Five things to watch this week

Good Omens Season 2 — Prime Video

David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s well-publicised off-screen friendship makes for good on-screen chemistry in this slyly funny adaptation of the book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Tennant plays Crowley, a servant of Lucifer, and Sheen plays Aziraphale, an agent for the other celestial team. Together the two friends from very different sides of the heavenly track work together to try to ensure that the recent and farcically bumbled birth of the Antichrist, doesn’t lead to the predicted end of the world as everyone knows it.

This season, by shrinking the plot to focus on smaller relationships rather than the sprawling universe of the first season, the show manages to move beyond the pages of its source material while still offering the actors plenty of space to shine and charm.

Only Murders in the Building Season 3 — Disney Plus

Cast regulars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are back again as the oddball Manhattanite neighbours whose annoying but useful penchant for curiosity and drama has led them to solve two murders and launch a successful podcast about their adventures. They are joined by a selection of A-list cameos that includes Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep as they set about solving yet another murder in their building, with suitably twisty and hilarious results.

Winning Time Season 2 — Showmax

John C Reilly and the energetically committed cast of HBO’s imaginative if not always strictly faithful-to-the-facts adaptation of the story of the rise of the LA Lakers in the 1980s return for a satisfying new season full of drama and recreation of moments from basketball’s golden age. The mythical battle between Lakers hero and crowd-pleaser Magic Johnson and grim-faced Boston Celtics assassin Larry Bird takes centre stage.

Without Sin — Showmax

Vicky McClure and Johnny Harris first met on the set of maverick British director Shane Meadows’ drama series This is England. Now the two old friends face each other in adversarial roles in this engaging drama about a mother looking for justice for her murdered daughter, and the man serving time for the crime looking for redemption. As they try to bridge the gap between them they realise that maybe the tragedy that unites them is not as clear-cut as they had initially imagined.

How to Become a Cult Leader — Netflix

A brisk and entertaining if not particularly enlightening look at the rise and fall of famous cult leaders from recent history. From Charles Manson to Jim Jones and Japanese doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara, here are the stories of men with exceptional powers of magnetism and the lessons that aspiring cult leaders can learn from them.

It is saved from inanity by the narration of Peter Dinklage and a tongue-in-cheek approach that avoids trivialising the terrible deeds these men had their followers commit in their names.