ITV April 2023 monthly highlights

ITV April 2023 monthly highlights

Coming to ITVX, ITV1 and BritBox UK in April

• Hollywood Bulldogs and Jonathan Ross: Must Watch Films streaming on ITVX from 06/04
• Waco Untold - The British Stories streaming on ITVX from 13/04
• The Real Crown streaming on ITVX from 20/04
• April highlights on ITV1 include The Hunt For Raoul Moat, brand new medical series Malpractice and Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? 

6th April

ITVX

Exclusive: 

Jonathan Ross: Must Watch Films

The third installment of Jonathan Ross’ monthly film recommendations will cover great films including Days of Thunder, starring Tom Cruise, American Gangster, starring Russell Crow and Denzel Washington and Charlie Wilson’s War starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. Featured family films will include the wonderful Coraline and classic Bugsy Malone. 

Hollywood Bulldogs

Hollywood Bulldogs tells the rough-and-tumble story of the small community of British stunt performers who went on to dominate Hollywood in the 1970s and 80s. They created and performed the iconic action sequences of 007, Indiana Jones, Superman, Rambo, Star Wars, Conan, the Alien films and pretty much everything since.

Series: 

The Originals (2013-2018)  

Every episode from all five seasons of the American fantasy TV show. This spin-off from 'The Vampire Diaries' follows the Mikaelson vampire siblings, Klaus (Joseph Morgan), Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and Rebekah (Claire Holt), as they battle to retake control of New Orleans, the city they helped to build. After being chased out by his father, Klaus returns to proclaim himself king of the city but in order to do so he must remove his former protege Marcel (Charles Michael Davis), who stands in his path to power.

ITVX’s April Fools’ Comedy Collection

Fisk (2021)

An award-winning comedy series expected to delight viewers with its dry humour and charismatic cast of Australia’s top comedy talent including co-creator, co-writer and co-director Kitty Flanagan.

Flanagan, who took out a Silver Logie Award and AACTA Award for Best Comedy Performer for her turn as the hilarious Helen Tudor-Fisk, stars alongside fellow comedians Julia Zemiro, Marty Sheargold and Aaron Chen in a series that affectionately channels the quirks of office life.

Upper Middle Bogan(2013-2016)

When Bess Denyar (Annie Maynard) – a doctor with a posh mother, an architect husband and twin thirteen year olds at a private school finds out that she is adopted, she is stunned. But even more so when she meets her birth family. Wayne and Julie Wheeler, parents also to Amber, Kayne and Brianna, head up a drag racing team in the outer suburbs and are thrilled to discover the daughter they thought they had lost.

Kid Sister (2022)

Lulu, a loveable train wreck, goes on a laugh-out-loud ride as she struggles to balance her love of family and culture with finding her own path… one mistake at a time. Starring Simone Nathan. 

Films (from 1st April):

A wide selection of iconic films will launch on the service this month including Atonement (2007), The Big Lebowski (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999), Boyhood (2014), Les Miserables (2012), Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010), The Machinist (2004) and John Carpenter’s Escape from LA (1996). 

13th April

Exclusive: Waco Untold - The British Stories

Using unseen archive and exclusive interviews, this two-part documentary series will explore the untold story of the sizeable British contingent of David Koresh’s Branch Davidian cult, and their experiences during the 51 day ordeal at Waco and its storming by the FBI in 1993. 

Series:

Parks and Recreation (2009-2013)  

Join small-town civil servant Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) for every awkward strategy meeting, kooky idea and delicious bite of waffle as she strives to make City Hall a better place. By her side are her beloved,if quirky, colleagues: the deadpan Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) - and his moustache -, apathetic April (Aubrey Plaza), rockstar-in-his-own-mind Andy (Chris Pratt), trendsetter Tom (Aziz Ansari), best friend Ann (Rashida Jones), smart-mouthed Donna (Retta), loyal Ben (Adam Scott) and the always energetic Chris (Rob Lowe). Oh, and Jerry (Jim O Heir)... or is it 'Larry'?

20th April 

Exclusive:

The Real Crown

Rare archive footage is set against revealing new interviews with key figures - some of whom have never previously spoken on camera - to compelling effect as viewers see the images played out to the world during historic moments, while hearing the inside story offering insight into The Queen's perspective at the time.

Series:

Mr Robot (2016-2019) 

Enter the captivating world of Mr. Robot, following Elliot Alderson (Primetime Emmy® winner Rami Malek), a young computer programmer turned vigilante hacker. Elliot suffers from social anxiety, and hacking people is his primary means of human connection. Disillusioned with modern society, Elliot’s world suddenly changes when he meets Mr. Robot (Golden Globe® winner Christian Slater),the mysterious leader of an underground hacktivist group that wants to recruit Elliot to help take down the “one percent” and trigger a worldwide revolution. 

