TV preview: Seven things to watch on television this week

Patrick Kielty opens up the debate, Dáithí Ó Sé hosts the Roses, Ripper Street returns, and Sharon Horgan ramps up the cringe factor once more

Debatable
Monday-Friday, BBC Two, 6.30pm
Do we need yet another quiz show on telly? That's debatable. Patrick Kielty hosts this new daily quiz show in which each question is hotly debated by a panel of celebrity guests, and the contestants must decide who's right, who's wrong, and who's just making it up as they go along. Among the deb
aters are rapper Akala, TV personality Christopher Biggins, actor Nigel Havers, comedian Russell Kane and former politician Anne Widdecombe.

Ripper Street
Monday, BBC Two, 9pm
It's an old story: burnt-out detective, haunted by the terrible things they've seen, retreats to a country idyll far from the crime scenes they've investigated. But their life of quiet contemplation is shattered when they are called back to investigate one more case. In the new series of Ripper Street, Reid is summoned back to the mean streets of Whitechapel to help Isaac Bloom, a Jewish mathematician who is set to face the hangman's noose for a vicious murder Reid is convinced he did not commit. Expect lots more Victorian gore and intrigue.

The Rose of Tralee International Festival 2016
Monday and Tuesday, RTÉ One, 8pm
Once again, that ol' smoothie Dáithí Ó Sé will present this ever-popular pageant, chatting to the 32 roses who are hoping to be crowned the 58th Rose of Tralee. As if two marathon nights of lovely girls strutting their stuff and showing off their talents isn't enough, Road to the Dome (Monday, RTE One, 6.30pm) will follow all 65 roses as they arrive in Dublin and travel to the Dome to be pruned down to a shortlist of 32. Sinéad Kennedy will bring you all the glamour of the Rose Ball and the drama of the qualifying rounds.

One of Us
Tuesday, BBC One, 9pm
What happens when the person who murdered your loved ones lands in your lap? In the remote village of Braeston, in the Scottish Highlands, a newlywed couple has been brutally murdered. But with a storm raging, the killer doesn't get too far, crashing his car, and when the victims' families find him the next day, badly injured, they are faced with a terrible dilemma. That's the premise of this new four-part drama starring Juliet Stevenson, Laura Fraser, Georgina Campbell and Adrian Edmondson. Will old wounds be reopened and buried secrets uncovered? You bet they will.

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A Doctor's Sword
Thursday, RTÉ One, 10.10pm
Aidan MacCarthy was a prisoner of war in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb hit the Japanese city. The young doctor from west Cork miraculously survived the blast, and was the first non-Japanese medic to treat civilians horrifically injured in the devastation. He also saved his camp commandant from being killed by vengeful prisoners, and was presented with an ancestral sword for his intervention. Seventy years after the atomic bomb destroyed Nagasaki, and 20 years after MacCarthy's death, his daughter goes on an origin quest in this fascinating documentary, directed by Gerry Lennon, which was shown in Irish cinemas last year to great acclaim, and was nominated for an Ifta award earlier this year.

Class of '92 – Still Out of Their League
Thursday, BBC One, 9pm
In 2015, Out of Their League followed the fortunes of Manchester United legends Ryan Giggs, Phil and Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt as they embarked on a new adventure as owners of Salford City FC, a club so far down the league table, you need diving suits to play them. Class of '92 – Still Out of Their League revisits the five club owners to see if their efforts to turn things round have borne fruit. This two-part documentary covers the 2015-2016 season, as Salford City find themselves champions of First Division North. Can the famous five build on this success and bring their club to the next level?

The Circuit
Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm
You've been to some bad dinner parties, but nothing like this one. The Circuit is a comedy pilot co-written by Sharon Horgan, the co-writer and star of the excellent Catastrophe and the undisputed queen of awkward situations. This one ramps up the cringe factor as Gabe (Adeel Akhtar) and Nat (Eva Birthistle) move to a new town and are invited to the dinner party from hell.

Kevin Courtney

Kevin Courtney

Kevin Courtney is an Irish Times journalist