The Shows Must Go On: The best TV to watch this month

ADOLESCENCE (Netflix)

Not content with starring in pugilistic Peaky Blinders spinoff A Thousand Blows – the boxing drama is a total knockout – Stephen Graham plays a father whose world is turned upside down when his 13-year-old son is arrested for the murder of a girl who goes to his school. As good as Graham, Game Of Thrones’ Faye Marsay and The Responder’s Christine Tremarco are, it’s newcomer Owen Cooper who steals the acting honours as the young killer (or is he?) in question. The tension by the time you get to the fourth and final episode is almost unbearable with plot twists a-go-go.

YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS (Apple TV+)
There’s more anti-hero drama to look forward to as disgraced hedge fund manager and recent divorcee Andrew ‘Coop’ Cooper starts robbing his wealthy Westmont Village neighbours’ houses in order to pay the mortgage. As in Dope Thief, it all goes swimmingly until the wrong home is broken into and – metaphorically speaking – the forces of Valhalla are unleashed. It’s another quality TV runout for Mad Men star Jon Hamm who can also be seen in the equally brilliant Landman.

DOPE THIEF (Apple TV+, now)
If you’re suffering Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul withdrawal symptoms, fear not, because this clever adaptation of Dennis Tafoya’s 2009 source novel is cut from the same morally ambiguous pharmaceutical cloth. Bryan Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura star as two friends who pose as DEA agents to relieve Philadelphia drug dealers of their illicit wares. It’s easy money until they hit on the wrong narcos and find themselves up the proverbial without a paddle.

COLD SUMMER (Walter Presents strand of Channel4.com, April 11)
When mafioso Vito Lopez is arrested for the kidnapping and murder of his boss’ son, he breaks omertà by turning state’s witness. The investigating carabinieri, Pietro Fenoglio, is convinced at first that he’s got his man but then uncovers a terrifying truth that points to two of his colleagues being the killers. While not quite in the Gomorrah league, it’s edge of the seat stuff with Bari giving Naples a run for its money in the bloodletting department.