Stuff to Watch: Your guide to the week’s best on Sky and free-to-air TV – صحيفة الصوت

Birmingham Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony (6.45am, Friday, July 29, Prime)

Individuals and teams from up to 72 nations are expected in England’s West Midlands for the 22nd edition of this quadrennial event. They will be competing in 20 sports, from badminton to beach volleyball and wheelchair basketball to wrestling.

Prime will have nightly coverage from 7.30pm until August 9, as well as a one-hour highlights package, which will screen at both 9am (when the live events for the day should be over) and 4pm. Meanwhile, a series of dedicated channels will be available via Sky Sport.

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Jaws (8.30pm, Wednesday, July 27, Duke)

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 creature-feature is widely regarded as North America’s first-ever summer event movie, and one which kept people out of the water.

While a masterclass in building tension, today’s average blockbuster viewer may find the going a bit slow as Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw bond.

Followed on successive nights at the same time by Jaws II, 3-D and the truly infamous The Revenge.

Mark Hunt: The Fight of His Life (8.30pm, Thursday, July 28, 8.30pm)

The unlikely Kiwi-born kickboxing and mixed martial arts superstar has plenty to talk about from a much storied life and certainly doesn’t pull any punches in this enlightening, sometimes overwhelming warts-and-all 2021 documentary.

The former K-1 World Grand Prix champion, who transformed his street fighting skills into a globally successful career inside rings and octagons, opens up about his troubled childhood, battles with various addictions, mistakes, losses and triumphs, as well as his continuing battle with the UFC over its soft stance against drug cheats.

Video Killed the Radio Star (8.30pm, Thursdays from July 28, Sky Arts)

Talking Heads, Pink, Pink Floyd, Kylie Minogue, Phil Collins, Britney Spears, Beyonce and the hot-once-again Kate Bush are among the artists featured in the eighth season of this long-running UK series, which takes viewers behind the greatest music videos ever created.

If the kids love Running Up That Hill, just wait until they get a load of Wuthering Heights or Babooshka.

Paddington (7pm, Saturday, July 30, Whakaata Māori)

Inventive and intelligent, director Paul King’s 2014 take on author Michael Bond’s much-loved Marmalade-addicted bear seamlessly combines modern technology with old-school storytelling.

It makes clever use of sound effects, beautifully executed slapstick set pieces (a bravura bathroom bungle will have preschoolers and pensioners struggling to maintain their composure) and a stellar support cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Peter Capaldi, Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent.

The Cotswolds with Pam Ayres (7.30pm, Sundays from July 31, Vibe)

Four-part, 2021 travel series which sees the beloved British poet journeying around the UK region she has called home for more than three decades. In each episode, she aims to go beyond the picture postcard images and use her local knowledge to reveal both the familiar and the not-so-familiar gems of one of England’s most beautiful areas.

The Many Saints of Newark (8.30pm, Sunday, July 31, Sky Movies Premiere)

A feature-length prequel to the much-loved noughties crime drama series The Sopranos, this 2021 tale takes place in 1960s and 70s New Jersey.

It follows a violent gang war from the perspectives of mobster Dickie Moltisanti and his teenage nephew Tony Soprano. The ensemble cast includes Alessandro Nivola, Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Ray Liotta, Vera Farmiga and Michael Gandolfini (playing the same character originated by his late father on the show).

“As a Goodfellas-ish crime drama that vividly evokes time and place, Saints is rendered with enough bare-knuckled verve, unpredictability, and darkly glinting wit to make it work,” wrote Boston Globe’s Don Aucoin.