The Shows Must Go On: The Midnight Club, This England, Red Light and more

The Midnight Club (Netflix, October 7)

Adapted from Christopher Pike’s YA novel of the same name and aimed firmly at the Stranger Things generation, this clever mystery yarn focuses on five hospice residents who make a pact that whoever dies first will report back from beyond the grave. What happens next is eminently spookier and more unexpected than any of them could have imagined. With Doctor Sleep man Mick Flanagan at the helm, it’s hokum of the very highest calibre.

The Midnight Club. Credit: Netflix.

The Old Man (Disney+, September 28)

Dan Chase is a former CIA agent who’s been living off-grid since the ‘80s after absconding with $20 million from a mission in Libya. His reclusive rural existence is shattered, though, when a would-be assassin breaks into his cabin and Chase is forced to dive back into the murky world he’s fled. A mite hackneyed, sure, but craggy co-stars Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow conspire to raise this espionage seven-parter above the ordinary with no plot twist deemed too outrageous.

The Old Man.

This England (Sky Atlantic, September 21)

Belfast boy Kenneth Branagh plays Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson in this five-parter, which uses eyewitness testimony to chronicle how the Spaffer-In-Chief mishandled the Covid crisis – and partied as the body count mounted. Ophelia Lovibond and Simon Paisley Day also deserve mentions for their eerily accurate portrayals of Carrie Symonds and Dominic Cummings, the gruesome No. 10 twosome who both had differing designs on BoJo.

This England.

Red Light (Channel 4, October 9)

Game Of Thrones’ iconic Red Woman, Carice van Houlen, co-created and stars in this Dutch/Belgian thriller, which delves into the murder of a trafficked sex worker. It’s an at times tough watch, but one that deals with its subject matter in a nuanced and nonexploitative way. Once again we’ve Walter Presents head honcho Walter Iuzzolino to thank for bringing us this superior foreign import.

'Red Light'.

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