From creepy horror-dramas to the search for the world’s pornography kingpins, if you’re after a story that ends with a bang, there’s a podcast for that

Headphones are essential for this atmospheric audio drama from Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, released in 2022 and told over 12 parts. Tracy Letts plays radio shock jock Rick Egan, who casually, carelessly stirs up racial tensions in the post-9/11 US. Fast forward eight years, and Rick is persona non grata in the industry, a deadbeat dad and – on top of all that – has become the target of an evil parasitic force called the Blank (voiced by Taran Killam), in a series that offers thrills and chills right to the end.

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Louis meets Israeli religious nationalists settling in the occupied Palestinian territory. Plus: a night of comedy gold with Brett Goldstein. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC Two

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York Theatre Royal
Oldman gives an emotional encounter with his past selves as he single-handedly directs, set-designs and performs Samuel Beckett’s existential monologue

Gary Oldman’s decision to stage this work at York Theatre Royal is infused with sentimentality. It is, he explains in the programme, where he made his professional stage debut in 1979. The return, from a lifetime of film work (though with a TV role very much still in play with Slow Horses), carries the sense of an older man in conversation with his younger self.

Just as in Samuel Beckett’s 1958 one-act play – a monologue which becomes an existential encounter with past selves and the many voices we incorporate within us across a lifetime. So Beckett’s crabby writer ritualistically sits down on his 69th birthday to tape-record all that has come to be over his past year, as he does annually, and then begins listening to the voice of his younger self – or selves – first with haughty judgment of the romantic he once was and then the yearning, regret and desolation slowly creeps in.

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No question is off limits as a neurodivergent panel give Danny Dyer and David Tennant a grilling. It’s the warmest, funniest telly you’ll watch this year

Helmed by interviewees with autism, other forms of neurodivergence and learning disabilities, The Assembly first aired a year ago as a pilot on BBC One, featuring much of the same cast. According to a recent interview with one of its producers in the Radio Times, the broadcaster couldn’t afford to commission a whole series of the show, which was originally a hit in France. Strange, as it doesn’t require big flashy sets, special effects or locations other than one nondescript room in an office building, but hey, maybe there’s more to it than that. In any case, it’s a huge fumble by the BBC: ITV’s series is some of the warmest telly you’ll see this year – even when Danny Dyer starts dropping f-bombs left, right and centre.

Last year’s pilot featured Michael Sheen, who gracefully fielded questions on everything from his age-gap relationship to his affinity with Dylan Thomas and his favourite meal (egg and chips, ham optional). This time around the subjects are David Tennant, Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall, Gary Lineker and – of course – Dyer, who opens the series and gently cranks the hardman act up and down as necessary, instantly putting the group at ease. In turn, they refuse to mince their words; the first question, from a young woman named Chardonnay, concerns Dyer’s finances, and whether he shares a bank account with his wife, Jo, given that she once reportedly kicked him out of their home and siphoned off their joint funds. Dyer turns the air blue in response – thank God for the post-watershed time slot. But he is also honest and humble: he was a “prick” before all that, he says, constantly off his face on drugs, and Jo “controls everything now” when it comes to cash. The next question, from Nicola, is a little lighter, although maybe equally invasive. Just how much did he get paid for presenting the middling Saturday night gameshow The Wall? (Answer: about £100,000).

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The Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit author on being a good landlord to a grumpy ghost, her optimism about AI and the ideal size for cats

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Your debut novel Oranges are Not the Only Fruit turns 40 years old this year. How do you feel about it at this point in your life?

Can you believe it? I find that astonishing. I’m always having to think about it because people keep bothering me about it! Its next iteration is a musical, and then I really hope that’s the end. Just let me go! Obviously I love Oranges and I revisited it again with [her 2011 memoir] Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal? and the musical too. Surely, by the rule of three, this is it? Then I can live in peace and plant potatoes.

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It’s behind you! Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu find themselves at the mercy of a terrifying invisible enemy … and he really shouldn’t have called an evil officer ‘babes’

A lot of science fiction and fantasy franchises love to commission sequels but have a patchy record on delivering second stories that match up to the first. Russell T Davies and Sharma Angel-Walfall got close to pulling it off here, but the much-touted Disney+ bigger budget may have worked against it out-scaring the original.

Midnight , where we first met this galvanic radiation-soaked entity in 2008, had a cast of eight trapped on one space transporter set barely bigger than a couple of SUVs. By contrast, the base and sets on planet 6767 were huge, and lacking the claustrophobia that could have made this even more terrifying.

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• Former Arsenal striker ‘disappointed’ by Aluko interview
• ‘I’ve seen your apology, but I can’t accept it’

Ian Wright has admitted he was “very disappointed” about Eni Aluko’s recent comments about his involvement in women’s football and says he “can’t accept” her apology.

In an interview this week, Aluko claimed men such as Wright “should be aware” of the opportunities they take in the women’s game, claiming female broadcasters should not be “blocked” from having a pathway. On BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, the former England forward said: “I’ve worked with Ian a long time and, you know, I think he’s a brilliant broadcaster. But I think he’s aware of just how much he’s doing in the women’s game. I think he should be aware of that.”

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Noel and Liam believed to have filmed promo video at Mildmay club in Newington Green ahead summer’s sold-out Oasis tour

Liam and Noel Gallagher have performed together for the first time in 16 years in a closed pub in north London, according to reports.

The brothers were pictured arriving at the Mildmay club in Newington Green, north London, on Thursday where they are believed to have filmed a promotional video for this summer’s sold-out Oasis reunion tour.

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She faced endless opposition and threats to her life. This has become a reality for far too many journalists

• Maxine Peake is an actor who appears in the new film Words of War

What drives someone to become a journalist? A good journalist, someone whose keyboard is a tool for exposing injustice, a truth-seeker who would risk life and limb to report their experiences back to the world? I know I couldn’t do it. I’ve interviewed people for a research project and was hopeless. I found myself shying away from asking the really difficult questions. There’s no way I could confront a corrupt official, or race to file a breaking story before a hostile regime tried to silence me, possibly for ever. I like to think of myself as the kind of person who would speak truth to power, but would I really, if my life was in the balance?

One of the many privileges of being an actor is that it affords you the opportunity to dip your toes into other worlds and experiences from the safest possible distance. In the upcoming film Words of War, I have the honour of portraying the Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya – a woman with immense courage and integrity who, despite numerous threats to her life, continued to be a blazing beacon of truth in a time and place where speaking truth was extremely dangerous. The film, which was partly inspired by Politkovskaya’s obituary in this newspaper , allowed me to delve into her remarkable life and work. The experience gave me a deeper appreciation for the journalists who risk everything to tell the stories that inform and shape our world.

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