Pick of the week
Ireland’s Coast
Sunday, RTÉ1, 6.30pm
This three-part documentary takes us on a journey along one of our greatest assets – our breathtaking coastal scenery, using gorgeous cinematography, eye-catching graphics and gripping narration courtesy of actor Ciarán Hinds. Programme one will explore how our coasts, cliffs, bluffs and beaches were formed and how the rise and fall of sea levels have shaped the coast over the aeons. The series will also dive into the Irish people’s relationship with the water that surrounds us, and examine how climate change might affect our coasts in the future.
Must see
Nightsleeper
Sunday, BBC1, 9pm
Telly rule #596: don’t give your top detective the day off, because you can be sure their downtime will be spoiled by some inconsiderate baddie carrying out a terrorist attack or a hijacking. Joe Roag is an off-duty cop travelling on the nightsleeper from Glasgow to London when – guess what – the train is “hackjacked” by some unseen criminal mastermind and set on a breakneck course for mass destruction. Roag must join forces remotely with Abby Aysgarth at the National Cyber Security Centre to stop the mysterious “Driver” who has taken control of the train and unmask the passenger who is in cahoots with the hackjackers. This real-time thriller series, written by Nick Leather and taking place over the course of one breakneck night, stars Joe Cole and Alexandra Roach as Roag and Aysgarth, and the cast also includes David Threlfall, Alex Ferns, Sharon Small and James Cosmo.
Must see
Israel & Gaza: Into the Abyss
Sunday, UTV, 10.20pm
Almost a year since the October 7th Hamas attacks which sparked off the war in Gaza, this film attempts to tell the story of the war from the perspective of Palestinians and Israelis caught up in this devastating conflict. As the cycle of violence spirals deeper and deeper towards a point of no return, photographer Ibrahim recalls his sense of foreboding following the initial Hamas attack: “I knew we were heading for the abyss.” We also hear from Agam, who was among the 251 people taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th: “I thought in another universe we might live together. The opportunity is gone.”
Colin from Accounts
Monday, RTÉ2, 9pm
If you’ve watched the first series of this Australian comedy, you’ll know that the titular Colin is not some guy at work, but the name of a dog owned by Ashley and Gordon, two strangers whose lives are thrown together after Gordon runs over the dog with his car. Series one follows the couple as they navigate the awkwardness, romance and hilarity that ensues after they agree to jointly care for the injured mutt. Married couple Patrick Bramhall and Harriet Dyer write and star in this hit comedy, and series one ended with Gordon and Ashley breaking up and giving Colin away to a loving family. In series two, it’s all on again as they decide to move back in together and make everything the way it was. Only problem is, how do they persuade Colin’s new owners give their beloved dog back?
Mozart: Rise of a Genius
Monday, BBC2, 9pm
Before Elvis, Michael Jackson, Prince, Harry Styles, there was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the biggest pop star of the 18th century, who set the music world on fire with such compositions as The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No 40. These were the Thrillers and Live in Las Vegases of their time, but this series shows how Mozart had to break away from social conventions, defy his domineering father and battle with personal demons to unlock his genius and create music that still dazzles to this day.
In My Own Words: Hanif Kureishi
Monday, BBC1, 10.40pm
The British playwright, screenwriter, novelist and film director has drawn on his own family’s experiences of immigration in such hits as My Beautiful Laundrette and The Buddha of Suburbia, and in this intimate portrait, directed by his friend Nigel Williams, Kureishi looks back on his own life and his works, tracing the many ways in which they have overlapped. He also talks about the fall in 2022 that has left him using a wheelchair, and how it has forced him to recalibrate his artistic process.
Anam – Songs for Hearts and Minds
Thursday, RTÉ2, 11pm
What happens when Other Voices goes walkabout around Ireland’s historic landmarks? Anam – Songs for Hearts and Minds is a collaboration between Other Voices and the Office of Public Works: the former supplies the musical talent, the latter the stunning backdrops. The first series proved a huge success, and the second series opens with teenage blues star Muireann Bradley, musical polymath Uly and Big Thief’s Adrienne Lenker performing at Ormond Castle in Tipperary. What, no Val Doonican in front of the Blarney Stone?
Culture Night 2024
Friday, RTÉ1, 8pm
This is the night when everyone heads out for a feast of free cultural events, and RTÉ is rowing in with a solid hour of exclusive music, dance and circus performances. Denise Chaila will anchor the show from the Round Room in Dublin’s Mansion House, while David Gray will be fulfilling his lifelong ambition to sail away to Skellig Michael, and David Brophy will conduct the RTÉ Concert Orchestra through some musical explorations featuring Villagers, Niamh Regan, New Jackson, Joe Chester and Gemma Hayes.
Must see
The Penguin
Friday, Sky Atlantic & Now, 9pm
Colin Farrell is unrecognisable under the prosthetics in this new series set in the Batman universe, but the fat suit won’t stop the Irish star from turning in a commanding performance as the corpulent criminal mastermind Oz Cobb. The series follows on from Matt Reeves’s 2022 film The Batman, in which Farrell made his first appearance as the Penguin. Gotham City is in chaos, as usual, with rampant crime and corruption – the perfect conditions for Cobb to embark on his quest to become the top dog of the city’s underworld. There’s no sign of the Caped Crusader to foil the Penguin’s nefarious plans, but no doubt he’ll come up against some serious adversaries on his path to power.
Streaming
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Netflix, from Thursday, September 19th
On August 20th, 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez walked into their family’s Beverly Hills mansion and shot dead their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. The world was gripped by the murder and subsequent trial, in which two very different versions of events were presented to the jury. The prosecution believed the killing was motivated by greed – the brothers simply wanted to get their hands on the family fortune. But the defence claimed the boys were driven to murder by years of abuse at the hands of their parents. So who were the real monsters? This true-crime docudrama stars Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny as the parents and Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch as Lyle and Erik.
A Very Royal Scandal
Prime Video, from Thursday, September 19th
The infamous Newsnight interview in 2019 between Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis has now spawned two separate screen dramatisations. Earlier this year we had the Netflix film Scoop, featuring Rufus Sewell as the British royal and Gillian Anderson as the BBC presenter. This TV series stars Michael Sheen as Andrew and Ruth Wilson as Maitlis, but the story is pretty much the same. With questions swirling around about his relationship with the billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of sexual assault of a minor, Virginia Giuffre, Andrew thought it would be a spiffing idea to go on UK national television and spin some posh tosh about pizza parlours and not being able to sweat. The interview proved his downfall and a costly embarrassment for the royal family – but also a classic slice of car-crash TV.
Agatha All Along
Disney+, from Thursday, September 19th
You know Agatha Harkness as the nosy neighbour from WandaVision who turns out to have been behind much of the bad stuff going down in the town of Westview. In the series Agatha gets her own spin-off show, complete with cheesy theme tune, but now Marvel has broken the nth wall by giving her an actual spin-off series, allowing Kathryn Hahn to really get her teeth into the title role. But can Agatha All Along possibly measure up to the brain-scrambling meta thrill that was WandaVision? We doubt it very much, but this could still be a lot of fun, as Agatha escapes from her cathode-ray containment and gathers a coven together in a bid to regain her deadly powers.
