The must-see TV shows this week: From Love Island to Years and Years

Viewers may be turned off by the blatant narcissism, perma-tanned features and frankly ludicrous verbal gaffes. So just ignore coverage of Donald Trump’s visit and watch something else instead

Love on the rocks: a new crop of islanders hits our screens on Monday (ITV)

The television event of the week – you’d hesitate to call it a highlight – is the return of Love Island. It’s worth catching, if only to help you meditate upon the state of the nation in 2019, as well as the semi-naked hot young men and women who have agreed to take part in this bizarre adventure.

So there are seven men and five women, and they are there to cop off with each other, gossip and laze around. Quite idyllic in that way. Of course, when they become Z-list celebrities and the focus of the usual prurient interest and vicious attacks on social media (which have already started) they may regret their time on the island, whether or not they have found everlasting love, or, indeed, fame and wealth.

It’s only fair to add that over the past year two of the show’s former stars have taken their own lives. The spirit of the times is moving against the excesses of reality TV, as we witnessed with the high-profile demise of The Jeremy Kyle Show, and Big Brother has also departed our screens, so this series of Love Island may be the last. Watch while you can, if you can take it.

The Lyons family, seven years hence (BBC)

Only marginally less depressing, we have the final of Britain’s Got Talent. Britain may not have much else these days, such as a steel industry or a functioning political system, but you can’t deny the willingness of amateur artistes to disport themselves in the name of fame, this being one of the few ways anyone in this broken country without the advantages of inherited wealth and a public school education can get on in life. Ant and Dec present, in case you were in any doubt, and the winner gets £250,000 plus a slot on the Royal Variety performance. Life doesn’t get any sweeter than that.

Years and Years is Russell T Davies’s peek into the future, moving us past the 2026 general election. The world has endured another global banking collapse, a small nuclear war between China and America, people are turning themselves into cyber “transhumans” and Britain is witnessing the rise of a dangerous populist politician by the name of Vivienne Rook, played with great aplomb by Emma Thompson. Rook is in fact the diametric opposite of everything the real-life Emma Thompson stands for, which makes her performance even more impressive when you think about it.

Jessica Hynes, Anne Reid, Rory Kinnear, T’Nia Miller and Russell Tovey are some of the other fabulous talents doing their best to cope with the near future. The only thing missing from the vista is any idea of whether Brexit might have actually happened a decade after the referendum. Some predictions are just too hazardous.

Meandering gently towards the end of its third and final series, Mum edges ever closer to, fans hope, putting the on/off relationship between Cathy (Lesley Manville) and Michael (Peter Mullan) on a more secure footing. This week we learn why Cathy’s son Jason is always so hostile to Michael, and why the scene-stealing Pauline (Dorothy Atkinson) is such an insufferable snob.

Mum’s the word for Cathy and Michael (BBC)

In case you’d not noticed, Donald Trump is coming on a state visit next week, and to attend the D-Day commemorations on the 75th anniversary of the landings. The BBC will be covering the events live, with the main event involving the Queen and President Trump on Wednesday, and the service of remembrance on Thursday.

And finally… even though the season has technically ended, there’s still some excellent football out there to enjoy, with the Spurs v Liverpool Champions League final, plus the Women’s World Cup, which kicks off on Friday evening when France take on South Korea, when the male England squad take on the Netherlands on Thursday night. Other sports are available.

Love Island (ITV2, Monday 9pm); Britain’s Got Talent (ITV, Sunday 9pm); Years and Years (BBC1, Tuesday 9pm); Mum (BBC2, Wednesday 10pm); D-Day 75 (BBC1, Wednesday and Thursday 9.15am); Champions League Final (BT Sports 2, Saturday 6pm); Women’s World Cup (BBC1, Friday 7.30pm); Nations League Football (Sky Sports, Thursday 7.45pm)