Seven TV shows to watch this weekend

The Late Late Show, RTÉ One, Friday, 9.35pm

The Late Late Show will hold the first major television debate of the referendum on the Eighth Amendment on Friday night. As campaigning for the upcoming vote gathers pace, representatives of the Together for Yes and LoveBoth campaigns will be in studio to put their cases forward for the repeal or retention of Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution. Ryan Tubridy will also be joined by people who will tell their own personal stories around the issue.

Also on Friday night's show: Davy Russell will be in studio to chat about winning the Grand National in dramatic style; Kerry woman Jessie Buckley will discuss her new movie Beast and starring alongside Renée Zellweger, and Debbie McGee will discuss her 28-year marriage to Paul Daniels, and what life has been like since he passed away.

Plus music from singer-songwriter Miles Graham and Something Happens.

The Graham Norton Show,BBC One, Friday, 11.05pm

Among the guests on Graham's sofa are Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom, who is to return to the West End stage in Killer Joe, and comedian Stephen Merchant, who is voicing new animation Sherlock Gnomes. Plus music from SuRie, who will perform the UK's Eurovision entry Storm.

The Handmaid’s Tale series 2: The show has run out of story

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The Handmaid’s Tale, season two: ‘It’s darker, much worse’

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Superstition (Netflix, from Sunday)

Arriving from the US, where it aired on SyFy last year, this spooky supernatural drama stars Mario Van Peebles as Isaac Hastings, the head of a family running the only funeral home and cemetery in the small town of La Rochelle, Georgia — however, both La Rochelle and the Hastings family hide some pretty dark secrets.

As the series unfolds, we learn more of the Hastings’ supernatural abilities — including offering services to those unfortunate people killed by demons — and how they act as keepers of the town’s unusual past.

So far, so daft, but if you suspend your disbelief then Superstition is actually great fun, and deeply atmospheric. Van Peebles directed most of the episodes himself, as well as having a hand in some of the scripts.

The Rain (Netflix, from Friday)

If BBC4 and Walter Presents on Channel 4 have taught us anything, it's that there will always be a space for a bit of Scandi-noir in our lives. Surprising, then, that Netflix has waited until now to release its first Danish original series.

The Rain is the brainchild of Jannik Tai Mosholt (Borgen, Follow the Money), and stars Alba August (Jordskott) and Lars Simonsen (The Bridge) among others, so comes with a strong pedigree. The plot, too, is rather compelling — we find the world as we know it at an end, following a deadly virus that's carried by the rain.

Six years on from the catastrophe, two siblings emerge from their bunker to find a very different society than the one from which they were forced to hide ...

The Jonathan Ross Show, 3e, Friday, 10.00pm

This week, Jonathan offers a Madonna special, in which the Queen of Pop talks about her infamous fall on stage at the Brit Awards, and performs two tracks from her album Rebel Heart.

Rachel Allen: A Cook’s Adventure, More4, Sunday, 8pm

Rachel Allen has been delighting audiences in Ireland for nearly 15 years. In this new series, Allen goes in search of Ireland's finest culinary delights, and meets the fishermen, bakers and farmers who produce them.

The first episode features an off-grid farm in the Mourne Mountains, and an apple orchard with a difference in Portadown, Co Armagh.

The Ray D’Arcy Show, RTÉ One, Saturday, 10.05pm

On this week’s show, Ray talks to 43-year-old Limerick woman Vicky Phelan, who is terminally ill with cervical cancer following a missed diagnosis in 2011. Also on the show is author and Irish Times columnist Michael Harding and wedding planner Peter Kelly, better known as Franc, who will be talking about his new series of Say Yes to the Dress and giving his predictions for the forthcoming royal wedding.