Films:  

Days of Thunder (1990)

From the engine roar and fever pitch of professional stock car racing, Days of Thunder explodes with the most spectacular racing action ever captured on film. Tom Cruise plays race car driver Cole Trickle, whose talent and ambition are surpassed only by his burning need to win. Discovered by businessman Tim Daland (Randy Quaid), Cole is teamed with legendary crew chief and car-builder Harry Hogge (Academy Award-winner Robert Duvall) to race for the Winston Cup at the Daytona 500. A fiery crash nearly ends Cole's career and he must turn to a beautiful doctor (Nicole Kidman) to regain his nerve and the true courage needed to race, to win and to live.

27th April 

Films: 

Les Misérables (2012)

Les Misérables is the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and still breaking box-office records everywhere in its 27th year. Helmed by The King’s Speech’s Academy Award-winning director, Tom Hooper, the Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production stars Hugh Jackman, Oscar winner Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Eddie Redmayne.

Set against the backdrop of 19th century France, Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption--a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. Jackman plays ex-prisoner Jean Valjean, hunted for decades by the ruthless policeman Javert (Crowe) after he breaks parole. When Valjean agrees to care for factory worker Fantine’s (Hathaway) young daughter, Cosette, their lives change forever.

ITV1

Dates to be confirmed in due course

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?

Based on her 1934 novel, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? opens with a fine Agatha Christie enigma:  a man lies dying at the foot of a cliff, apparently the victim of an accidental fall; with his final breath, he utters the mysterious question of the title and promptly expires.  Some people - perhaps most people - might shrug at the impenetrable oddness of the words and move on with their lives.  But Bobby Jones and his childhood friend, Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent, are not most people.  They resolve to honour the dead man by deciphering, and then answering, his final question.  In so doing, they hit upon a dark conspiracy of deceit, betrayal and - perhaps unsurprisingly - murder. The cast features Will Poulter (The Revenant, Detroit, Dopesick) as Bobby Jones and Lucy Boynton (Sing Street, Murder On The Orient Express, Bohemian Rhapsody) as Frankie Derwent. 

The Hunt for Raoul Moat

The Hunt For Raoul Moat shines a light on the human tragedies that lay behind Britain’s biggest manhunt, told through the eyes of those who sought to bring a violent killer to justice.

The drama focuses on the innocent victims of Moat’s crimes - Christopher Brown, Samantha Stobbart and PC David Rathband; the police officers who put themselves in the firing line in their quest to apprehend Moat; and the local journalist who sought to tell Moat’s real story in a landscape of sensationalist reporting and social media provocation.

Malpractice

Dr Lucinda Edwards (Niamh Algar) is a smart, battle-hardened doctor, but we meet her on a nightmare shift that ends in the death of an opioid overdose victim, Edith Owusu. Despite the support of her medical supervisor, Dr Leo Harris, played by James Purefoy (A Discovery of Witches, Pennyworth, Sex Education), Edith’s grieving father Sir Anthony Owusu, played by Brian Bovell (Crime, Strike), demands an enquiry into Lucinda’s actions on the fateful night. 

Leading the medical investigation are Dr Norma Callahan played by Helen Behan (Holding, The Virtues) and Lucinda’s former colleague, Dr George Adjei, played by Jordan Kouamé (Megalomania). While George feels this was an unavoidable tragedy, Norma is suspicious of Lucinda’s behaviour and decisions in the lead up to Edith’s death. 

As the pressure of the investigation intensifies, Lucinda’s relationship with husband Tom, played by Lorne MacFadyen (Pistol, Vigil) starts to fracture, and her confident professional exterior begins to crack. Is Lucinda hiding something? Through the cat and mouse thriller of the medical investigation, Malpractice tells the story of a damaged doctor caught up in a dangerous conspiracy.

BRITBOX UK 

BritBox UK will be streaming The Fades (2011), a British supernatural series starring Tom Ellis, Danial Kaluuya and Natalie Dormer from 6th April. All seasons of the iconic Skins, starring Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel, Kaya Scodelario and more will follow on 13th April. The dark and mesmerising Taboo (2017), starring Tom Hardy and Jonathan Pryce will also be available to stream from this date.

The behind the scenes story of the world’s most famous family is told through the  perspective of the major personal challenges that faced the Queen and the monarchy throughout her reign.

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