DStv Compact’s January 2021 is TV to get you on the right track

A year has passed since the tragic events of S1 played out. Mndeni (Thobani Nzuza) is living in isolation, still mourning the death of the love of his life, Khethiwe. But when he makes what is supposed to be an in-and-out visit to KwaDelinkani, he gets sucked back into the life he so desperately wants to leave. What Mndeni doesn’t realise is that the situation that he’s trying to escape could bring him closer to the family that he’s always yearned for… and the chance of a new beginning.  
Starts on Sunday, 3 January on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) at 20:00

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Regency-era drama Belgravia, based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Julian Fellowes (creator of Downton Abbey), explores personal and military drama during the Napoleonic wars. The action begins at the Duchess of Richmond's ball in Brussels for the Duke of Wellington two days before the Battle of Waterloo, where not even the oncoming battle can slow down the matchmaking frenzy of the season. Cast includes Tamsin Greig, Alice Eve, Richard Goulding, Tom Wilkinson and Nicholas Rowe.  
Starts on Monday, 25 January on BBC Brit (DStv 120) at 20:00

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Based on the comic semi-autobiographical novels by James Herriot (real name Alf Wright), this 6-episode comedy series follows the adventures and absurdities befalling newly trained Glaswegian veterinary assistant and “fish out of water” in the countryside James Herriot (Nicholas Ralph) when he starts work at a rural Yorkshire veterinary practice run by the eccentric but brilliant Siegfried Farnon (Samuel West). Siegfried’s scamp of a brother, Tristan (Callum Woodhouse), soon joins the practice, too, while James falls for local farmer’s daughter Helen (Anna Madeley). 
Starts on Friday, 3 January on BBC Brit (DStv 120) at 19:00

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Tyler Perry’s deliciously spicy White House drama promises scandal galore for philandering President Hunter Franklin and First Lady with an axe, Victoria Franklin. All the action in the upcoming 22 episodes will take place over 3 to 4 days, so we’re expecting a major political and personal uproar. There’s plenty in the S1 finale that could get us there, from ex-Press Secretary Diana’s explosive tell-all press conference, to the Franklins’ son, Jason, murdering White House staffer Jean and stuffing her corpse under his bed. 
Starts on Wednesday, 20 January on BET (DStv 129) at 22:30

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S3 starts just over a month after the events of the S2 finale. The BlackBloods and the Bloodfists have enslaved the humans at The Outpost and put Garret and Tobin to work in the pits. It’s a situation that sees Zed halting outbreaks of violence and abuse as a way of manipulating Talon to do what the BlackBloods want. But the fight for control of The Outpost is going to lead to a death in the throne room and a new commander.  
Starts on Friday, 8 January on Universal (DStv 117) at 20:50

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Briarpatch follows chic Washington DC political aide and investigator Allegra Dill (Rosario Dawson) as she goes around her eccentric Texas hometown of San Bonifacio asking questions in an effort to find out who murdered her police officer sister, Felicity (Michele Weaver). Allegra’s childhood best friend, Jake Spivey (Jay R. Ferguson), is now the richest man in town, and both rising politician Senator Joseph Ramirez (Enrique Murciano) and Jake’s crazy-violent ex-business partner, Clyde Brattle (Alan Cumming), see Allegra as someone they can exploit to get to Jake.  
Starts on Monday, 11 January on M-Net City (DStv 115) at 21:40

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Horror fiction-loving Atticus Black (Jonathan Majors, the young Ken Jones in When We Rise) travels across 1950s USA in search of his father, who went missing in an eerie, small town whose white supremacist leaders are in league with tentacled terrors. The series also delves into what happens when Atticus’s friend and travelling companion, Leti (Jurnee Smollett), buys a run-down Victorian mansion in a white neighbourhood of Chicago, which turns out not only to be haunted, but also linked to the “Sons of Adam” cult.  
Starts on Tuesday, 5 January on M-Net City (DStv 115) at 21:40

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This adrenaline-pumping spin-off series from Dick Wolf’s show, FBI, focuses on the tight-knit Fugitive Task Force team, led by veteran FBI agent Jess LaCroix (Julian McMahon), who hunt down and capture the escaped criminals and suspects on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. The cast includes Keisha Castle-Hughes (nominated for an Oscar at the age of 12 for her role in Whale Rider) as the team’s tech guru, Hana Gibson, and Twilight’s Kellan Lutz as FBI Special Agent Kenny Crosby, who frequently has to go undercover to flush out their suspects. 
Starts Monday, 12 January on M-Net City (DStv 115) at 20:50

