From Rivals to a Yellowstone spin-off: What to watch this weekend

The Daily Mail’s TV experts have sifted through hundreds of programmes to bring you 19 of the best shows and films to stream on demand right now.

From the return of Rivals to a powerful new ITV drama based on a true crime, there’s plenty to watch this weekend.

So sit back, grab the remote and prepare for a well-earned rest – and let us know in the comments if there’s anything else you’d recommend.

Rivals (Series 2)

The steamy drama based on Jilly Cooper’s books returns

Year: 2026

Certificate: 18

Watch now on Disney+

Rivals was a full-on experience in its first series, in every sense of the word. Yet the drama based on Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles has found another level of 1980s glamour and chintz as it opens its 12-episode second series – you just have to look at the size of Emily Atack’s bouffant to see that.

Atack’s big-haired TV presenter, Sarah Stratton, is pregnant but so prolific has she been at sleeping her way around Rutshire that there’s a question mark over the father. She thinks it’s TV titan Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) – yes dear reader, Lord Tony. He’s very much still alive after being clocked on the head at the end of series one, but he’s certainly not interested in fatherhood with her. Not even after a brush with death.

That’s just one piece of what’s going on here. The spine of the story is still the two duelling TV franchises run by rivals Baddingham and Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell), the womanising showjumper turned aspiring politician with a secret vulnerable side. Rupert has a lot on his plate this series, not least his lingering love for Taggie, his current clinch with Cameron, the digging of a gossip journalist into his past and more beyond even that. 

Rupert is really shown in three dimensions here, and it’s hard not to root for him against Baddingham – a man who literally has bad in his name. 

Also appearing in three dimensions is Freddie, the electronics tycoon played by Danny Dyer. Dyer’s performance was the acting revelation of series one, and that hasn’t changed as Freddie tries to navigate whether or not to have an affair with dear Lizzie Vereker (Katherine Parkinson), the romance novelist and Jilly Cooper proxy. Don’t miss the short but lovely tribute to Dame Jilly at the end of episode one. 

The only downside of this series of Rivals is that the release schedule is rather… relaxed, should we say. Which is very 1980s, in a way. The first two episodes go off like a rocket but be prepared for the pace to slacken in the third. (Three episodes are released initially, with one to follow weekly for three weeks, then the remaining six later in the year.)

Believe Me

Powerful true story of the women who fought to be believed while the ‘black cab rapist’ stalked London

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15

Watch now on ITVX

The public first heard about John Worboys in 2008 when the ‘black cab rapist’ – who drugged and assaulted his victims in the back of his London taxi – was arrested. This four-part drama focuses on two of Worboys’ 100 estimated victims who came forward as early as 2003. That he wasn’t caught sooner is down to many factors, none of which paint the criminal justice system in a good light.

Written by BAFTA winner Jeff Pope (See No Evil: The Moors Murders), this is a meticulously researched and astutely handled drama with outstanding performances from Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Aasiya Shah as two of the victims who took on the system that was failing them. They are joined by Carrie (Miriam Petche), the future Mrs Boris Johnson, who took the fight public when Worboys came up for parole.

Pope spoke to all three of the women fictionally represented in his script in what he called ‘a long process… to gain their trust’ over ‘a number of years’. And while it is an entirely victim-led piece, it must necessarily feature its real-life monster. Played by Daniel Mays, his Worboys lurks mostly in the shadows, seen from his victims’ point of view. It wasn’t an easy role for Mays, who is no stranger to playing darker roles (such as in Line Of Duty or Des) but none as grotesque as Worboys. ‘It did at times takes its toll… unsettling and isolating by its very nature,’ he said, adding on a more optimistic note that he hopes the drama inspires other women to ‘have their days in the sun’. (Four episodes)

Off Campus

Racy college romance based on the Elle Kennedy books

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Prime Video

A racy US college romance based on the books by Elle Kennedy and starring Malory Towers’ Ella Bright as one half of a couple that starts out as fake – but becomes very real. Bright plays Hannah, a smart music student who strikes a bargain with Garrett (Belmont Cameli), a less smart, college hockey star with a ladies’ man reputation. He’ll pretend to be her boyfriend to make someone jealous if she tutors him to help with his grades. However – and it’s not a spoiler to say this – the agreement leads to more than either of them expect. 

