TV guide: 23 of the best shows to watch this week, beginning tonight

Ollchlár Ros na Rún
Sunday, TG4, 7.30pm
Bobbi Lee is desperate to lose weight, but try as she migh, she finds it increasingly hard to do so. But an advertisement in a magazine raises her hopes. What could this be? Rory is beginning to think that Briain may not be all he is trying to portray. What has brought Rory to this conclusion? Caitríona is under pressure to find a date for Bobbi Lee's wedding. Will she manage to secure one before the end of the day? Sonny is hopeful that it will be all systems go up at the site, but a call from the foreman suggests otherwise.

The Liffey
Sunday, RTÉ One, 7.30pm

Coming up from the bog to the big smoke you might take a train or a bus, but the river Liffey has carved its own route from the Wicklow Mountains to Dublin city, cutting through Kildare and encountering lots of different people and places along the way. This new six-part documentary looks at life along the Liffey and how the river brings together a a diverse group of people, from engineers to rescue workers to swimmers, kayakers and artists. The series is written by Joseph O’Connor, a dab hand at evoking a sense of place, and narrated by Angeline Ball. The series sets out to show how the Liffey has become the city’s heart and soul, through the many stories that flow throughout its history.

Éiníní
Monday, TG4, 7.30pm

Conversations With Friends, first look review: If anything it’s superior to Normal People

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Lucy Kennedy and Colm Hayes don’t sound like they miss RTÉ at all

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TV guide: 28 of the best shows to watch this week, beginning tonight

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This six part series explores birds and other forms of wildlife around Ireland. Éamon de Buitléar examines six different habitats during the series while Killian Mullarney, widely recognised as one of Europe’s best bird artists, provides illustrations.

Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood
Monday, BBC One, 9pm

Thanks to his bestselling recipe books and online workouts, Joe Wicks was already well on his way to becoming a health and fitness guru before lockdown struck. But his PE with Joe lessons, which went down a treat with parents and children alike, sealed his reputation for making exercise fun and available to all, no matter their ability. Wicks presents a warm and affable side to the world, but it belies a troubled childhood as the offspring of parents with mental health issues: his mother suffered from acute obsessive compulsive disorder and his father was a heroin addict. In this moving and revealing documentary, Wicks opens up about his experiences, meets those who are struggling, and reveals why he believes exercise is important to our all-round wellbeing.

The Chris & Rosie Ramsey Show
Monday, BBC Two, 9pm
A few years ago, Chris Ramsey was a jobbing stand-up who hadn't quite become a household name, despite his starring role in the sitcom Hebburn as well as appearances on Live at the Apollo and a co-presenting gig on I'm A Celebrity: Extra Camp. But then Strictly Come Dancing came along in 2019 and changed everything. The public warmed to his friendly and chirpy persona, which helped boost his profile as well as the popularity of a podcast launched by Ramsey and his wife, singer and actor Rosie Winter. Now the duo bring their chemistry to a six-part series in which they speak to fellow celebrity couples about a range of subjects, including relationships, arguments and parenting.

Beat the Chasers
Monday, ITV, 9pm
We know what you're thinking: not more quiz shenanigans involving the Chasers! But yes, the gang is back with a new run of the spin-off from the regular series in which contestants must tackle an entire team of brainiacs. Bradley Walsh is also back in action to pose the questions while keeping viewers at home and in the studio amused.

Elon Musk: Superhero or Supervillain?
Monday, Channel 4, 9pm
According to some analysts, Elon Musk is the world's wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of more than $252 billion. It's an eye-watering amount, so no wonder he's hardly batted an eyelid at agreeing to pay $44 billion for Twitter. But how does someone go about acquiring such a sum, and what keeps driving them forward when they already have more cash than they could ever spend? Those who know Musk, have worked with or against him and made their own fortunes via his companies offer their views.

Secrets of Size: Atoms to Supergalaxies
Monday, BBC Four, 9pm
What would the universe look like if you were a billion times smaller or a billion times bigger? Prof Jim Al-Khalili looks at the universe at different scales, from the tiniest objects just a few atoms in size to vast structures consisting of hundreds of thousands of interconnected galaxies. He starts off by "Going Small", entering the Alice in Wonderland world of objects that are too tiny to glimpse with the naked eye. Beginning with the smallest insects, he moves on to encounter living cells with amazing super-powers and confronts some of humanity's deadliest viruses.

