From Clark to Parallel Mothers, the best on demand TV to watch this week

NETFLIX, APPLE TV+, SKY/NOW, BRITBOX, AMAZON & ACORN TV

Clark

For horror fans, Bill Skarsgard will always be Pennywise in the most recent, blockbusting adaptations of Stephen King’s epic novel It.

But he’s on equally impressive form in this six-part drama made in his native Sweden and based on the autobiography of gangster Clark Olofsson.

Skarsgard plays Olofsson, who began his criminal career in the 1960s, eventually serving time for a string of offences including assault, robbery, drug trafficking and attempted murder.

However, he’s most famous for originating the phrase ‘Stockholm syndrome’ following his involvement with a bank robbery hostage situation in 1973, an event that is depicted in great detail here. Netflix, from Thursday

Tehran

Tamar (Niv Sultan) is an Iranian-born Mossad agent who travels undercover to Tehran on a mission to destroy the country’s nuclear programme. When things go wrong, she has to go to ground in Iran, effectively trapped in a new life.

Tamar (Niv Sultan, above, with Glenn Close) is an Iranian-born Mossad agent travelling undercover in the second series of this award-winning drama

Series one picked up the Best Drama Series award at the International Emmys in 2021. The second season sees Glenn Close joining the cast and Tamar putting herself further at risk. Apple TV+, from Friday

Call My Agent!

If you’re enjoying Ten Percent (Amazon), try the brilliant French original, about a fictional talent agency in Paris. French stars Monica Bellucci, Isabelle Huppert and Juliette Binoche appear as versions of themselves. Netflix, available now

Parallel Mothers

Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s latest acclaimed drama features an Oscar-nominated performance from his muse, Penélope Cruz.

Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s latest acclaimed drama features an Oscar-nominated performance from his muse, Penélope Cruz (above)

The story follows two women who form a close bond while preparing to give birth on a labour ward – while one is middle-aged and ready for motherhood, the other is a terrified teenager. Sky Store, from Monday

Soho Theatre Live

Cameras set up shop at the London venue for a third run of stand-up performances.

This time around, Alfie Brown, Felicity Ward, Luisa Omielan, Mark Watson, Natalie Palamides, Olga Koch, Spencer Jones and Suzi Ruffell take centre stage. Amazon, from Friday

The Pentaverate

The Pentaverate was first mentioned in Mike Myers’s 1993 comedy So I Married An Axe Murderer as a secret society comprising the Queen, the Vatican, the Gettys, the Rothschilds and Colonel Sanders of KFC fame.

Mike Myers (above) has made a six-part comedy about shadowy cabal The Pentaverate, first mentioned in his 1993 comedy So I Married An Axe Murderer

Now he has made a six-part comedy about it.

This time the Pentaverate, a shadowy cabal that has been influencing world events for centuries, faces exposure. Myers plays multiple roles, with Jeremy Irons and Jennifer Saunders. Netflix, from Thursday

The Dry

Fresh from his Oscar-nominated role in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, Ciarán Hinds stars in this promising eight-part comedy drama.

He plays Tom Sheridan, father of Shiv (Roisin Gallagher), who is returning home to Dublin after years of partying hard in London.

She’s determined to remain sober but finds that being back with her family makes her want to drink more than ever, forcing them all to take a long, hard look at themselves. BritBox, from Thursday

Signora Volpe

Emilia Fox plays Sylvia Fox, an MI6 desk chief fed up with her job because a Foreign Office deal with a nasty regime is making life difficult.

Emilia Fox plays Sylvia Fox, an MI6 desk chief who finds herself wound up investigating a series of mysterious deaths in rural Italy. Mehdi Meskar (above, with Fox) co-stars

A spell in rural Italy for her niece’s wedding should help take her mind off things – but then the groom does a runner, the bodies start piling up and the trip is suddenly less a relaxing break than a test of her investigative abilities.

Tara Fitzgerald plays Sylvia’s sister Isabel. Acorn TV, from Monday

Bosch: Legacy

If you thought you’d seen the last of Titus Welliver’s crime-cracking alter ego, you were wrong. He’s back in this free- to-air spin-off, which sees Bosch working on private cases for his former arch enemy Honey (Mimi Rogers), having left the LAPD.

Madison Lintz also reprises her role as his daughter Maddie. Amazon Freevee, from Friday

Outlander

Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) have been having a torrid time up on Fraser’s Ridge. Not only is there division within the local community, culminating in a murder, but revolution is brewing.

Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan, above with Balfe) have been having a torrid time up on Fraser’s Ridge in the latest run of Outlander

This eight-episode run has been an unusually short season but the show’s fanatical followers – still fuming over Balfe missing out on an Oscar nomination for Belfast – can take comfort in the fact that there is at least one more series planned.

StarzPlay, from Sunday

The Wilds

A group of troubled teenage girls is sent to a female-focused retreat, but there’s a Lost-style incident on the flight there and the youngsters end up on a mysterious island in a life-or-death survival situation.

A group of troubled teenage girls is sent to a female-focused retreat before suffering a Lost-style incident – and they may not be the only group affected. Alex Fitzalan (above) stars

Needless to say, they aren’t there by accident, and at the end of the first season we found out that our gang might not be the only group of stranded teens. Stars Alex Fitzalan. Amazon, from Friday

The Fortunes & Misfortunes Of Moll Flanders

This 1996 classic is a bawdy romp in which Daniel Defoe’s 18th Century heroine, a much married, highly resourceful woman, is surviving on her wits.

Sometimes Moll (Alex Kingston) has to turn to crime but, as she often says to camera, what would you do? Daniel Craig, Diana Rigg and Nicola Walker also star. BritBox, from Thursday