With a couple of charming leads, some bruising, Heated Rivalry-style ice hockey action and an atmosphere that strives to capture the ‘magic that is the college experience’ (in the words of show creator Louisa Levy), Off Campus has a decent shot at entering the pantheon of modern teen romances. Also, the initial release makes it particularly well-timed to capture those looking to graduate from My Life With The Walter Boys and The Summer I Turned Pretty. 

Such viewers should also be aware, though, that it’s considerably more graphic than either of those shows right from the start and has some dark turns later on that puts it closer to We Were Liars territory.

It should also prove to be a good calling card for American-born, London-raised Bright who, rather handily for an actress, holds dual US-UK citizenship. She already has BAFTA and Emmy nominations under her belt for playing the angry Darrell Rivers on Malory Towers, and a second series of Off Campus will definitely follow this. (Eight episodes)

Dutton Ranch

Yellowstone spin-off following Beth and Rip to Texas

Year: 2026

Certificate: 18

Watch now on Paramount+

For plenty of Yellowstone fans, the star of the show wasn’t Kevin Costner as Montana ranch owner John but instead Kelly Reilly as Beth Dutton, his tough only daughter. Reilly is one of the subjects of this spin-off, which follows her and husband Rip (Cole Hauser) as they start a new life together in Texas. 

A new start certainly sounds like an appealing idea, given all the drama that dogged the Duttons’ lives on the Yellowstone ranch – but it turns out that Texas has its fair share of danger, too, starting with a ruthless rival ranch that’s keen to make a point when it comes to territory. Still, if it was all sunshine and roses then Beth wouldn’t have anything to be tough about, and watching her deal with trouble has always been a big part of the appeal of that character.

That hasn’t changed in Dutton Ranch, so fans can rest easy in that regard, although the opening episode can feel a little on the slow side.

There have been reports of trouble behind the scenes, with show boss Chad Feehan (Lawmen: Bass Reeves) leaving the show three weeks before its premiere after reports that Reilly, Hauser and Yellowstone supremo Taylor Sheridan weren’t satisfied with the show’s progress. Still, don’t bet against this coming back for a second series, especially with co-stars of the calibre of Ed Harris and Annette Bening fleshing out the sturdy cast. (Nine episodes)

Kidnapped By My Mum

The extraordinary story of Alex Batty, who disappeared for six years

Year: 2026

Watch now on BBC iPlayer

In 2023, 17-year-old Alex Batty made headlines when he was found in the French Pyrenees after being missing for six years, disappearing in Spain while on holiday with his mother and grandfather.

For the first time in this feature-length true crime documentary, Alex tells his story, and confronts the most difficult aspect of all: why his mother stole him away from his life and kept his location a secret. 

Also reflecting on the case is Heather Yarker, the police officer who went to pick Alex up and observed how events unfolded after his return to the UK. Was it simply an abduction, or was something else at play? (94 minutes) 

Do You Know This Man?

Harrowing documentary about women uniting to bring their abuser to justice

Year: 2026

Certificate: 18

Watch now on Channel 4

The women featured in this one-off documentary were groomed as children by a much older man, who plied them with drink and drugs before sexually assaulting them. Some were as young as 14 when Martin Butler targeted them at his grubby flat in Ruislip, north-west London. Imagine trying to process, never mind report to the police, what had happened to you at that age? 

This is the powerful story of victims uniting to bring Butler to justice decades later, and as with the ITV true crime drama Believe Me – the story of the ‘black cab rapist’ John Worboys – it’s another case of women fighting to be believed within a justice system set against them. The story also bears comparison to the documentary Lover, Liar, Predator and, be warned, the descriptions of the abuse are very upsetting. (47 minutes)

The Crash (2026 documentary)

The twisty true story of a 100mph crash that changed lives in an Ohio town

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

This true-crime story is all about a split-second decision that changed everyone’s lives forever, and the puzzle over why it happened. The titular crash happened on the morning of July 31, 2022, in the quiet town of Strongsville, Ohio, and involved a car hitting a building at 100mph. 