Derry Girls
Tuesday/Wednesday, Channel 4, 9pm
When Lisa McGee's sitcom, inspired by her own teenage years, made its debut, few imagined it would prove to be anything more than a local success. But Derry Girls is a global hit that, sadly, all comes to an end this week. In tonight's episode, the gang's members can hardly believe their luck. Not only is it Halloween, their favourite time of the year, but they've also secured tickets to see their idol Fatboy Slim in concert, which includes a chance to meet the great man himself. However, Da Gerry's arrival proves to be an unexpected turning point in their lives.

On Wednesday we return to Derry one year later, as the gang prepare for their final year of school. It’s the week of the referendum on the Belfast Agreement, but its timing couldn’t be any worse, as the highlight of the year – Erin and Orla’s joint 18th-birthday party – threatens to be overshadowed. While the family try to get their heads around the possible outcomes of the historic vote, the friends realise that they may not be ready for what the future holds.

Floodlights
Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm
During the mid-1990s and early-2000s, Andy Woodward seemed to be living the dream. He was a professional footballer with a sparkling career ahead of him. A defender by trade, his skills won him many fans at the clubs he played for, including Bury and Sheffield United. However, in 2003, at the age of just 29, he walked away from the sport. Thirteen years later, as Woodward's personal life began to implode, he found the strength to go public with the nightmare that had blighted his life – he had been one of the victims of serial child sex abuser and youth football coach Barry Bennell during their time at Crewe. Gerard Kearns plays Woodward in this feature-length drama.

Conversations with Friends
Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
The TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's Normal People was the runaway lockdown hit of 2020. But now that all restrictions have been lifted, will there still be the same appetite for this new drama, based on Rooney's debut novel? I suggest the Taoiseach announce another lockdown just so we can all really immerse ourselves in this one. And Love Island, of course. We're back in Trinity College again, this time with college student Frances (Alison Oliver) and her best pal (and former girlfriend) Bobbi (Sasha Lane). When they start hanging out with power couple Melissa (Jemima Kirke) and Nick (Joe Alwyn), she a successful writer and he an actor, their friendship is sorely tested – especially when Frances embarks on a torrid affair with Nick. Lenny Abrahamson, who directed Normal People, is back on board for Conversations, along with most of the same creative team, and we're confident they can bring the Rooney magic to our screens once more.

Spreadsheet
Wednesday, Channel 4, 10.05pm

We’ve all used spreadsheets to keep our working lives in order, but busy divorcee Lauren has found another use for these business tools: organising her sex life. She’s juggling a lot of balls (career, motherhood, dealing with her dork of an ex-husband)but she also wants to fit in lots of hot casual sex into her daily routine, so she comes up with a special database with room for lots of entries. But far from a smorgasbord of spicy sexual delights, Lauren finds herself facing a bland meat-and-two-veg diet of clingy, self-absorbed men. Quick...press Ctrl-Z. Katherine Parkinson (Jen from The IT Crowd) stars in this risque Australian comedy series about trying to have it off while having it all.

Marú inár Measc
Wednesday, TG4, 9.45pm

On December 4th, 2000, Sandra Collins left her aunt’s house in Mayo to go to the shop. She never returned home. Her disappearance remains shrouded in mystery and the search for her continues to this day. This four-part true crime docuseries shines a light on the effect that fatal crimes have on society, local communities and on the victim’s families as they are left without answers. To what lengths does a killer go to cover up a heinous act and escape justice? And how does a community move on, knowing that there might be a killer in their midst?

Location, Location, Location
Wednesday, Channel 4, 8pm
While many people have had their priorities changed by the pandemic, others are struggling to navigate the fast-moving house market. Thankfully, Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer are back with a brand-new series with advice for home buyers. They begin in northeast England, where they help two sets of house-hunters who have decided to move back north from down south. Phil's in Northumberland with Lauren and Noel, who are moving 200 miles up the M1 from Northampton, while Kirstie is with solo buyer Charlotte, who has moved back from London and wants a home of her own.

Forgotten: The Widows of the Irish Revolution
Thursday, RTÉ One, 10.15pm

The men who died for Ireland in 1916 have their names set forever in stone. This new documentary, presented by Prof Lindsey Earner-Byrne of UCC, focuses on the women they left behind, who had to pick up the pieces and carry on with their lives after their husbands were executed. With no widow’s benefits or childcare in the new Free State, many struggled to feed and clothe their children, and fell into poverty while their dead husbands became ever more glorified. The documentary focuses on seven women (Lillie Connolly, Kathleen Clarke, Áine Ceannt, Agnes Mallin, Muriel McDonagh, Grace Plunkett and Maud Gonne MacBride) and looks at how they and their children fared in the aftermath of the Rising. “I’ve often thought that my mother was the heroic one,” says Michael Mallin’s daughter.

