TV Weekly: A boating adventure, plane drama and Spanish soap opera

Telly picks for the coming week…

Old friends Wynne Evans – best known for that annoying advert and a recent stint on Strictly Come Dancing – and Joanna Page – from Gavin and Stacey – cast off on a boating adventure, sailing along the beautiful Welsh coastline from Cardiff to St Davids in brand new series, Wynne & Joanna: All at Sea.

The episodes follow Wynne as he joins his friend Joanna, for a fun-fuelled adventure.

Taking a break from their busy lives, the trip gives the pair the chance to re-connect with their homeland, spend quality time together and most importantly, have a laugh. Oh, and they manage to pick up some (basic) sailing skills along the way

Accompanied by Skipper Wayne, and Wynne’s dog Ginny, their adventure takes them roughly 200 miles by boat from Cardiff to Pembrokeshire – stopping off at some special places along the way, including Penarth, where they join a rowing club; Barry Island, which plays an important part in Joanna’s life as the setting for Gavin & Stacey; Joanna’s hometown of Swansea and Wynne’s home county of Carmarthenshire.

They also stop off at Saundersfoot and Tenby, and have the experience of a lifetime swimming with Puffins on Skomer Island, before their final stop at Britain’s smallest city, St Davids. The Beeb note the series is ‘Teeming with non-stop laughter, revelations and poignant moments between two friends.’

BBC One, Monday, January 27th at 8.30 pm

Sisters Lori and Erin embark on the holiday of a lifetime in Fiji. However, after a huge fight, Erin never boards the island-hopping flight to their resort – and the plane, with Lori on board, never arrives at its destination.

Months later, with no plane or survivors having been found, Lori’s credit card is suddenly used in a corner shop in a remote village in Fiji – could her sister be alive? Erin sets out on a journey to discover the mystery of what happened to her sister. Jumping between the two sisters’ perspectives, Erin undertakes a perilous mission to uncover the truth of the crash, while Lori struggles for survival among her fellow castaways.

Each shocking twist helps to reveal the truth about what happened to Lori and the other passengers – a truth that someone on the island will kill to keep secret. In tonight’s first episode, Months after a plane crash, no survivors have been found, but a piece of wreckage discovered in the middle of the ocean leads the authorities to close the case. Erin refuses to accept that her sister could have perished onboard and searches for any shred of evidence – desperately discovering that Lori’s credit card was recently used in a corner shop in a remote village in Fiji.

This prompts Erin to set out on a journey to follow her last hope that her sister could be alive. All the while, Lori’s flight is caught in a violent lightning storm and the plane begins to plummet.

Channel 5, starts Sunday, January 26th at 9 pm, continues this week

In a powerful documentary marking Holocaust Memorial Day 2025, this documentary tells the story of cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who at 99 is the only surviving member of the Women’s Orchestra at Auschwitz.

The film also brings to life the testimony of other Auschwitz inmates who played and composed music at the concentration and extermination camp, to explore what music meant in the worst place on earth. Woven through the film are a series of new performances of musical works written by prisoners at the camp, and filmed in the shadow of Auschwitz today.

Anita recalls how when she arrived at Auschwitz, a chance mention that she played the cello saved her life, by offering her entry into the camp’s official women’s orchestra – one of 15 orchestras ordered to play marches as prisoners forced to carry out slave labour went to and from their work. The film features a performance of Träumerei (Dreams), from Robert Schumann’s Scenes From Childhood, which the notorious camp doctor Josef Mengele asked Anita to play for him – performed here by her son and professional cellist, Raphael Wallfisch.

Music at Auschwitz could also be a lifeline, a form of consolation and mental escape, and a way of capturing memories of prisoners’ former life. The film tells the story of Polish political prisoner Adam Kopyciński, a conductor of the first orchestra at Auschwitz. We see a performance of his composition Lullaby – the rare handwritten manuscript of which still survives today. The piece is evocatively played at night in the grounds of the former camp commandant’s house, adjacent to the camp itself.

The life and work of Polish composer Syzmon Laks are also highlighted, with a haunting and powerful performance of the plaintive second movement his Third String Quartet, based on Polish folk tunes.

BBC Two, Monday, January 27th at 9 pm

Filmed in Melbourne, Slovakia, and Poland, this poignant and intimate one-off documentary marking Holocaust Memorial Day will follow Gary Solokov, the only son of Gita and Lali Sokolov  – one of the real-life tattooists of Auschwitz.

Their incredible love story began when they met and fell in love as Slovakian Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where the Nazi regime systematically murdered over a million Jews.

The film will chart Gary’s first visit to this most notorious German death camp. ‌The Tattooist’s Son: Journey to Auschwitz will see Gary enter the camp through the infamous Arbeit Macht Frei gatehouse, from where he will begin to explore the horrors confronted by his parents.

Among others in the documentary, Gary will meet with Heather Morris, author of the international best-selling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz; actors Jonah Hauer-King and Anna Próchniak, who portrayed his parents in the Sky Original drama; as well as Holocaust trauma psychiatrist George Halasz and 100-year-old Holocaust and Auschwitz survivor, Abram Goldberg, in his effort to understand the impact of Intergenerational Holocaust Trauma.

Sky History, Monday, January 27th at 8 pm

Yes, we can’t quite believe it either, but Eldorado is back. Sadly, the costa-del-cheap soap isn’t back for a new series, but UKTV have dusted down the tapes and are giving all 156 episodes a re-rerun on the U&Drama channel.

Launched in 1992 on BBC One with much fanfare, the Spanish-based serial was supposed to be the next big thing. However, despite a specially constructed set and millions of pounds spent, following disappointing viewing figures and scathing criticism from the press, after just 156 episodes, Eldorado was cancelled a year later in 1993.

But was it really that bad?

Still fondly remembered by many, a loyal fanbase has even campaigned for its return. The soap starred Jesse Birdsall (Footballers’ Wives) as Marcus Tandy and Derek Martin (best known for playing Charlie Slater in EastEnders).

It was set in the fictional town of Los Barcos on the Costa Eldorado in Spain and was shot on set near Marbella in the country. The cast also featured Polly Perkins (EastEnders) as cabaret singer Trish, Sandra Sandri as Marcus’ beautiful girlfriend Pilar, Patricia Brake (Porridge) as Gwen Lockhead, and Campbell Morrison (The Bill).

The tease for episode one notes, ‘Marcus throws his pregnant lover out, is confronted by a TV crew and meets a homeless runaway called Pilar.’ while episode two sees ‘Stanley and Rosemary arrive at their new villa but their furniture is nowhere to be seen. Trish plays a gig while Dieter drinks her earnings.’

Now how about a repeat of Crossroads from 2001-02, it’s never been reshown, there is way more than 156 episodes of that… if that’s a good thing. Eldorado, along with the original Crossroads, was repeated in the late 1990s on UK Gold (now U&Gold).

U&Drama, January 127th at 2 pm, and every weekday there after. Also catch-up with all episodes on U

The Castaways, tonight at 9 pm on Channel 5