Two of the three people in the car died, and there’s an awful moment right at the start of this film when you see the parents of Mackenzie Shirilla – the girl who was driving – and all the authorities can tell them is that two people died. They can’t tell them who out of Mackenzie, her boyfriend Dominic Russo and his friend Davion Flanagan.

What seems like a tragic accident, surrounded by assumptions about teen drinking and drugs, evolves into a murder investigation across the course of this feature-length documentary – and we won’t spoil how here. (92 minutes)

Children Of The Blitz

Moving documentary with first hand testimony

Year: 2026

Watch now on BBC iPlayer

‘People who had not experienced it can never comprehend how bad it was.’ From the makers of The Last Survivors and Atomic People, this moving film marks the 85th anniversary of the end of the Blitz. 

People like 101-year-old Dorothea, who has decided to tell her story now, because ‘we’re all popping our clogs quite frequently’. As children at the time, their memories tell the story of the Blitz across the whole of the UK and not just London, from Coventry to Sheffield, Belfast to Hull, Cardiff to Liverpool. They tell their stories from September 1940 to May 1941, when more than 35,000 tons of bombs and incendiaries rained down from the skies.

Through first-hand testimony and rarely seen archive footage, this landmark film explores how the Blitz reshaped Britain, while contributing towards a sense of national identity. Some recall extraordinary resilience associated with the enduring notion of ‘Blitz spirit’, but the film also examines harsher realities faced by children whose homes were destroyed, including those who lost friends, relatives and parents. ‘I think it’s important to remember,’ says one contributor, ‘to remember the horror of it. The Blitz continues to live inside me.’ (89 minutes)

The Hardacres

Family saga about the rags-to riches lives of a family in 1890s Yorkshire, now back for series two

Year: 2024

Certificate: pg

Watch now on 5 (Ch5)

This is a cosy costume drama from the team behind All Creatures Great And Small, based on the rags to riches saga by CL Skelton. The Hardacres – mum Mary, dad Sam, their three children and dodgy granny ‘Ma’ (Julie Graham) – work the docks in Victorian Yorkshire, but a heroic act from Sam leaves him injured and unable to work. If the family don’t get some money soon, they’ll be out on their ears, and it’s Mary who comes up with a plan. 

Their fortunes see a dramatic turnaround, and it’s an escapist treat to watch how the ‘son of a drunkard from the back alleys of Belfast’ and the ‘daughter of a two-bit smuggler’ come to be lord and lady of the manor. That happens quickly (by the end of the first episode) and the rest of the series follows the family as they make the newly christened Hardacre Hall their home, ruffling old-money feathers along the way. 

In 1895 in the latest second series, and Lady Mary (Claire Cooper) is welcoming modernity to fusty old Hardacre Hall, and she’s keen to get on her bike – literally! Sam (Liam McMahon), however, has work on his mind, and tries to convince Mary that the family business should expand. As for son Joe (Adam Little), after 18 months stuck in menial roles, he’s desperate for the opportunity to prove himself. 

Also, the family face their biggest challenge yet in the form of formidable new arrival Lady Imelda Hansen, played by Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em’s Michele Dotrice. (Two series)

Widow’s Bay

Creepy comedy horror set in small-town New England, starring Matthew Rhys as its ambitious mayor

Year: 2026

Certificate: 18

Watch now on Apple TV

Widow’s Bay is a mix of small-town comedy and slow, creeping horror. It’s one of those series that has you wondering if horrible things are really about to happen – or if it’s all in the mind of the stressed main character. Matthew Rhys stars as that main character – Mayor Tom Loftis, a tense man who is determined to turn around the fortunes of Widow’s Bay, an ailing island town off the coast of New England that he wants to transform into a tourist hotspot, like Bar Harbor in Maine or, heaven forbid, Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts (where they filmed Jaws).

