Preview

Monday On Side (BBC 1, 10.40 p.m.) The last in the current series of the topical sports show sees John Inverdale talking with football pundit Alan Hansen, Formula One veteran Jackie Stewart and human bulldozer Jonah Lomu. 263798 True Lives: Operation Shamrock (RTE 1, 8 p.m.) Showing as part of RTE's season of programmes about Irish attitudes to refugees, this documentary tells the story of some of the 500 German children who came here after the second World War, many of whom were re-united for the first time since then at Glencree earlier this year. 38447601 Innocents Lost (Channel 4, 9 p.m.) First of a two-part documentary (part two is tomorrow night) made by the team responsible for the harrowing The Dying Rooms. This is about maltreatment of children around the world, from the homeless of Guatemala to the inmates of a penal camp in Russia. 8427 Split Image: Which Way to Carnegie Hall II (RTE 1, 11.30 p.m.) Sequel to an award-winning 1986 documentary about six professional musicians striving to make it to the top. Ten years on, the same performers are followed as they travel the international circuit. 64330205

Tuesday Leargas (RTE 1, 7.30 p.m.) Held over from November 25th, tonight's programme looks at questions of ownership and responsibility for Ireland's rivers and lakes. The tourism and angling revenue generated by this resource earns £378 million a year, but the potential is still not fully realised. 33933083 Timewatch (BBC 2, 9 p.m.) In 1972, a wave of Ugandan Asians arrived in Britain following their expulsion by Idi Amin. 25 years later, a report has shown them to be one of the country's most successful immigrant communities, and Uganda has asked them to return. Timewatch explores the community's history, and how its members feel about their present and former homes. 520847 Soldier, Soldier (ITV, 9 p.m.) The last in the current series ties up lots of loose ends, fuelling speculation that this could be the end of the line for the exploits of the King's Own Fusiliers. 1996 Prime Time - Refugees (RTE 1, 9.30 p.m.) Ireland's intake of people seeking asylum is still tiny compared to most European countries, but the 10-fold increase in recent years has stretched the system's capacity almost to breaking point. Roisin Boyd reports on the crisis, and on the rise of racism here. 25324441

Wednesday Champions' League Live (Network 2, ITV, 7.30 p.m.) With Manchester United already through, and Newcastle out, the English clubs' interest is largely academic, but can Alex Ferguson's team knock Juventus out by beating them in Turin? 64057768, 22470565 Modern Times: Guinnessty (BBC 2, 9 p.m.) For more than a century, the Guinness dynasty was one of the richest and most powerful in Britain, but the 1981 financial scandal ended with the family losing control of the company that bears its name. Those involved talk about how the family has coped with the disaster (although they're still hardly short of a few bob). 910039 Secret Lives: Lester Piggott (Channel 4, 9 p.m.) Brilliant jockey, convicted tax evader and generally difficult customer is the Secret Lives verdict on Piggott, who apparently has one of the worst disciplinary records in horse racing. The series seems to be picking on easy targets lately, which is a pity. 6403 No More Blooms (RTE 1, 9.30 p.m.) See feature right. 92511229 Prime Time Special (RTE 1, 10.50 p.m.) Studio discussion on the implications of Louis Lentin's documentary, and on current Irish attitudes towards refugees (see right). 19184872

Thursday Third Rock from the Sun (BBC 2, 9 p.m.) Tonight's episode trots out Andy Warhol's dictum about 15 minutes of fame, featuring a guest appearance by someone who knows all about it, Mark Hamill, who had a brief spell in the spotlight as Star Wars's Luke Skywalker. 769508 Undercover (RTE 1, 10.10 p.m.) A cross section of people talk about the books they would like to give and receive for Christmas. 26642898 By Design (RTE 1, 10.40 p.m.) The last programme in this relentlessly optimistic and rather bland series looks to the future of design and technology. Ho hum. 59719343 They Think It's All Over (BBC 1, 10 p.m.) . . . it should be now. Never has a show descended so rapidly into self-indulgent, lazy, unfunny rubbish as this one. Time to pull the plug, or at least get rid of the dreadful Lee Hurst. 67782 James Bond - Shaken and Stirred (ITV, 10.40 p.m.) This hour-long programme is ostensibly about the lasting appeal of James Bond, but it's actually an ill-disguised plug for Tomorrow Never Dies, the latest opus in the series, which opens this week. The giveaway is the rent-a-quote "fans" - Michael Winner and Chris Eubank are hardly doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. 8936695

Friday National League Live: Shelbourne v St Patrick's Ath- letic (Network 2, 7.30 p.m.) It's nice to see the FAI trying to remind the country that soccer is also played on this side of the Irish Sea, but if past experience is anything to go by, sod's law dictates a grim, muddy nil-all draw. 85710305 The Bill (ITV, 8 p.m.) The long-running police series is moving in a soapy direction, with longer-running storylines. Tonight is the first of a three-parter, with a young, novice bobby dealing with an apparently accidental death. 8928 Friends (Channel 4, 9 p.m.) Billy Crystal and Robin Williams show up in tonight's episode, but blink and you'll miss them - they're only in the pre-credits sequence. 411589 The Late Late Show (RTE 1, 9.30 p.m.) Gay Byrne dons his psychedelic jumper for this year's toy extravaganza. 74223218 Short Story Cinema: Texan (ITV, 12.10 a.m.) Actor Treat Williams directs this 40-minute screenplay by David Mamet, about a retired fighter pilot who suspects his wife of adultery. 9599232 Chris de Burgh in Concert (BBC 1, 12.45 p.m.) We can't stop the man performing his own material, but he has the temerity here to tackle Roy Orbison's sublime In Dreams. There should be a law . . . 8324810

Films Tuesday: On Deadly Ground (RTE 1, 10.10 p.m.) Fans of Steven Seagal's inimitable form of "acting" are spoiled for choice this evening, with two of the wooden-faced one's masterworks showing almost simultaneously. Here, he's even more unintentionally hilarious than usual, as a radical environmentalist out to get nasty polluter Michael Caine. 89684165 Tuesday: Under Siege (BBC 1, 10.30 p.m.) Steven Seagal is the kick-ass cook who saves the world when terrorists hijack a nuclear warship in this absurd action movie, graced by a few good sequences by director Andrew Davies, but lacking the pizzazz and wit of the Die Hard cycle. 87706118 Wednesday: A Canterbury Tale (BBC 2, 10.30 a.m.) Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's fascinating wartime fable is a strange, haunting evocation of what it means to be English in difficult times. 88872 Friday: Mad Max (Network 2, 9.30 p.m.) The first instalment in George Miller's trilogy is a lot rougher around the edges than its successors, but the basic ingredients are all in place, particularly Mel Gibson in a career-making role as a post-apocalyptic cop battling with the bad guys. Miller adapts the exploitation techniques of his American counterparts for a series that has been described as "Australia's national epic". 92702454