What a pity Scottish acting doesn’t have its own Mount Rushmore, for Peter Capaldi would surely be up there, nestled between Brian Cox and Elaine C Smith.

Capaldi has the face for it, as can be seen within seconds of his coupon showing up in the shiny new crime drama Criminal Record (Apple TV+, Wednesday). If you eventually get the face you deserve, his DCI Daniel Hegarty must have been one mean hombre.

Hegarty appears on the radar of DS June Lenker (Cush Jumbo) after an anonymous tip comes in claiming the wrong man is in jail for a murder he did not commit. Lenker starts digging and discovers it is one of Hegarty’s old cases, which he is less than delighted to have questioned.

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Hegarty and Lenker represent the old (supposedly) and new faces of policing in London, and Capaldi and Jumbo make an inspired pairing, sparking off each other like the TV equivalent of Pacino and De Niro in Heat.

Lenker thinks he is patronising, racist, sexist and the rest of it; Hegarty thinks she’s woke and trouble, though the W-word would never pass those razor-thin pursed lips of his.

Adding to the LA feel is director Jim Loach’s depiction of London as a glossy, sun-washed cityscape with murk and dirt never too far from the surface.

Written by Paul Rutman (Vera), Criminal Record is the kind of slick, spendy drama that the streaming channels do so well. While not quite up there with Apple TV+ stablemate Slow Horses, it is not far off. Capaldi’s sinister cop (or is he just misunderstood?) is as terrifying as Malcolm Tucker, while Jumbo’s June Lenker already has the makings of everyone’s favourite woman police officer, a title currently held by Happy Valley’s Catherine Cawood.

After the Flood (STV, Wednesday) offers another contender for that title in PC Jo Marshall (Sophie Rundle, Peaky Blinders). But only if she can cut back on the faffing.

The river in Marshall’s home town has burst its banks. When the waters recede a body is found in a lift and Marshall’s interest is piqued. Was the man with no ID a victim of the flood or is there something more to it? And can heavily pregnant trainee detective Marshall solve the case before going off on maternity leave?

Following a heart-in-the-mouth opening scene of a baby in a car seat being swept away, After the Flood settles down for a bit. But it is soon a swirl of several storylines and issues, among them climate change. We’re relying on PC Marshall to cut her way through the noise and make sense of things, but she seems as lost as everyone else. She is particularly prone to agonising over decisions. One minute she can’t possibly do something, the next she’s doing it anyway. Carry on dithering like that PC Marshall and you’ll end up in The Archers.

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Call the Midwife (BBC1, Sunday) returned for series 356 and very welcome it was too. It is in fact series 13 but who is counting? The world needs more Midwife, not less. Heidi Thomas’s drama is worth treasuring even more now that we are all the way up to 1969. Getting rather too close for comfort, that date. Some of us were around in that world of big prams and back-combed hair.

A brood of new pupil midwives has arrived at Nonnatus House to ring the changes. Among those soon to be needing their services is Doreen (played by the comedian Rosie Jones), who has cerebral palsy. Doreen’s mum fears her daughter won’t be able to cope with a baby, but Doreen has other ideas.

Jones’ powerful and moving performance proves once again that comedians often make the best actors when matters take a turn for the serious. Oddly enough, it wasn’t her character giving birth that brought on the waterworks but a closing scene celebrating the Spring that was just beginning. Good old Midwife, it always delivers just what the season, and viewers, require.

As did The Canary Islands with Jane Macdonald (Channel 5, Friday). While you and I were sitting at home in Scotland wearing bobble hats and six jumpers to combat the sub-zero temperatures, TV’s perennial Shirley Valentine was taking one for the team in Gran Canaria.

The joy of our Jane is that you can take her anywhere and she’ll have a good time if it kills her. In Firgas she greeted a stream flowing down the street as if it was Niagara Falls. At a restaurant specialising in local delicacy watercress (yup, really) you would have thought it was Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen so apparently exquisite were the dishes that emerged.

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Her finest moment came when she met Marion, 77, who was heading off on a jet ski. What else could seize the day Jane do but follow her example? “We think we’ve got loads of time but we haven’t,” she said, tearing off to do something else. An inspiration to us all.