Widow’s Bay is a town full of superstitions, and when Tom begs a reporter to come and write about it, an old story resurfaces about local cannibalism that does nothing for his stress levels. There are plenty more question marks around the town. Is the local inn really haunted? Is there a mist that kills people? And are all these horrors just a metaphor for the resentment that’s been building up from years of downward economic drift?

These questions are what pull you into this ten-parter from Kate Dippold (Parks And Recreation), and Rhys’s performance in the lead is what keeps you there, along with the smattering of shocks. Few leading men handle intensity as deftly as Rhys, and he’s fascinating to watch whenever he’s on screen. (Ten episodes) 

The Future With Hannah Fry

Hannah Fry explores the brave new world that lies ahead of us

Year: 2026

Watch now on BBC iPlayer

In this enlightening six-part series, Hannah Fry explores the brave new world that lies ahead of us, and examines the technologies that are going to have a big impact on all our lives. She starts with ageing, and the ‘biohackers’ intent on slowing this inevitable process by any – largely unproven – means possible, as well as the scientists working to prove what actually works. 

An expert in the crash course in complicated science bits, Hannah gives us the lowdown on regenerative medicine, and explains epigenetics (how our DNA changes in our lifetimes). The series also looks at the Japanese concept of Ikigai – which translates as ‘a reason to jump out of bed in the morning’ – and the benefits of living in the moment. 

In episode two, Hannah explores the issue of Artificial Intelligence, the technology that is creeping into our lives whether we like it or not. It’s a topic she covered in more depth in the documentary AI Confidential in 2025. (Six episodes)

Untold UK: Jamie Vardy

Entertaining profile of the footballer’s rise through the ranks

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

We hear the story of the footballer’s underdog rise in a highly entertaining, feature-length profile built around an extensive interview with the man himself, a chat to which Vardy brings his own unique twinkle (asking for a beer before the recording even begins). 

Jamie reflects here on how football has kept him on the relative straight and narrow, although the game has also added immense pressure and expectation to his life. His jump from Fleetwood Town, where he remembers bagging 31 goals in 34 games, to Championship side Leicester City, took him from the seventh tier to the second tier of football in a single leap, and with a £1 million price tag – a record-breaking amount for a player from a non-league side. Vardy felt the weight of expectation, and it wasn’t an easy transition. 

‘There’s an element of his personality which has a self-destruct button,’ reflects then-Leicester manager Nigel Pearson, at a time when Vardy was brewing Skittles-flavoured vodka at home that one contributor describes as ‘horrific’. It was around then that he met his future wife Rebekah, who recalls their inauspicious first meeting at his birthday party do, at a Sheffield nightclub where she worked. Jamie was very, very drunk indeed, and didn’t create a great first impression. Look out for contributions from lively mates around this section of the profile, who are all filmed together in a pub. 

It’s a rounded portrait all told, one that should be of interest to football and non-football fans alike, and marks the first of the UK version of Netflix’s Untold strand. They’ve certainly given him the full treatment as, at 90 minutes, it’s longer than the majority of the US Untolds. (90 minutes)  

Welcome To Wrexham

How Hollywood stars came to the rescue of Wrexham FC, now back for a new series

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Disney+

In 2020, Wrexham AFC became one of the most famous football clubs in the world. Not because they’d won the Champions League or won promotion, or even pulled off a particularly impressive spot of FA Cup giant-killing. No, their sudden brush with celebrity came because Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney had just bought the club. But why did the Deadpool star and one of the blokes from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia decide to back Wrexham AFC? And could their hands-on, community-based approach really work? 

This cheery documentary follows what happens when movie-star glamour comes to North Wales and builds into something very real and uplifting as it goes on. It’s also a fascinating and genuinely innovative television premise, in that the show itself was actually conceived as a way of financing the club – not just to document the process. 

