HEARD a discussion on the wireless the other day about whether Bodyguard, being so gripping, was going to save terrestrial television from an onslaught of glossy, star-studded offerings on streaming services such as Netflix.

Judging by Trust (BBC2, Wednesday, 9pm), the BBC has decided it can do both. With episodes directed by Danny Boyle, a fona bide (copyright Victoria Wood), Oscar-winning movie director, created by Simon Beaufoy, another Academy Award winner, the story of the Getty grandson kidnapping is graced by names that could get a table at Spago as easily as I could join the queue at Greggs (assuming the staff have forgotten that unfortunate incident with the steak bake). Donald Sutherland, playing John Paul Getty, is one, Hilary Swank, playing the boy’s mother, another.

Boyle’s touch was evident from the off, the camera making a long, swooping descent into a party full of beautiful people. From there we went to the Getty mansion in England, where the oil billionaire was trying to play several girlfriends off each other.

Very impressive, but it would have been more so if Ridley Scott not beaten Boyle to the punch last year with his film on the same subject, All the Money in the World. As it is, Boyle is playing catch up, and seems to have opted for more sex, more glitz, and more groovy tunes, from Bowie especially, to keep the viewer hooked. At one point he even wheeled in a real live lioness. With the story stretched out over ten parts – very Netflix – it will take more than surface glitz to sustain viewer interest.

The major autumn dramas just keep coming (will no one think of the poor TV critics who have to maintain tabs on them all? No? You are a hard lot). Strangers (ITV, Monday, 9pm) could not match the combined wattage of Sutherland and Swank, but it did have always watchable John Simm doing what he does best: looking knackered and on the verge of tears.

Playing Jonah Mulray, a politics professor, Simm’s character had every right to be discombobulated. First, he was told his wife had been killed in a car accident in Hong Kong. Second, he was scared of flying but had to get out there. Writers Mark Denton and Jonny Stockwood had several more unpleasant surprises waiting for the aptly named Jonah, so much so that by the end of episode one credibility had been stretched to breaking point. Fortunately, the best twist had been left to last, ensuring a return audience this week.

We’ll take a break here from the sturm and drang of drama for a bit of light relief. There is possibly only one thing more relaxing than watching fictional characters suffering and that is seeing celebrities being put through the mill on reality TV. In Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls (Channel 4, Sunday, 9pm), the adventurer promised the ten participants would be “pushed to the limits of human endurance” during their four week stay.

Oh come on, Bear lad. The group are left to their own devices with only camera operators in attendance, but they can contact the programme makers if they want to leave, and no one seriously expects them to come to any real harm, although Jo Wood’s hair was in a right 999 state come the end of the first week. The most trying element for the celebs was putting up with Eric Roberts (sister of Julia), who spent the first few days getting the men’s names wrong.

Spandau Ballet’s Martin Kemp was the hero of the first of six hours, followed by Pete Wicks from fellow reality show The Only Way is Essex. The women, save for Wood, mostly moaned about the rain, the sun, and the sand that got everywhere. “My nipples are exfoliated to ****” said one young lady you had never heard of. My, that Swiss finishing school must have been so proud.

Black Earth Rising (BBC2, Monday) had the accessory of the week, a movie star, John Goodman, plus an English national treasure, Harriet Walter, and a talented newcomer (Michaela Coel) to recommend it. Written and directed by Hugo Blick (The Honourable Woman), it is the story of a lawyer (Walter) prosecuting a suspected Rwandan war criminal at The Hague. With her adopted daughter (Coel) having been rescued from the genocide in the country, the case is uncomfortably close to home.

Coming in the same week when the Trump administration threatened sanctions against the international criminal court if it tried to prosecute Americans, Black Earth Rising had the merit of being blisteringly relevant. Otherwise, the first instalment set out its stall in a quietly elegant way. Coel, who was required to go from 0-90 emotionally at several points, had the hardest hill to climb. What a talent she is.