The TV shows you need to watch this week: From Britain’s Got Talent to Springwatch

Talent spotters: prepare for a week-long parade of the good, the bad and the ugly (Syco/Thames/ITV)

Well, without wishing to sound too much like a TV weatherperson, the outlook for the bank holiday is quite variable, but with Monday itself probably being a bit of a washout for most of the country.

Good to see some tradition maintained, even with climate change.

So it is just as well that there’s some decent programming due for your day off, for when you abandon the BBQ and the family day out. The footie, for a start. I am not sure why you have to subscribe to something called Sky Sports in order to watch the play-off final for promotion from the Championship to the Premier League, but there we are. Aston Villa are playing Derby County, both wonderful historic Midlands clubs with amazing heritage and a great future ahead of them. Best of all they are excellent teams and both have an enormous amount to gain, not least cold hard cash, from going up. More exciting than the all-too predictable FA Cup final last week and proof, were it needed, that the English league is the best in the world. There’s some cricket on Thursday as well, by the way.

Britain’s Got Talent is back, and with a heavy dosage – a nightly live show throughout the week. Obviously most of the interest lies in the reunion of Ant and Dec after a troubled period, and we wish them well of course – but does Britain really harbour enough talent to entertain us for five hours...?

The ‘Springwatch’ team get back to nature on Monday (BBC)

A quieter telly institution also returns – Springwatch. Chris Packham has obviously dodged the death threats form the crow-haters (they are out there) and he joins Michaela Strachan, Iolo Williams and Gillian Burke to watch goshawks hatch, badgers romp and whatever northern stiletto flies do. Ever popular, even though, given the timing, it should probably be called Summerwatch.

I have to confess that until I’d seen the billing for Channel 4’s Confessions of a Serial Killer, I didn’t know much about the life and evil works of Samuel Little. He is one of the most prolific serial killers, at least that we know of, (he claims 93 victims) and yet still relatively obscure, at least outside the United States. Film maker Ben Zand tries to explain the inexplicable; as for Little, he is still alive, in jail, in poor health and pushing 80, in case you were worried.

Will Cathy (Lesley Manville find her happy ending? (BBC)

Mum reaches the halfway mark in its third and final series, and, of course, we’re none the closer to seeing middle-aged widow Cathy (Lesley Manville) stabilise and regularise her on-off relationship with follow lonely single Michael (Peter Mullan). Everything good you’ve read about Stefan Golaszewski’s delicately hewn comedy drama is true. In truth it’s much more drama than comedy, any sweetness usually neutralised by the frustrations of friends and family.

Indeed, the stresses in the Cathy-Michael affair may be about to be eclipsed by the strains in the uncertain coupling between her nice, unpretentious brother Derek (Ross Boatman) and his snobby monster of partner Pauline, played with acidic effect by Dorothy Atkinson. Well with catching up with, even though nothing much ever happens.

Years and Years is a highly satisfying drama. Written by Russell T Davies, who did so much for the regeneration of Doctor Who a few years back, it is a peak into the near future of the 2020s – a matter of months away, you know – and it is mostly terrifying. Told through the scattered and extended Lyons family, virtually every disaster you can imagine is visited upon them, as a microcosm of the planet as a whole – nuclear war, collapse of the global banking system, Russian and Chinese expansionism, persecution of minorities, and the destruction of the welfare state.

Vivienne Rook (Emma Thompson) – an unscrupulous charlatan with a Manchester accent (BBC)

At the apex of the dystopian pyramid we find Emma Thompson as a Farage/Trump/Salvini-style populist politician, who believes in nothing but herself and somehow persuades people that she is on their side. As an utterly unscrupulous charlatan with a Manchester accent, Thompson is cast way against type and to huge success – seeing as this is about the only thing she’s done I can bear to watch. Thus far we’ve not seen that much of her; I hope she will soon start to dominate events. How could she not?

Talking of demagogues running for election, the results of the European elections won’t be realised until Sunday evening, after every other EU country has completed its polling. So EU Elections 2019 is a bit of an odd results show, hosted by Huw Edwards, arriving as it does some three days after everybody in Britain has voted. Still, the incomparable Professor Sir John Curtice will be there to fulfil his function of speaking truth to the nation, with Laura Kuenssberg and Reeta Chakrabarti dabbing away the milkshake stains to get at the real stories.

Last, I’d like to mention Channel 5, which has been transforming itself into a really great documentaries channel. The Pompeii Prophecy: Countdown to Devastation promises to blend in the famous story of ancient Pompeii, preserved under the ash that Mount Vesuvius poured down on it in AD79, and modern-day Naples, nearby and itself threatened by another volcano just below its bustling surface. Just another little catastrophe for us all to fret about…

Football: Championship play-off final (Sky Sports, Monday 2pm); Cricket World Cup (Sky Sports, Thursday 9.30am); Britain’s Got Talent (ITV, Monday 7.30pm); Springwatch (BBC2, Monday 7.30pm); Confessions of a Serial Killer (Channel 4, Monday 9pm); Mum (BBC2, Wednesday 10pm); Years and Years (BBC1, Tuesday 9pm); EU Elections 2019 (BBC1, Sunday 10pm); The Pompeii Prophecy: Countdown to Devastation (Channel 5, Friday 9pm)