Series two follows the club’s tense 2022-23 season, while series three opens with the jubilant team remembering a celebratory trip to Las Vegas that looks like one long party and went largely unrecorded – which was probably in everyone’s best interests. Movie star Chris Pratt also pops up during that run, in which Rob and Ryan reflect on lessons learned from playing teams such as Chelsea and Manchester United during their US tour. 

The fourth series finds the actors pursuing yet another milestone for the club, while for the latest fifth they’re after the ultimate promotion – to the Premier League. (Five series) 

Legends (2026 series)

Steve Coogan stars in the story of Britain’s undercover war on drugs in the 90s

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

In early 1990s Britain, it was decided that something needed to be done about the flow of heroin into the country – but there was no money for a big, American-style war on drugs. The solution was to drop ordinary, but promising members of the public into a training programme and deploy them as undercover agents around the country. This series, which takes its title from the name used for their undercover identities – Legends – is based on that true story.  

With a script from Neil Forsyth (The Gold), this six-part series stars Steve Coogan as Don, the veteran investigator who whittles down the candidates and sends them off to work. Don is a mix of dry, on-the-job humour and a clear-eyed view of what that job could cost his recruits. They include Guy (Tom Burke), a family man who’s bored of his job inspecting suitcases at Heathrow, and Erin, a civil service secretary with an uncanny knack for detail who takes charge of crafting the ‘legends’.

The show follows their training and deployment, and has the uplifting feel of a good old British underdog story, as well as the tension of a crime thriller where everything could go wrong at any moment. (Six episodes) 

The Running Man (2025 film)

Glen Powell stars in this pacy take on the dystopian Stephen King story

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on NOW

Watch now on Sky

For more than half a century, Stephen King’s novels and short stories have been adapted for the screen. And, last year, along came the second take on his dystopian thriller The Running Man – this time, from director Edgar Wright.

King wrote The Running Man in 1982, setting it, as it happens, in the distant year of 2025 and his vision of America in that weirdly futuristic-sounding year was grim. A tyrannical police state, a car-crash economy and a downtrodden population obsessed with reality TV shows. 

The Running Man was first made into a film in 1987, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and there’s a wink to the original with an image of big Arnie on US banknotes, known as ‘new’ dollars. This is a better movie, more faithful to the book, and directed with terrific pizzazz by Wright, adding a big-budget blockbuster to an admirably varied portfolio that includes the action thriller Baby Driver (2017) and his Cornetto trilogy with Simon Pegg.

Glen Powell plays Ben Richards, a construction worker repeatedly fired for ‘subversive’ union activities who needs to provide for his wife and sick daughter – so, in desperation, he applies to be a contestant on The Running Man. His travails are broadcast on TV every evening, with Josh Brolin as the show’s wickedly manipulative, all-powerful producer, and Colman Domingo as its super-slick host.

The film that follows from that doesn’t feel particularly original, but it moves with energy and pace, and Powell is a charismatic lead. (133 minutes)

The Testament Of Ann Lee

Musical about a real-life religious visionary starring Amanda Seyfried

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Disney+

A film about faith that’s likely to be unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, this is the story of the real-life religious visionary Ann Lee – born in Manchester in 1736, instrumental in the spread of the Shaker religious movement and regarded as the Second Coming of Christ. Ann would later die in the US after enduring extraordinary hardships and passing her faith on to thousands. 

The film comes from Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet – the duo behind the far less accessible The Brutalist – and is directed by Fastvold, with Amanda Seyfried as Lee, complete with a Mancunian accent and filled with fervour from top to bottom. Ann really goes through the wringer in life, both with childbirth and with her husband, and the film implies it is this experience that made her incorporate celibacy into the Shakers’ principles.

The fact that Seyfried’s visceral, vulnerable and never less than full throttle performance went unrecognised by anything except the Golden Globes really is a mystery, but the power of the film remains undeniable. It is essentially a musical, complete with elegantly choreographed dance numbers that arise out of the Shakers’ fevered worshipping, and peppered with beautifully framed shots of the furniture and architecture for which the movement is still known today. 

