TV guide: 12 of the best shows to watch this week, beginning tonight

Tutankhamun’s Secrets: Raiders Of The Lost Past with Janina Ramirez

Sunday, BBC Two, 9pm

It’s 100 years since Howard Carter shook the world of archaeology with his discovery of Tutankahmun’s tomb, succeeding where many others had failed. To mark this momentous anniversary, archaeologist and self-confessed Tut-head Janina Ramirez travels to Egypt to uncover the story behind the discovery, and digs out some tales of tomb raider and relic robbers along the way. Ramirez will also reveal the truth about Tut’s death, and show evidence that the boy pharaoh was not as powerless as we’ve been led to believe.

Janina Ramirez in the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, the UK. Photograph: Alleycats TV

Top Gear

Sunday, BBC One, 8pm

Paddy McGuinness, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris are back in the driving seats for the 33rd season of the show for petrolheads, and still trying to leave original presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond way back in the rear-view mirror. Luckily, McGuinness, Flintoff and Harris have no shortage of testosterone in the tank – and a backup tank of laddishness to keep the entertainment value up. The new series begins as it means to go on, with the boys racing pickup trucks and go-karts along with the usual automobiles.

The Ultimate Irish Playlist

Monday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm

What would be the number one song on your playlist of top Irish pop tunes? Linger? Mandinka? With or Without You? Lisdoonvarna? Mine would of course be Charlton Heston by Stump, but in this one-off show, filmed at Dublin’s Helix, a definitive list of the nation’s favourite home-grown hits will be settled once and for all. A nationwide campaign saw 2FM listeners nominating their top Irish tunes, and the final playlist will be performed, some by the original artists, and some as tributes by contemporary acts. Tracy Clifford hosts the live hit-fest, with an expert panel of Ruth Anne and Dave Fanning adding their musical knowledge to the mix.

Tracy Clifford, Ruth Anne and Dave Fanning will feature on The Ultimate Irish Playlist

Fia’s Fairies

Monday, RTÉjr, 8.30am/12.40pm/5.10pm

We’re up for any TV series that promotes the Irish language, and if it also features enchanting fairies having magical adventures on their own fairy island, well, that’s just a bonus. This new GG preschool series is aimed at kids aged 3-7, and sees Fia and her best pal Ameer journey to Fairy Island – a sort of Gaeltacht Never Never Land — where they learn new words as Gaeilge with the help of fairy Gaeilgeoirí Bláithín and Cuán. It’s created by Little Moon Animation, whose aim is to make learning Irish fun and family friendly.

Tuesday, BBC Two, 9.15pm

The grande dame of British film and theatre grants an audience to Louis Theroux at her home in Surrey, in the UK, and this promises to be candid, lively and hugely entertaining encounter with a towering superstar. Dench has done everything from the Bard to Bond, and she’ll look back on a long and successful career both on stage and on screen. She will introduce us to her actor daughter Finty, and her grandson Sam, and she’ll recall her life with her late husband, the actor Michael Williams, who died in 2001.

Judi Dench and Louis Theroux at her home in Surrey. Photograph: Ryan McNamara

Jimmy Akingbola’s Handle with Care

Tuesday, UTV, 9pm

Hollywood actor Jimmy Akingbola returns to his British roots for this hard-hitting documentary about his experience growing up in a foster home. With the number of children in care in Britain rising to almost half a million, 40 per cent of them black, and with a shortage of black foster parents, many children from different ethnic backgrounds are placed with white foster families. How does this affect them growing up? Akingbola, who was uprooted from his Nigerian family and raised by a white family as one of their own, explores the many facets of foster care in Britain.

First Contact: An Alien Encounter

Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

A strange object is hurtling through our solar system. Is it a comet or is it an alien artefact, built by another civilisation in galaxy far, far away? This documentary looks at what might happen if scientists were to discover such an object, and what this could mean for humanity. Would it be a benign hand of friendship reaching out across the void, or an advance scout to prepare for a War of the Worlds-style invasion? Don’t turn this on in the middle of the programme – you might think you’ve stumbled on real alien invasion news.

Meanapás: Meon Nua

Wednesday, TG4, 9.30pm

Menopause is still something of a taboo topic in Ireland, but Gráinne Seoige is on a mission to increase public awareness around menopause, and challenge the way menopause is dealt with in Ireland. Seoige will meet women from all over the country to hear their stories of menopause, and talk to experts and politicians to see what progress is being made to demystify and destigmatise what is part of a woman’s natural life cycle.

Gráinne Seoige is on a mission to increase public awareness around menopause, and challenge the way menopause is dealt with in Ireland

Munya Chawawa: How to Survive a Dictator

Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

The way the world is going, we’re all soon going to have to take a crash course in living under autocratic rule, or under the thumb of an outright dictator. In this documentary, comedian Munya Chawawa returns to his Zimbabwean roots to make a programme about the country’s notorious dictator Robert Mugabe, who started off as a liberator, but soon became a tyrant who massacred 20,000 civilians. Initially refused permission to film in Zimbabwe, Chawawa takes a roundabout route to charting Mugabe’s crimes against his people.

Munya Chawawa returns to his Zimbabwean roots to make a programme about the country’s notorious dictator Robert Mugabe

Relentless: The Connacht Way

Thursday, RTÉ One, 10.15pm

The Connacht way is to “find a way”, goes the club’s philosophy, and this documentary charts the ups and downs of the Connacht rugby squad as they navigate a rollercoaster season that sees them reach the European Champions Cup last 16 for the first time. The story is told from the perspectives of three Connacht players – Bundee Aki, Niall Murray and Tom Farrell, and we’ll get a scrum’s-eye view of the action as they meet the many challenges of the 2021-22 season.

The documentary will chronicle the highs and lows of Connacht Rugby. Photograph: INPHO/Billy Stickland

Mock the Week

Friday, BBC Two

The popular comedy panel show hosted by Dara Ó Briain has ended after 17 years, and has seen grown comedians blubbering like babies at its ending – not a pretty sight. The show had its final regular episode on October 21st, but it’s wrapping up with the second of two specials looking back 17 years of ripping the piss out of British politics. “It has been an absolute blast to do,” said Ó Briain through big man-tears. “And we leave with the quiet pride that in the years that we have been on we have left the country in a far more stable, prosperous and happy situation than we started.”

Saol an Tréidlia

Friday, RTÉ One, 8.30pm

Veterinary surgeons Emma, John and Liam have busy working lives, looking after the health and wellbeing of all sorts of animals on Ireland’s west coast. The three vets operate in the Galway and Limerick regions, and this four-part documentary series follows them through their day-to-day lives as they look after pets and farm animals of all shapes and sizes – and provide comfort for the animals’ anxious owners. This week’s patients include a mare who has just given birth and a dog with a suspect lump.