr. executive produces and plays multiple roles in a series that’s part-espionage thriller, part-cross-culture satire.

Fallout (Amazon Prime, April 12)

This blockbusting video games franchise, which has shifted north of 55 million copies, transfers to the smallish screen with Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy doing a brilliant job of recreating post-apocalyptic Los Angeles two hundred years after the bomb has dropped. “The story follows a community of people living in luxury fallout shelters who are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind,” we’re told and, sure enough, the two extended teaser trailers are full of mutants, militaristic AI robots, extreme violence, dark humour and Planet Of The Apes-style visual reminders of what’s been lost.