10 of the best TV shows to watch this week

Chris O’Dowd stars in ‘Get Shorty’, Dara O Briain returns in ‘Mock the Week’


Raised by the Village
Monday, RTÉ One, 6.30pm
What do you do when your troublesome teen is getting out of hand and heading down a delinquent road? Send them off to live in a nice, peaceful village, where the community is tight-knit, everyone's lives are woven together, and everybody has a built-in support network of neighbours and friends. That's the premise of Raised by the Village. Two city teens get a taste of rural life – and a dose of reality – when they're sent to a picturesque village far from their concrete jungle, where everyone knows everyone's business and anti-social behaviour is given short shrift. Will they learn to behave better? Top child psychotherapist Stella O'Malley heads this social experiment, with teenagers Scott, from Kimmage, and Leah, from Tallaght, the grudging guinea-pigs. Scott, a maths prodigy in danger of wasting his talents, is sent to live with the farming family the Nixons in Carrigallen, Co Leitrim, while Leah, a self-centred smartphone addict, is sent to live with the Hurley family in Kildorry in Cork's Ballyhoura Mountains. That'll put manners on them.

Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley
Monday, BBC1, 8.30pm
2018 marks 100 years since women were first allowed to vote in the UK. But while it may now seem shocking that this right initially only extended to those who were over 30 and owned property, Lucy Worsley is here to point out just how hard women had to fight to get to that point _and how uncertain it was that their battle would succeed. In this 90-minute documentary, the historian will be looking beyond the more well-known suffragettes, such as the Pankhursts and Emily Wilding Davison (who collided with the King's horse) to profile some of the working-class women who devoted themselves to the cause and in the process defied the rules and expectations of Edwardian society. She also learns more about their increasingly violent tactics and the treatment they received at the hands of the police and the prison system.

Versailles
Monday, BBC Two, 9pm
House prices hitting palatial levels? Bosses living high off the hog on your pension pot? Royal weddings to distract from Brexit impoverishment? We need some high-class escapism, so welcome back to the court of Louis XIV, France's rock-star ruler, whose lavish lifestyle would make Elton John look like Rag'n'Bone Man. Riches, sex, intrigue, more sex and deadly power struggles are de rigueur in this drama; don't take too long marvelling at the fabulous costumes – they'll be coming off pretty soon.

This is the third and final series, and King Louis, having watched his palace crumble around him – and having lost a few marbles too – is determined to get his kingdom back and restore Versailles to its former story. Good luck with that, Louis.

READ MORE

Bride & Prejudice
Monday, C4, 9pm
In this new series, six couples preparing for the biggest day of their lives try to win their families' blessing. The first episode features 24-year-old politics student Dee from Hull, whose grandad Paul has never been able to comprehend her relationship with 59-year-old local councillor John. Elsewhere, Cambridgeshire builder Rob wants to know why his parents seem to have taken no interest in his wedding to Simon. Plus, Shaaba and Jamie from Colchester are recently engaged, but for Shaaba's mother Fai, her daughter's choice of partner is far from ideal.

The Fourth Estate
Tuesday, RTE One, 11.10pm
Donald Trump's presidency has been stranger than fiction so far, so Emmy Award-winning film-maker Liz Garbus throws the script out the window for this documentary series set in the offices of the New York Times as they go into battle against the fake-newsman-in-chief, who has called the media "the enemy of the people". Garbus has gained unprecedented access to the inner workings of the newspaper, as it adapts to the digital age and to a president who is capricious, unpredictable and a friend of the far-right. Forget All the President's Men – this is All the President's Tweets, and it's got more incredible twists and turns than any political thriller.

Who Do You Think You Are?
Wednesday, BBC1, 9pm
This is the 15th series of this much-loved celebrity genealogy show, and it seems set to run and run. Admittedly a few episodes of the most recent runs have been a tad lacklustre, but by and large it's continued to keep viewers' attentions while showing us a different side to some of the UK's most popular stars. This time around, actor Olivia Colman, 1980s icon Boy George, Strictly Come Dancing's head judge Shirley Ballas, comedian Lee Mack, JLS member-turned-

TV presenter Marvin Humes, barrister Robert Rinder and Paralympian Jonnie Peacock are all taking part, but it's Our Girl's Michelle Keegan who gets the ball rolling. Her episode is being broadcast as part of the BBC's Hear Her season, making the centenary of women getting the vote as researchers discovered a link with leading Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.

Get Shorty
Wednesday, Sky Atlantic, 9pm
The Elmore Leonard novel was successfully adapted into a movie starring John Travolta, but here's a series loosely based on the novel, with none other than Irish actor Chris O'Dowd in the Travolta role. Like Fargo, this series diverges a bit from the source, so you need to just go with it. Hopefully it will go to some interesting places.

O'Dowd plays Miles Daly, a muscle for a Nevada mob who decides to go legit, and reckons going into movie production is the best way to do it. He will have to take on the sharks and predators of Hollywood, so he teams up with a bottom-feeder named Rick Moreweather, a washed-up producer looking for a chance to swim with the big fish once more (that's enough piscine puns – Ed).

The Richard Dimbleby Lecture
Wednesday, BBC1, 22.45pm
Award-winning writer and acclaimed author of the semi-autobiographical novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Jeanette Winterson delivers this year's annual lecture, coming for the first time from the Robing Room in the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster. One hundred years on from the first women in the UK securing the right to vote, Jeanette asks what we can learn from the suffragette movement of a century ago, and examines the potential longevity of recent global campaigns promoting the equality of women. Introduced by David Dimbleby.

Mock the Week
Thursday, BBC2, 10pm
The latest run of Have I Got News for You may have come to an end last week, but we didn't have to wait long for another satirical panel show to come along. Dara O Briain is back for a new series, along with regular panellist Hugh Dennis who looks back on another eventful week in news and politics, with the help of fellow comedians James Acaster, Angela Barnes, Ed Gamble, Darren Harriott and Zoe Lyons. Yet again, stand-up and improvisation are the name of the game as the contestants try to get one up on each other.

Arctic Monkeys Live at the BBC
Friday, BBC2, 11.05pm
In 2006, the Sheffield band's Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history. But in an era where it wasn't uncommon for heavily hyped groups to make a huge splash with their first records and then sink back into obscurity, Arctic Monkeys have seen their follow-ups go to number one as well. Here, they perform live at the legendary Maida Vale studios, playing tracks from their latest release, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, as well as a few older anthems. – Additional reporting: PA