From a Serbian performance artist to a Belgian crime drama, here are new shows for your small screens.

Imagine: Marina Abramović – The Ugly Duckling ★★★★☆

If you were unaware of the life and work of Marina Abramović before, then you're unlikely to forget it after this latest Imagine hour. For here, we see Marina having an arrow aimed at her heart with only the strength of her co-performance artist and lover Ulay between her and certain death; over there, we see her enveloped by a snake for a piece which pays tribute to Maria Callas; and then there's the film of the Serbian brushing her hair violently, chomping on a raw onion, and whipping herself.

'Shockingly controversial' is how Imagine guru Alan Yentob describes Abramović, and it's difficult to argue with that. Of course, this being a Yentob production, the man himself is often distractedly front and centre of proceedings. Whereas other hosts would allow the camera to focus on the artist herself, we see the pair of them strolling side by side in her home and through huge sheds which house her archive, which has been logged in finite Kubrick-esque detail.

Ultimately, Marina and the diamond geezer have produced a fascinating film which traces her life and career, all the while attempting to pin down her motivations and inspirations. What's the deal with putting herself in real physical danger, and why is she so obsessed with stars and triangles? There are some answers offered, but with all true art and artists, there is something about Marina Abramović that is held at arm's length and remains teasingly unknowable.
BBC iPlayer.

The Twelve ★★★☆☆

A woman is on trial for her life, facing charges of murdering her best friend in 2000 and killing her own toddler daughter while in the midst of a custody battle some 18 years later. This is the set-up for Walter Presents' latest continental affair, a Belgian ten-parter which focuses on both the case and the private lives of some among its dozen-strong jury.

A Cannes winner for its screenplay, The Twelve follows the ins and outs of a horrible trial which has the local media baying for blood and willing to pay for leaks from within the jury room. Meanwhile, away from the legal proceedings, jurors are living their own equally chaotic and torrid lives, which feature domestic coercion, autism, illegal business practices, childcare issues and sex addiction. There are very few moments of levity (though the chief defence lawyer has a crackingly wild beard) while the uninitiated might be intrigued to hear that Flemish is closer to the Scandi languages than to French.

While The Twelve maintains the essential drama of classic courtroom fiction (did she do it, and if not, will she be wrongly convicted?), arguably the most eye-opening aspect are the many differences between the Belgian court system and the UK version we're used to seeing on TV. The lawyers may all wear gowns, but at least there are no daft wigs on show, while there's a sense of freedom about who talks and when: jurors can raise their hands to ask a question while the accused is free to indulge in a slanging match with witnesses during cross-examination. This might not be quite enough to keep some viewers enthralled, but The Twelve is a fascinating look at European justice and a trauma-filled exploration of what people are capable of in their darkest moments.
Channel 4, Sunday 18 October, 11pm; all episodes available on All 4, Friday 16 October.

Urban Myths ★★★☆☆

It would be a continuing shame if the only thing people remember about Sky Arts' Urban Myths series is the cancelled episode in which Joseph Fiennes portrayed Michael Jackson. These 'true-ish' stories about famous people encountering other famous people or having a revelatory experience or rubbing up against the general public, have been enormously entertaining.

All of which to say, none of the four instalments that make up this new selection are likely to make it into anyone's Urban Myths Best Of line-up. As enjoyable as it is to see Robbie Coltrane being Orson Welles (though his caledonia burr means he can never quite nail the veteran director's luxuriant vocals), David Haig Baroque-ing up as George Frideric Handel, and Katherine Ryan playing her comedy icon Joan Rivers, their episodes fail to leave that much of an impression. Perhaps the Game Of Thrones alumni John Bradley and Mark Addy playing the young and not-so-young Les Dawson borders on memorable, aided by that episode's writer Steve Pemberton shuffling on for a cameo as the northern comic's literary hero Jean Paul-Sartre.

While often putting famous people in unusual situations (a stranded Public Enemy being driven to a gig by a fan, and Diana disguising herself as male to hang out in gay clubs), the main recurring theme across Urban Myths' landscape has been the moment when a career-changing or life-altering drama occurs. So in the Hendrix and Handel episode, both conclude that it's time to be true to themselves (for Hendrix this means not duetting with Lulu nor constantly agreeing to perform 'Hey Joe') while Les Dawson drops his plans to become an author and instead concentrate on double-entendres and deliberately off-key piano playing.
Sky Arts, Wednesdays, 10pm; all episodes available on NOW TV.

Storyville: The Mole – Infiltrating North Korea ★★★☆☆

The Mole is a real-life James Bond story with hidden-ish cameras and fizzy drinks replacing dry martinis. For the old-school 007 admirers, there is a plethora of dancing, singing and saxophone-playing girls but they are more awkward than seductive. Glitz and glamour are certainly not what you immediately associate with North Korea, where brutality and oppression are rumoured to be the default setting for the reign of Kim Jong-un.

Yet, the weirdly-barneted tyrant has his admirers across Europe with the KFA (Korean Friendship Association) acting as the way in for an intrepid spy mission which takes place over the best part of a decade. Former Danish chef Ulrich Larsen is the unlikely hero of this highly risky endeavour as he wriggles his way into the KFA's trust, later uncovering some dodgy arms dealings which are shameless busting of UN sanctions.

In this film by Mads Brügger (who narrates the action and is filmed off-camera which seems unnecessary especially when, without any fanfare, he reveals himself at the finale), Larsen is helped by an actor who dons either a twirly moustache or huge beard to play 'Mr James', with both pretending to be knee-deep in weapons development for shady forces planning to attack Israel.

This is all highly irregular stuff, with one or two disturbing twists in the tale, but the threat of danger is never fully ramped up, despite the best intentions of Trump and Kim playing pathetic war games in the background. We know from the start that Larsen and co will get out of there alive, unlike American student Otto Warmbier whose crime of stealing a propaganda poster eventually led to his torture and death.
BBC iPlayer; BBC Four, Tuesday 13 October, 9pm.

The Haunting Of Bly Manor ★★☆☆☆

With Saint Maud doing its best to resurrect the bleeding corpse of our cinemas, and Ghosts charming BBC audiences with its collection of loveable ghouls, The Haunting Of Bly Manor would seem to have arrived at the ideal moment. In the run-up to Halloween, we're always on a hunt for the next big scary thing, but alongside a global pandemic that is rating very highly on the fright-o-meter, this Netflix chillfest is lukewarm at best.

A sort-of follow-up to the streaming service's 2018 hit The Haunting Of Hill House (a different story but told with several of the same acting pool), Bly Manor is the location for an updated version of The Turn Of The Screw while also chucking in inspirations from two other Henry James tales. The result is an unwieldy mess that takes a very simple but highly effective premise (a young governess looks after two loveable but clearly traumatised children after the death of their parents) and overly complicates matters with added ropey accents and by-numbers ghost-storytelling techniques (on the 23rd appearance of a spectre reflected in a mirror, you will have been touched by an emotion than is fatal to a scary film: abject boredom).

And as for those accents, only those close to the script will know why they insisted on saddling Oliver Jackson-Cohen (the baddie from The Invisible Man) with an awful Sick Boy-esque Scottish accent, while Henry 'Elliott from ET' Thomas gnarls his way through the uber-plummy voice that Spitting Image awarded the Duke of Edinburgh. And Carla Gugino dips in and out of channelling her inner northerner as the narrator who insists on spoiling the mood at a wedding party by retelling this 'not very short story'. These only act as temporarily amusing distractions from a sequel that might well kill this Haunting Of franchise stone dead.
Netflix.