It’s a very particular portrait of where people put their faith and love in life and the consequences of that, and deserves to be seen. It could, also – one day – make a truly transcendent stage musical. (136 minutes) 

Marty, Life Is Short

Warm profile of the long-time comedy great

Year: 2026

Certificate: 12

Watch now on Netflix

This profile of Martin Short is an absolute cockle-warmer from the start, but not in that superficial Hollywood way. It has a genuine, relaxed warmth, with Short going about his business as he’s interviewed in a film directed by none other than Tinseltown veteran Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, Silverado), with contributions from other long-time friends like Steve Martin, Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara – who sadly, suddenly, died before this came out. Short even occasionally appears with some of them – notably O’Hara – which is rather rare in this genre. 

The standard spine of the film takes us through his career, from SCTV in Canada to Saturday Night Live in the US, then onto Hollywood with the likes of Three Amigos! with Steve Martin and Chevy Chase and Innerspace with Dennis Quaid – movies that weren’t necessarily the hits that you remember them to be or, at least, certainly aren’t in Short’s recollection. 

Short’s has been an up-and-down career peppered with personal tragedy, and the kind of life that seems to have rounded him out into someone who’s in no mood to gloss anything over, or to always be performing – and that’s a great benefit to the film. (101 minutes)

We Are Jeni

The extraordinary story of Jeni Haynes, who developed more than 2,500 personalities to cope with abuse

Year: 2026

Certificate: 18

Watch now on HBO Max

Jeni Haynes was born in London in 1970 and her family relocated to Australia when she was four, a move that isolated Jeni’s mother Pat from her friends and family. For this one-off documentary, Jeni talks about the physical abuse received at the hands of outwardly respectable father Richard, and of being raped ‘almost every day’ by him for years. 

Jeni’s mother and father divorced in 1984. Jeni remained in Australia with Pat and Richard returned to the UK. In 1996, Jeni learned of allegations that Richard had sexually abused someone in the UK – and, at that point, decided to report him to the authorities. 

It’s a sad and awful story, but the extraordinary element of it is that, in order to cope with the abuse, Jeni developed 2,500 separate personalities or ‘alters’, a condition known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. When Jeni, whose preferred pronouns are we/us/our, testified in an Australian court in front of her father, that testimony came partly through six of those alters – in a case that saw Richard sentenced to 45 years in prison. We hear some of Jeni’s alters speak in this documentary – including bleached blonde toughie Muscles, who Jeni calls ‘the ideal brother’ – represented in part by digital animation. 

We also hear from Jeni’s mother, who said that her husband ensured she took ‘loads of pills’ for her depression, causing her to miss ‘all the red flags’ relating to how he treated their daughter. (Two episodes) 

The Cage

Liverpool-set crime drama starring Sheridan Smith and Michael Socha

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15

Watch now on BBC iPlayer

In this murky crime drama from Tony Schumacher, writer of the BAFTA-nominated Martin Freeman hit The Responder, Sheridan Smith and Michael Socha star as two Liverpool casino workers dipping into the till. Eventually they get so desperate that they team up for a much bigger score.

They’re not exactly bad people, though of the two, Socha’s Matty is the more shady. He’s got underground gambling debts and owes thousands in child support to his ex – but you can tell he’s got a good heart. For Smith’s Leanne, it’s the complex needs of her dementia-stricken grandmother that is making her financial situation so precarious, a crime in itself that Leanne and her daughter will be homeless when Nanna’s home is sold to pay for residential care – in a matter of weeks.

It’s easy to sympathise with their predicaments, even if the set-up in the first episode feels a bit clunky. They are contrasted with far badder baddies, of the kind who deal drugs, launder money, torture and kill, and who the police are failing to shut down. And as Matty and Leanne make their way through this murky underworld, you’re rooting for them to come out of it unscathed.

There have been plenty of dramas about desperate people drawn into criminal acts, but this stands out for having such strong, watchable leads in Socha and Smith, both playing to their strengths. In fact, the lively, darkly comic banter between them is easily the best bit about the show. (Six episodes)