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As S4 ended, Madeline framed the team as the suspects in a far-reaching corruption case. And as S5 begins, she uses her influence to create a civilian oversight committee – a team that polices the FBI. With her place in the organisation fully cemented, she wiggles her way into the position of Director of Federal Law Enforcement. And as the big, big boss, she turns up the heat on the team and goes to extreme measures, including banding together with terrorists, to get them out of her hair for good. 
Starts on Wednesday, 27 January on M-Net City (DStv 115) at 19:10

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In S4 of Riverdale, the Core Four of Archie (K.J. Apa), Veronica (Camila Mendes), Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse), are under the thumb of Riverdale’s strict new high school principal, Mr. Honey (Kerr Smith). The season opens with a beautiful In Memoriam episode honouring the late Luke Perry. Jughead signs up for a new school, Stonewall Prep. And someone, who’s been watching all the shenanigans in Riverdale, makes Halloween extra creepy by sending the townsfolk video tapes of their own houses.  
Starts on Friday, 29 January on M-Net City (DStv 115) at 20:00

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The season starts with a wedding and flashback to Jamie and Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan) own wedding. But this peace won’t last, and not just because the American Revolutionary War is around the corner and Jamie and Claire are both battling with divided loyalties. In S5, Claire’s medical practice, including her desperate struggle this season to find a reliable way of manufacturing penicillin, will set her up for a horrific confrontation in the season finale when someone believes that what she is doing is in defiance of God’s will.  
Starts Saturday, 30 January on M-Net City (DStv 115) at 21:40

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Houseflippers have a bad name for shoddy, rushed builds and for gutting unique architectural features to produce bland, samey houses. Now, the King of Flipping, Flip Or Flop's Tarek El Moussa, will draw on his experience in successfully making over and reselling over 300 houses to mentor wanna-be flippers in how to do it right. It’s a look at everything from buying the right property and the right time, to essential fixes, adding features that attract buyers, and the nitty gritty of project management.  
Starts on Thursday, 7 January on HGTV (DStv 177) at 20:10

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TV journalist Cherry Healey looks at how we can transform the way people see us and how we feel about ourselves in just 10 days – without surgery. For those of us who’ve been neglecting ourselves while caring for others, or who would like to give back to some who always puts themselves last, it’s makeover time! Some of the makeover procedures, like Botox injections, cosmetic dentistry and tattooing on eyebrows, are on the extreme side. Others like the make-up and fashion tips from stylist Gemma Sheppard are worth noting.  
Starts on Thursday, 14 January on BBC Lifestyle (DStv 174) at 20:00

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In August 1989, 21-year-old Joseph Lyle Menendez and his 18-year-old brother, Erik, murdered their parents in the multi-million-dollar Beverly Hills mansion by shooting them several times with shotguns before making a tearful call to 911 claiming that there had been a break-in while they were away. Their trial captured the public’s imagination as details of their subsequent spending spree and the confession that they made to their therapist came out, along with details of cheating and theft that the boys’ father had covered up for them while controlling their lives.  
Watch on Thursday, 14 January on ID (DStv 171) at 21:00

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This true-crime documentary series explores the effects that murder has on the victims’ loved ones, witnesses to the crime, and the investigators involved, years after the event. Cases include the shooting of Pastor Tim Remington by Kyle A. Odom, whose family were worried when he went missing; the murder of Melissa Lewis, which left her friend Debra Coffey guilt-stricken thanks to a secret; and the disappearance of Diamond Bradley after her mother Doris moved them to a new town.  
Starts on Tuesday, 19 January on ID (DStv 171) at 21:00

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This series looks at cases in which communities suspect that an innocent person has been jailed, while a killer still walks free. To this day, Jeff Titus insists that he didn’t murder hunters Doug Estes and Jim Bennett. A retired homicide detective believes that the evidence used to convict rookie cop James Duckett of the murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee doesn’t add up. And the community of Lake Charles, Louisiana, firmly believe that a corrupt cover-up within the local police department led to a false confession and murder conviction for Thomas Cisco.

Starts on Wednesday 6 January on ID (DStv 171) at 21:00

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