I hope Tablet readers won’t be stuck indoors watching television too often this summer – but it’s good to be prepared in case the rain comes. Here are a few recommendations that might appeal for wet, chilly evenings.

I enjoyed historian Gareth Russell’s documentary on James VI, Queen James (BBC1, iPlayer). As the title suggests, it concentrates on the homosexual relationships of the first king to unite the English and Scottish thrones and his passionate affairs with favourites such as Robert Carr and George Villiers, on whom he showered dukedoms, wealth and influence. Russell contends that for historians to openly confirm that James, the only son of Mary Queen of Scots, had sexual relationships with men is somehow shockingly new – whereas I don’t think it will break new ground for anyone with the remotest interest in the first Jacobean monarch. And it comes hard on the heels of Mary & George, that cynical, lubricious drama from Sky about the Duke of Buckingham and his ambitious mother.

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