Top of the Lake: China Girl , Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm
A suitcase washes up on Australia's Bondi Beach. Inside is the body of a young woman, and the grim discovery will lead detective Robin Griffin (Elizabeth Moss) into the darker recesses of Sydney's sex industry in Top of the Lake: China Girl. It's the second series of Jane Campion's acclaimed 2013 crime drama Top of the Lake, which saw Detective Griffin investigate the disappearance of a pregnant 12-year-old in New Zealand. Four years later, Griffin is back in Australia, and, as well as hunting for a killer, she's on a search for her daughter, Mary, who she gave up for adoption 17 years ago. Series two also stars Nicole Kidman as Mary's adoptive mother, Julia, who is unable to keep the teenager away from her sinister, sleazy older boyfriend. Another TV hit for Campion? We're confident the director of An Angel at My Table can deliver again.
Wild West, Tuesday, RTÉ Two, 9.40pm
From a human point of view, the western states of America may have been tamed - but for the animal kingdom these arid plains remain as wild as ever. This documentary reveals how mustangs and coyotes have adapted to survive.
Wild Alaska Live, Wednesday, BBC One, 8pm
No staycation for Irish presenter Liz Bonnin – she’s off to Alaska to hang out with the brown bears in Wild Alaska Live. The bears are licking their chops for the arrival of the biggest feast of the year – the annual migration of 300 million salmon into Alaskan waters. Bonnin will be on hand in Katmai National Park, in deepest Alaska, to watch as the bears eagerly await the arrival of the mother of all dinners. Steve Blackshall will attempt a hazardous journey beneath a glacier, and there’ll be encounters with 15,000 walruses and a fearsome salmon shark.
Against the Law, Wednesday, BBC2 9pm
Daniel Mays and Mark Gatiss star in this timey tale of Peter Wildeblood, Lord Montagu and Michael Pitt-Rivers’s trial for homosexual offences. It is 50 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK. Ireland took another 26 years to catch up.
Madoff, Friday, RTÉ Two, 9.40pm
He pulled off the biggest financial scam in US history, and was sentenced to 150 years in jail, but Bernie Madoff can comfort himself in the knowledge that none other than Richard Dreyfus portrays him in the miniseries Madoff. The two-part series charts Madoff’s massive rise on Wall Street and his equally massive fall from grace as his multibillion ponzi scheme spectacularly disintegrates. Blythe Danner plays Madoff’s put-upon but ever-loyal wife, Ruth.
