It’s a huge leap from playing a bent copper in Line of Duty to starring in the musical Guys & Dolls, but if anyone can make a role work, it’s actor Daniel Mays

In 2017, the British character actor Daniel Mays was nominated for a Bafta. His one-episode turn in the police procedural Line of Duty , described as “visceral”, “outstanding” and “stomach-clenchingly tense”, had impressed his peers. The nomination was a turning point in his career, but it was also a bust: he didn’t win and he was so nervous during the award ceremony that he couldn’t enjoy the evening. “You’re sort of anxious that if they say your name you’ve got to get up in front of the great and good of your entire industry and be coherent .” After the ceremony, a party kicked off in someone’s hotel room. “Adeel Akhtar was there,” Mays recalls. “Anna Friel was in the room.” Feeling a vibe, he left to buy cigarettes and got stuck in a goods lift. By the time he re-emerged, everyone had disappeared. “It was not the way I’d wanted the evening to pan out.” He tuts. “I may have had something to drink.”

Mays is talking over lunch at an almost empty members’ club in central London, in the wake of being nominated for another award, the Olivier, following a year-long stint in a very popular production of Guys & Dolls , at the Bridge Theatre. The nomination has him reliving concerns about getting up on stage: What does he say? How long should he talk for? That second question was answered at a lunch put on for nominees. “They said, ‘Listen, if you win, you’ve got 40 seconds – that’s it. And if you go over 40 seconds, we’ll play you off with the band.’” He winces at the thought of his waffling being slowly drowned out by music, then relaxes slightly. “I recognise now that just being nominated – I know this is a thing people say – is an amazing achievement. I’m just going to try to enjoy it.”

More hopefuls show off across the nation’s railway stations in The Piano. Plus: Michael Keaton stars in opioid crisis drama Dopesick. Here’s what to watch this evening

The politician and lawyer on Salman Rushdie’s remarkable new memoir, Manchester’s magnificent music students and powerful depictions of wars both real and imagined

The human rights lawyer and campaigner Baroness Shami Chakrabarti was born in Kenton, north-west London, in 1969. She studied law at the London School of Economics and worked as an in-house lawyer at the Home Office before becoming director of the advocacy group Liberty in 2003, a role she held until 2016. That year, she became a life peer and was appointed shadow attorney general for England and Wales (until 2020). Chakrabarti lives in south London and has one son. Her third book, Human Rights: The Case for the Defence ,is published by Allen Lane on 2 May.

It’s four decades since the comedy drama detailing the exploits of British migrant workers in Germany burst on to our screens. As they stage a live show, its writers and stars let us in on how they constructed a classic

In November 1983, a new television series that focused on working-class labourers debuted on ITV. Auf Wiedersehen, Pet told the story of seven men who felt it necessary to leave their families and Thatcher’s Britain in order to earn a living wage. Dennis Patterson (Tim Healy), Neville Hope (Kevin Whately), Leonard “Oz” Osborne (Jimmy Nail), Barry Taylor (Timothy Spall), Wayne Norris (Gary Holton), Albert Moxey (Christopher Fairbank) and Brian “Bomber” Busbridge (Pat Roach) were, between them, brickies, electricians and carpenters who lived and worked together on a construction site in Düsseldorf, Germany, where they bonded, pined for home and drank away their sorrows. Mostly written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and performed by a cast of young actors, it proved an immediate hit, and helped launch its leads, who went on to careers in film, theatre and music.

The show immediately hit a collective nerve. Like Alan Bleasdale’s Boys from the Black Stuff the previous year – which covered similar themes of high unemployment and the spectre of a bleak future – Auf Wiedersehen, Pet also managed to be funny. It quickly gained weekly audience figures of around 14 million. It has perhaps gone on to endure so well because, by focusing on the complicated business of male friendship with the suggestion that beneath all the bluff and the bravado their love for one another ran deep, it was ahead of its time.

The actor on doing the ‘trash walk’ at McDonald’s, wishing she was better with money, and being too tired for sex

Born in London, Michelle Collins, 61, was a backing singer for Mari Wilson in the early 80s. From 1988-98, she played Cindy in EastEnders, and last year she returned to the soap. She also had a role in Coronation Street from 2011 to 2014. Her latest project, Stephen, which is about addiction, is in cinemas now and is also a touring installation, launching at the Exchange in Penzance on 4 May . She is married, has a daughter, and lives in London.

What is your greatest fear?
Being murdered – I listen to too many true-crime podcasts.

Set in a spooky Tudor monastery, Arthur Hughes and Sean Bean must solve a fateful crime while all the monks seemingly have secret affairs. It’s fun, knowing TV … I just hope you’ve all done A-level history

I have figured out my thing with murder mysteries, after many years of trial and error, and it’s this: stop trying to figure them out. Never once in my murder mystery-watching career – and I was a child raised on Jonathan Creek! I should be good at this! – have I correctly guessed the murderer. Here’s why: you’re not meant to be able to. The whole point about being a storyteller is you’re just making silly tricks up, and that goes triple for a fictional murder mystery.

Every time you pin a murder it can be wiggled out of by a sleight-of-hand of story. “Oh, and by the way this woman you’ve never met before actually saw the whole thing” – mmm, useful, thanks. “There was no murder, they fell” – ah yes, very enjoyable way to spend my Sunday evening. Thanks for nothing. The way to enjoy murder mysteries, I have decided, is to turn your brain off entirely and let the nonsense wash over you. It’s just a story. Stop trying to guess.

The further this show leans into its silly side, the better it becomes. It is about an echidna space warrior helping his pal get to a bowling tournament, after all

Giving a supporting character their own spin-off is a risky business. For every brilliant series such as Better Call Saul, Frasier or Angel (series one, two, three and five), there’s a grave miscalculation in the form of a Joey, The Book of Boba Fett or Angel (series four). After the runaway success of the Sonic films, which have a third instalment on the way, Paramount+ has selected Knuckles, the steely echidna, for the spin-off treatment – and for all the brazen product placement and IP cash-grabbing, it’s a risk that pays off.

Idris Elba reprises his role from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 , as a hot-tempered and self-serious red echidna warrior from space who, as we are frequently reminded, is the last of his kind after an owl-led genocide took his home planet. Having been briefly tricked by Doctor Robotnik (a thankfully absent scenery-chewing Jim Carrey) to fight for the bad guys in the previous film, he has now teamed up with Sonic and Tails and moved in with the Wachowskis (Tika Sumpter and a puzzlingly absent James Marsden). This set-up is not going especially well as the series begins, due to Knuckles’s tendency to start the day by punching boulders and attempting to train the “wolf” (actually a docile labrador) to be a fierce warrior. With all the smashed walls and echinadian fighting rituals, Knuckles finds himself grounded. But he soon defies the punishment to hit the road with Wade Whipple (Adam Pally), a hapless but sweet-natured deputy sheriff, to help him become a bowling champion. Naturally, as this is a Sonic spin-off there’s also some fighting to be done and Knuckles and Wade find themselves pursued by two former G.U.N agents played by Kid Cudi and British comedian Ellie Taylor.

An immersive documentary about the band’s founder, who now lives a life of solitude. Plus: more explosive drama in Traces. Here’s what to watch this evening

Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist find themselves in a love triangle on centre court in Luca Guadagnino’s tennis romance, while the synthpop veterans return with album number 15

Challengers
Out now
Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist star in this sporting romance that sees off-court tensions played out through the medium of tennis, as a grand slam champion competes against his wife’s former lover. From Luca Guadagnino, director of Call Me By Your Name.