TV writer's 10 best films and shows to watch in April including Colin Farrell crime series

April is shaping up to be a stacked month of entertainment, with a host of blockbuster films and shows on the way all starring some of the hottest names in showbiz. We’ve got an action-adventure based on a popular video game and a biographical drama centred on a real-life figure of United States history.

There is also still time to catch blockbuster shows like Disney+ samurai epic Shōgun and Happy Valley creator Sally Wainwright’s new action-adventure, Renegade Nell. But if that’s not enough to tickle your TV tastebuds, there are plenty more top titles on the way in April led by some huge Hollywood names.

All of this cracking content comes from the likes of Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Amazon’s Prime Video and Sky, all of which are available with money-saving deals. Disney+ now costs as little as £4.99 a month, while Prime Video is available to try for free thanks to Amazon’s 30-day free trial.

Netflix is also available with some money-saving deals from Sky, while Apple TV+ continues to impress with its stellar content that can be enjoyed with a seven-day free trial. So if you’re wondering what’s on the cards for your next streaming binge this month, we’ve compiled our top TV picks for your viewing pleasure.

All of Us Strangers star Andrew Scott fronts this new limited series as the infamous con man Tom Ripley. Based on Patricia Highsmith’s novels – which also spawned the Matt Damon-led The Talented Mr. Ripley – the thriller centres on Ripley, a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York, as he is hired by a wealthy man to travel to Italy to try and convince his vagabond son Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) to return home.

Tom accepts the job and takes his first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud and murder. Also starring Dakota Fanning and John Malkovich, the series is written and directed by Steven Zaillian, whose writing credits include Schindler’s List, American Gangster, Moneyball, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Irishman.

Ripley premieres on Netflix on April 4, watch it with Sky here.

Starring Colin Farrell, Sugar is a contemporary and unique take on one of the most popular and significant genres in popular culture: the private detective story. Farrell stars as the titular John Sugar, an American private investigator on the heels of the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel.

As Sugar tries to determine what happened to Olivia, he will also unearth Siegel family secrets – some very recent, others long-buried. The Los Angeles-set noir series also stars Kirby, Amy Ryan, James Cromwell and Anna Gunn.

Sugar premieres on Apple TV+ on April 5, watch it here.

This original British rom-com is a must-watch for Heartstopper fans, centring on teenagers Amelia (Charithra Chandran) and Archie (Sebastian Croft), who have been best friends since childhood. Archie has always been there to fight Amelia’s battles and laugh at her jokes all while keeping his lifelong love for her a secret.

Just when he builds up the courage to declare his feelings, Amelia falls head over heels for Billy Walsh (Tanner Buchanan), the new American transfer student. Heartbroken Archie goes to great lengths to try and keep Amelia and Billy away from each other but ends up pushing them closer together and risks losing his best friend in the process.

How to Date Billy Walsh premieres on Prime Video on April 5, watch it here.

Inspired by real events, this drama film is the inside account of the tenacious journalism that landed an earth-shattering interview: Prince Andrew’s infamous BBC Newsnight appearance. From the tension of producer Sam McAlister’s (Billie Piper) high stakes negotiations with Buckingham Palace, all the way to Emily Maitlis’ (Gillian Anderson) jaw dropping showdown with the Prince (Rufus Sewell), Scoop takes viewers inside the story, with the women who would stop at nothing to get it.

Scoop premieres on Netflix April 5, watch it with Sky here.

This darkly comedic six-part series tells the story of life within the walls of a modern authoritarian regime as it begins to unravel. After not leaving the palace for quite some time, Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet) has grown increasingly paranoid and unstable when she turns to volatile soldier Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts) as an unlikely confidant.

As Zubak’s influence over the chancellor grows, Elena’s attempts to expand her power eventually result in the palace and the country fracturing around her.

The Regime premieres on Sky Atlantic on April 8, watch it with Sky here.

Based on the hugely successful video game franchise of the same name, this live-action series takes place 200 years after the apocalypse and follows a brand-new original story set in the world of the games. It centres around the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters as they are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind – and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.

Fallout stars Ella Purnell as peaceful and idealistic Vault Dweller Lucy, whose nature is tested when she is forced to the surface to rescue her father – played by Twin Peaks’ Kyle MacLachlan. She stars alongside Walton Goggins as a bounty hunter known as The Ghoul

Fallout premieres on Prime Video on April 11, watch it here.

Christopher Nolan’s multi-Oscar-winning drama makes its UK TV premiere this month. Based on the Pulitzer-winning biography American Prometheus, Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist known as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’.

This epic biopic charts Oppenheimer’s rise and fall while centring around his leading role in developing the first nuclear weapons during World War II. The film took home seven Oscars, including Nolan and Murphy’s first-ever wins.

Oppenheimer premieres on Sky Cinema on April 12, watch it here.

Starring Oscar-winner Michael Douglas and inspired by true events, this new limited series explores the thrilling story of the greatest gamble of Benjamin Franklin’s career. In December 1776, Franklin is world famous for his electrical experiments, but his passion and power are put to the test when he embarks on a secret mission to France with the fate of American independence hanging in the balance

Aged 70 and without any diplomatic training, Franklin convinced an absolute monarchy to underwrite America’s experiment in democracy – an eight-year mission that diplomats and historians still regard as the greatest single tour of duty by an ambassador in the USA’s history.

Franklin premieres on Apple TV+ on April 12, watch it here.

This outlandish biopic made waves when it premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year and was hailed as a smaller scale – but by no means inferior – sibling to The Social Network. Blackberry tells the “true story” of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone at Canadian tech company Research in Motion.

Starring This is the End’s Jay Baruchel and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Glenn Howerton, this comedy-drama is a hilariously frenetic, whirlwind ride through a ruthlessly competitive Silicon Valley at breakneck speeds.

Blackberry premieres on Sky Cinema on April 19, watch it here.

Based on M.O. Walsh’s 2020 novel and starring Chris O’Dowd, this comedy series tells the story of a small American town that is forever changed when a mysterious machine appears in the general store, promising to reveal each resident’s true life potential. Season two follows the residents of Deerfield as the machine readies them for the mysterious “next stage.”

As everyone’s potentials are exchanged for visions, new relationships form and new questions are asked, as the small town is once again left questioning what they thought they knew about their lives, relationships, potentials, and about the Morpho itself.

The Big Door Prize season two premieres on Apple TV+ on April 24, watch it here.