YOU will have heard the news that we are living in a golden age of television, an era of mega budgets ($130 million for Netflix’s The Crown), big screen stars going small screen (Nicole Kidman in Sky Atlantic’s Big Little Lies), and general fabulousness. It is all true, even if there remains a fair amount of auld tat out there, with final proof coming with the airing of the magnificent OJ: Made in America (BBC4, Sunday-Thursday).

Ezra Edelman’s Oscar-winning documentary has taken a long and winding road to terrestrial TV, having first aired on ESPN (which commissioned it), then iPlayer, then BT Sport, BBC4, and now iPlayer again. You may be wondering what else you need to know about the phenomenal rise and epic fall of the American superstar held responsible for murdering his wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994, especially if you have watched The People v OJ Simpson. But Edelman’s film is so much more than a rehash of the case. This is a slow-burn, searing, exquisitely assembled expose of how race divides America, and the toxic impact of celebrity worship.

Packed with previously unseen material and extended interviews with the protagonists, including prosecutor Marcia Clark and disgraced LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman, OJ: Made in America is especially gripping in the final segment dealing with what happened after Simpson’s acquittal in the criminal trial. Even at seven and a half hours long (yup, but it is in 90 minute instalments) there is not an ounce of fat on it. Unmissable.

As was Three Girls (BBC1, Tuesday-Thursday, 9pm). A dramatised account of the Rochdale child sexual abuse scandal, this was a harrowing watch, the kind of programme that one could well understand viewers avoiding for fear of upset. But shown over three nights, this was brave, intelligent, well-informed, gripping television, with women front and centre. The young actors who played Holly, Amber and Ruby were superb, with particular mentions in dispatches to Molly Windsor as Holly, Maxine Peake as the sexual health worker who fought like a tigress for the police and social workers to take the victims’ allegations seriously, and Paul Kaye, who played Molly’s father as a bundle of grief, rage, and bewilderment. Another unmissable, you can catch it on iPlayer. Apologies for all the homework, but golden age and all that.

Did you have a butchers at Kat and Alfie: Redwater (BBC1, Thursday, 8pm)? The spin-off series from EastEnders featuring the former landlord and lady of the Queen Vic is set in Ireland, where Kat hopes to find her long lost son. Given the diplomatic incident that occurred when EastEnders last went to Ireland and came over all Oirish and begorrah and borderline racist, hopes were not high for this one. But lessons have been learned, with the cliches kept to a medium peep. Of more concern is the decision to mix soapy stuff with the story of a death. Murder most horrid is par for the course for EastEnders, but will it work here? After one episode, the jury is out.

I have it on good authority from someone who has worked with him that Alan Titchmarsh is as truly scrumptious, personality-wise, off screen as he is on, and he was certainly twinkling fit to burst on Masterpiece with Alan Titchmarsh (ITV, Monday, 3pm). It is a game show of his devising, featuring three teams competing to guess the value of antiques in the hope of winning a grand. Think Antiques Roadshow with the garden centre crowd rather than the cruise set. The rules were 3-2-1 convoluted, with Alan at one point turning up in a tweed deerstalker coat, complete with cape. No explanation was given and everyone was too polite to ask. It was that sort of show.

The Fake News Show (Channel 4, Monday, 8.30pm), in contrast, featured the kind of cheekiness that goes with the modern quiz programme territory. Katherine Ryan and Richard “Pointless” Osman were the team captains, and Stephen Mangan the host of the Have I Got News for You-style caper, back for the election period. The three, plus Miles Jupp, had some cute lines, but no-one appeared to have briefed the other guest, Stanley Johnson, aka Boris’s dad, that this was 2017. Watching him dispensing humour straight from the 1970s (there was a joke about election canvassing which involved the word “knockers”, I kid you not), I was reminded of the old Glasgow Empire story about Bernie Winters joining his brother Mike on stage to a cry from the stalls of “Christ, there’s two of them!” In the case of the family Johnson there are more than two of them. Having endured BoJo on Have I Got News, and now dad on this, two is more than enough Johnsons, thanks.