TV Times – 22 August 2026

Summary

Gaby Roslin appears with her teacup maltipoo Pippa on the cover of TV Times 22-28 August 2026, introducing The Joy of Pets — a new Channel 5 series celebrating the human-animal bond. The cover also teases Bookish season 2, Kelly Rowland joining The Voice UK, and the Emmerdale wedding of the year.

Stars & Stories runs 18 pages this week. Bookish season 2 leads with Dorothy Atkinson joining the cast. Ludwig actor Dorothy Atkinson gets a profile. Professor T's Barney White, The Voice UK with new coach Kelly Rowland, Emmerdale stars Ned Porteous and Olivia Bromley on their characters' wedding, The Rainmaker based on John Grisham, Benidorm Is Murder guest star Tamzin Outhwaite, Meet the Owens, and H Is for Hawk — a documentary about Helen Macdonald's goshawk memoir. Soaps run 6 pages. The TV guide fills 70 pages.

Regulars include puzzles, reader poll, and a retro cover from 1981.

Content Guide

▸ Cover Story / Pets

p.6 · The Joy of Pets — Gaby Roslin Introduces the New Series
Roslin visits five families and their unusual pets — including a miniature donkey, a blind parrot, and a therapy llama. She says the llama episode made her cry three times during filming. Watch the blind parrot episode first; the bird navigates its enclosure entirely by sound.

p.8 · Bookish — Mark Gatiss's Mystery Series Returns
Season 2 of the BBC2 drama about a crime-solving bookshop owner. Dorothy Atkinson joins as a rival bookseller with a secret past. Gatiss wrote the season finale as a homage to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.

▸ Drama

p.10 · Ludwig — Dorothy Atkinson Profile
Atkinson discusses playing a pathologist opposite David Mitchell's character. She spent a day with a real Home Office pathologist to observe an autopsy. The prop department used gelatin-and-rice molds for the organs in the lab scenes.

p.11 · Professor T — Barney White
White plays a detective constable who clashes with Ben Miller's professor. He trained with the Cambridge University boxing team for his character's backstory as a former amateur boxer. The boxing match in episode 2 is based on a real bout from 2019.

p.13 · The Voice UK — Kelly Rowland Joins as Coach
Rowland replaces an outgoing coach and talks about her criteria: vocal range, stage presence, and song choice. She says she looks for contestants who perform the melody differently from the original. The first blind audition episode airs Saturday with Rowland's first block.

p.14 · Emmerdale — Ned Porteous and Olivia Bromley on the Wedding
The actors discuss the wedding of their characters, a year-in-the-making storyline. The ceremony was filmed at a real Yorkshire chapel using 200 extras. The bride's dress took 6 weeks to hand-embroider with 5,000 glass beads.

p.17 · The Rainmaker — TV Adaptation of John Grisham
A new mini-series based on Grisham's 1995 legal thriller. The lead actor shadowed a Memphis trial lawyer for three weeks. The courtroom closing argument runs 7 pages of script without a cut.

p.23 · H Is for Hawk — Documentary
Helen Macdonald's memoir adapted for television, with the author narrating her experience training a goshawk after her father's death. The goshawk used in filming was a rescue bird from a Scottish falconry centre. Macdonald's voiceover was recorded in a single 4-hour session.

▸ Drama / Comedy

p.18 · Benidorm Is Murder — Tamzin Outhwaite
Outhwaite guest stars as a British expat who runs a beach bar that may be a money-laundering front. She filmed her scenes in 38-degree heat at a Benidorm hotel. The cocktail-shaking scene required 12 takes because the ice kept melting.

p.20 · Meet the Owens — Comedy Drama
A new BBC sitcom about a family who inherit a Welsh caravan park. The creator wrote the pilot after spending a summer managing a park in Pembrokeshire. Each episode title is a camping-related pun.

Editor's Take

The Joy of Pets cover is a smart booking — Roslin has mainstream warmth and the animal format tests well with Channel 5's core audience. The Bookish and Ludwig coverage is solid, but the real value this week is the Emmerdale wedding feature: 6 weeks of hand-embroidery, 200 extras, a Yorkshire chapel — that is the level of production detail readers want. The Rainmaker adaptation feels like a rights pickup that the editor is not enthusiastic about. Benidorm Is Murder sounds like a holiday postcard stretched to 90 minutes. Ad load is moderate; one repeat for sheds appears twice.

Strengths
• Emmerdale wedding production details with dress embroidery specifics
• John Grisham's The Rainmaker adaptation with 7-page courtroom monologue
• Gaby Roslin's Joy of Pets with three distinct animal episodes

Weaknesses
• Benidorm Is Murder premise is thinner than the Outhwaite casting suggests
• Bookish season 2 needs more plot detail than Atkinson's casting announcement

Verdict: Recommended — Strong Emmerdale wedding coverage makes it a buy for soap fans.