The Works Presents
Thursday, RTÉ One, 11.15pm
This week John Kelly talks to powerful and politically motivated artist Rachel Fallon. Her work encompasses sculpture, drawing, photography and performance – all dealing with women's relationships to society, motherhood, and the domestic realm. As well as her individual practice, Fallon is also known for her collaborations with other artists and collectives, including Artists' Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment and Desperate Artwives. Whatever the project, for Fallon it's all about the various processes of making.

Eat Well for Less?
Thursday, BBC One, 8pm
Let's face it, we all spend too much on food, and very few of us can actually say, hand on heart, that we eat as healthily as we should. And as purse are strings get ever tighter, Eat Well for Less? is more relevant than ever. Chris Bavin is joined by new co-host Jordan Banjo to show more families how to drastically reduce their food bills while also improving their diet. This week its triple trouble as the team heads to Scotland to meet Karen and taxi driver Andy, who are parents to five-year-old triplets. With so much going on in their lives, including Caleb trialling a new chemotherapy drug, the family's cooking and eating routines have understandably fallen by the wayside. Will tips, tricks and advice save Karen and Andy some much-needed cash?

The Shelter: Animal SOS
Friday, RTÉ One, 7.30pm

What better way to wind down after a busy week than with a few cute cats, dogs, ponies and potbellied pigs? Welcome to the second series of The Shelter, which follows the day-to-day work of the DSPCA, Ireland’s oldest and largest animal welfare charity. The cameras are back in the shelter nestled in the Dublin mountains, where vet Elise and nurse Mandy are working hard to save a cat’s entire nine lives; kennel carers Shane and Tanya are tasked with building up the strength of a malnourished lurcher; and vet Maria has to perform emergency surgery on an injured kitten. If you’re not blubbering like a baby after this, you have a cold heart indeed.

Richard Hammond's Crazy Contraptions
Friday, Channel 4, 8pm
Richard Hammond challenges a team of physics-obsessed students from Leeds and three Spanish-born brothers to come up with a labour-saving device. Or at least, it's labour-saving for the person using it – designing it may take some work. He wants a chain-reaction machine that will allow him to water the plants while still watching TV on the sofa. If that wasn't tough enough, there will also be surprise challenges involving buoyancy and garden shears thrown in. What could go wrong? Quite a bit, as it happens...

ON DEMAND

Life & Beth
From Wednesday, Disney+

Amy Schumer heads the cast of this eagerly awaited comedy-drama. Schumer herself created the programme (describing it as her passion project) and takes the lead role of Beth, a Manhattanite fast approaching 40. Beth has recently broken up with her boyfriend, is disenchanted with her career and prefers shopping to clubbing. Then, after a bizarre incident takes place, she begins having flashbacks of her younger self that gradually reveal where she’s gone wrong with her life – and what she must do to get back on track. Michael Cera and Michael Rapaport co-star, with Violet Young as the teenage Beth.

The Photographer: Murder in Pinama
From Thursday, Netflix
On January 25th, 1997, Argentine news photographer and reporter Jose Luis Cabezas was kidnapped, tortured and killed by individuals working for Alfredo Yabran, a wealthy businessman with close links to the government of then-president Carlos Menem. The obsessively private Yabran was horrified by the fact that Cabezas had taken a photo of him and his wife while holidaying in Pinama, a seaside resort on the Atlantic coast, almost 12 months earlier. Now the chilling story and its aftermath is the latest true crime to feature in a Netflix documentary. It focuses on Cabezas, the initial speculation that he was killed as part of a police conspiracy, and the fallout from his murder after the truth began to emerge.

Now and Then
From Friday, Apple TV+

The streaming service’s first bilingual series , shot in both Spanish and English, is a thrilling tale told across eight episodes; the first three are being made available immediately, with one new edition following every Friday. It begins as a group of best friends celebrate the end of their college days with a huge weekend party – during which one of them dies. Fast forward 20 years as the remaining five are reluctantly brought back together by a threat that could ruin their seemingly perfect lives. A musing on the differences between youthful aspirations and the realities of adulthood, the show stars Rosie Perez, Marina de Tavira, Zeljko Ivanek and Jorge Lopez.

Night Sky
From Friday, Amazon Prime

Imagine suddenly discovering a portal in your back garden that can transport you into outer space – what would you do about it? That idea forms the premise of this new sci-fi drama starring Oscar-winners Sissy Spacek and JK Simmons. They play Irene and Franklin York who, years ago, uncovered a chamber buried on their property that can mysteriously transport them to a deserted planet. They’ve kept quiet about it for decades, but their secret is about to be unearthed by a charismatic young man who manages to earn their confidence. Soon the Yorks begin to realise their portal is far more important than they ever thought possible.

Contributing: PA