Portrait of a Gallery
Tuesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
On June 14th, Enda Kenny performed his last official engagement as Taoiseach – reopening the Dargan and Milltown wings of the National Gallery of Ireland. It marked the finish of a colossal six-year project, costing nearly €30 million, to restore and rebuild the dilapidated wings, and re-hang the collections of paintings, many of which had become damaged in the damp, badly maintained old buildings.
Portrait of a Gallery is a documentary made between 2014 and 2017 which brings us up close to the daily workings of the project, which involved excavating deep beneath the gallery, rebuilding the roofs and incorporating modern technology into the building while preserving the protected historic features.
Sudan: The Last of the Rhinos
Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm
Horny 43-year-old with fierce temper seeks two willing females to help prevent species becoming extinct. No time-wasters. Meet Sudan, a Northern White Rhino who just happens to be the last male of his kind on the planet. His species has been all but annihilated by poachers, while the few Northern White Rhinos in captivity failed to breed.
With only Sudan and two females remaining, time is running out to save his species. Sudan: The Last of the Rhinos documents the desperate efforts of a team of zookeepers and conservationists to breed a new generation of Northern White Rhinos using cutting-edge animal fertility techniques.
Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and The Rise of ISIS
Wednesday, Nat Geo, 9pm
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sebastian Junger and Emmy-winner Nick Quested chronicle Syria’s descent into the unbridled chaos that allowed the rise of the Islamic State. Working from nearly 1,000 hours of footage – much of it shot on camera phones supplied to families living at the front line of the conflict – they capture the Syrian war’s carnage, its political and social consequences, and the human toll, while painting an alarming picture of the West’s role in the creation of Isis.
Naked Attraction
Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm
The excellent Anna Richardson returns (despite much outrage and bemusement) with a new series of the ludicrous dating game show in which someone who’s fully dressed sizes up six naked people from the waist down, then chooses their favourite to go out on a full-clothed date to see if their naked instinct was correct. It’s billed as a “scientific” exploration of the power of “raw primitive attraction”. Yeah, sure. It’s a science programme, featuring genitals, on Channel 4 at 10pm on Thursday night.
Gypsy
Netflix, from Friday
You can trust your therapist with your darkest, dirtiest secrets – right? Wrong. in this new 10-part Netflix original, Naomi Watts is a shrink who has no compunction about crossing the line. She plays Jean Holloway, a seemingly contented woman who helps her patients with their messed-up lives. But though Jean reassures her clients that she will observe doctor-patient confidentiality, as soon as they leave her office, she can't help meddling in their affairs, hooking up with their exes and partners, and generally messing their lives up even more.
As she goes in search of more thrills through her patients’ lives, and the secrets and lies start to mount up, her own world starts to unravel, and the boundaries start to collapse around her. In the first episode, Jean starts an illicit affair with a femme fatale who has broken her patient Sam’s heart, while Jean’s husband (played by Billy Crudup) suspects something is going on.
Best of Glastonbury 2017
Friday, BBC2, 11.05 pm
For those who were too over or underwhelmed by BBC’s mammoth coverage of last weekend’s festival at Worthy Farm, Jo Whiley and Mark Radcliffe serve up the best bits in a nice, tidy two-hour package. Because, who has the time any more?
