TV guide: Eight programmes to watch this week, beginning tonight

Suspect

Sunday, Channel 4, 9pm and 9.30pm

In this new eight-part series, two episodes of which are being broadcast each night until Wednesday, does James Nesbitt play: a) a hard-bitten detective dealing with a personal tragedy; b) an Irish charmer who is forced to confront his commitment issues; or c) a dwarf from Middle-Earth? Based on a Danish noir crime drama, Nesbitt stars as Danny Frater, a veteran detective on a quest to find the truth about the death of his only daughter. He’s got help from a star-studded cast, which includes Richard E Grant, Joely Richardson, Sam Heughan, Ben Miller, Anne-Marie Duff, Niamh Algar and Sacha Dhawan. Is Nesbitt tiring of playing troubled cops? Not a bit of it. “I could relate to Danny, with his flaws, vulnerabilities and the devastating situation he faces,” says the actor.

Baz and Nancy’s Last Orders

Monday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm

Baz Ashmawy is best known as the man who regularly put his mother, Nancy, in harm’s way via his hit TV series 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy. Strangely, though, Ashmaway has never contemplated his mammy actually dying; in this programme, made in early 2020, before Covid hit, mother and son explore how to prepare for the inevitable and play the endgame with heart and soul. While Ashmawy finds it hard to address the reality of life’s ending, his mother, a former nurse, has no reservations, having dealt with death and dying all her life.

Nico Reynolds: All Fired Up

Tuesday, RTÉ One, 7pm

Want to lift your cooking to the next level? Easy: just move your kitchen outside. Celebrity chef Nico Reynolds is a big fan of outdoor cooking, and in this series he’ll be showing us how to make fab brekkies, lunches and dinners on the outdoor grill. After watching it you’ll be hooked on cooking al fresco, and converting the kitchen into a games room.

Snowflake Mountain

From Wednesday, Netflix

This new reality show comes with a great name and a cast of kidults who are forced to grow a spine and survive in the wilderness, even though they can’t even function in the normal world without a personal trainer, social-media manager or makeup consultant. What these pampered poppets need is a good kick up the arse, but they would probably sue you, the shoe manufacturer and the writers of Father Ted if you dared put a toe near their delicate derrieres. So instead they are being sent to a wilderness survival retreat where they will have to get by without running water, parents to bail them out or—gasp—even a wifi signal. Blocked from connecting with their TikTok followers, they’ll have to reconnect with nature and learn the old-fashioned ways of interacting with the world. You’ll laugh, they’ll cry—like big babies whose toys have been taken away.

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The Umbrella Academy

From Wednesday, Netflix

It’s season three of the mind-bending, time-looping superhero series, and if you think I’m going to give you a recap, you can think again. Even Stephen Hawking would have had a hard time trying to work out what the hell’s been happening, but it does involve various apocalypses, time paradoxes and something called a kugelblitz, which is apparently an anomaly that swallows the entire universe. So it looks as though the Hargreeves siblings have their work cut out for them—and they also have to deal with their ruthless alternative-universe rivals the Sparrow Academy. Elliot Paige and Robert Sheahan return in another discombobulating adventure, but beware: this senses-scrambling third series could finally force your brain to eat itself.

Halo

From Wednesday , Paramount +

Ever get those days when even just picking up a game console and twiddling your thumbs seems like too much hard work? The good news is that there’s now a live-action version of the video game Halo, so you can just sit back and watch events play out without having to lift a finger. Today is the Irish launch day for the streaming channel Paramount +, and Halo is one of its flagship offerings, featuring lots of folk in full-body armour shooting heavy weaponry at everything that moves. (You’ll be safe enough on your couch.) Humanity is under threat from the alien force the Covenant, and it’s up to Master Chief Spartan-117 (Pablo Schreiber) to lead an army of supersoldiers to repel the threat. Natascha McElhone stars as brilliant but conflicted scientist Dr Halsey, and Jen Taylor plays a superadvanced AI named Cortana.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

From Wednesday, Paramount +

Space: the final frontier. Home to an infinite number of Star Trek spin-off series that will keep on airing until the end of time. The latest odyssey takes up from the end of Star Trek Discovery, when the starship Discovery blasted off into the future, leaving the crew of the Enterprise behind to continue to explore strange new worlds blah blah blah. Anson Mount returns as Captain Pike, with Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Spock. We’re promised old-fashioned alien-planet-of-the-week adventures, with maybe a bit of a story arc running through the whole thing. Having grown up watching the original Star Trek, then being followed around by the various spin-offs and iterations ever since, I think I might be all trekked out at this stage.

Paul McCartney at Glastonbury 2022

Saturday, BBC One, 10.30pm

What a way to celebrate your 80th birthday. The BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury 2022 culminates with a headline set by the former Beatle, just a week after he hit the big 8-0. Macca will be oldest artist to top the bill on the Pyramid Stage, but don’t expect a doddery delivery – he’ll be belting out Beatles, Wings and solo hits with uncanny vim and vigour, and showing the young ‘uns how to really rock’n’roll.