Pick of the Week
Dermot Bannon’s Super Spaces
Wednesday, RTÉ1, 9.35pm
Dermot Bannon back on our screens this autumn – it’s a sure sign that the Irish obsession with property has not waned one whit. This new series is not to be confused with Dermot Bannon’s Super Small Spaces – here, size doesn’t matter, it just has to be a great gaff. The Irish starchitect travels around the country, poking his nose into gorgeous homes, amazing renovations, show-stopping designs and hidden gems, beginning with Fernwood Farm in Connemara, where Simon and Anne Ashe have created a house perched on 57 stilts, imaginatively called Stilt House. In Dublin, Bannon discovers a piece of Barcelona in Phibsborough, and just an hour from Dublin he finds a piece of old Ireland in a 200-year-old thatched cottage that has been restored and extended. In Portrush, Co Antrim, he visits the spectacular Basalt House, and also visits the new International Rugby Experience in Limerick, where he is put through his paces by Ireland rugby forwards coach Paul O’Connell.
Best of the Rest
Grace
Sunday, UTV, 8pm
John Simm returns as detective superintendent Roy Grace, a cop haunted by the disappearance of his wife years ago, and dedicated to cleaning up the mean streets of Brighton and Hove. Richie Campbell returns as his partner-in-crimesolving, detective sergeant Glenn Branson. In this opening episode, Grace and Branson investigate a violent robbery at a secluded house which has left the victim fighting for her life. The thieves stole thousands of pounds worth of antiques, but there was apparently just one piece they were looking for, and when Grace digs deeper, he opens a Pandora’s box of old grudges and long-buried mysteries going back to East London in the 1960s.
Must See: The Boy That Never Was
Sunday, RTÉ1, 9.30pm
Harry and Robin are a happy Irish couple living the bohemian life in Morocco with their little boy, Dillon, when an earthquake hits the town, demolishing their apartment with their son inside it. Harry vainly tries to rescue Dillon, but he seems to have disappeared, and his body is never found. Fast-forward three years and the grieving couple are back home in Dublin, but they have had no closure. But then, Harry spots someone who looks like Dillon in a crowded train station, and becomes obsessed with finding this mysterious child who may well be his missing son. Colin Morgan, Toni O’Rourke and Simon Callow star in this adaptation by Jo Spain and David Logan of the novel by Karen Perry.
On the Beat
Monday, RTÉ1, 9.35pm
Meet Garda Neechal Ramah, Insp Dave Jordan, Sgt James McDonagh and Garda Clodagh Horgan. They’re the crack cop team profiled in this new series following members of An Garda Síochána as they work hard to keep crime levels down and keep community relations up, despite being hampered by diminishing resources and a relentless rise in criminal activity. The series gets up close with these frontline gardaí over three months as they work across Dundalk, Longford and Waterford and deal with issues both urban and rural.
Must See: Dead and Buried
Monday, Virgin Media One, 9pm; BBC1, 10.40pm
Colin Morgan pops up again in this four-part psychological thriller written by Colin Bateman and set on the Border, where ghosts from the past threaten to destroy lives in the present. Annabel Scholey plays young mother Cathy McDaid, whose life is turned upside down when she bumps into Michael McAllister (Morgan), the man who killed her brother Terry 20 years ago. She subsequently learns he had been given early release from prison years ago and has since built a successful career and started a family. Enraged at this injustice, Cathy decides to find a way to get revenge, and, using a fake online identity, befriends Michael with the intention of destroying his new life.
Must See: In My Own Words: Billy Connolly
Monday, BBC2, 11.30pm
Billy Connolly was a towering figure in British comedy, but over the past decade he has struggled with Parkinson’s disease. However, as this special, intimate self-portrait shows, the Big Yin has never lost his sharp wit and down-home wisdom. Connolly looks back on his life, both as a comedian and a husband and father, and reflects on the joys and challenges of growing old (he’s now 81) and why his love for his wife, Pamela Stephenson, has never diminished. He also cringes at some of the stuff he came out with as a young stand-up comedy star (it’s all there in archive footage) and recalls his difficult childhood growing up in Glasgow with violence in the home.
The Tower
Monday, UTV, 9pm
Gemma Whelan returns as DS Sarah Collins in the third series of the London-set police drama, and the action takes place two years after the events of series two. Sarah is tasked with investigating the stabbing of a teenage boy, but the case brings her at odds with her colleagues DC Steve Bradshaw (Jimmy Akingbola) and Insp Kieran Shaw (Emmet J Scanlan), who are conducting an undercover operation to bring down a south London druglord. Meanwhile, newly promoted detective Lizzie Adama (Tahirah Sharif) is having trouble finding a balance between family life and dangerous work.
Best Place to Be
Tuesday, RTÉ1, 7pm
This might shock you, but some people emigrate from this country and don’t actually spend the rest of their lives wishing they were back in the aul’ sod. In the second series of Best Place to Be, Baz Ashmawy sets off to meet more Irish people who have started a new life in a different country – and have never looked back. He’ll interview Irish expats in Portugal, France, Sweden, Switzerland and Cyprus to learn what life is like for them in their adopted home. In the first episode, Baz goes to Belgium, where he discovers an entire Irish-speaking community in Brussels.
Caomhnóirí na Talún
Wednesday, TG4, 8.30pm
Wildlife and habitat in Ireland is in decline, and many are pointing the finger at intensive farming and forestry as the main contributors to loss of biodiversity. But don’t tar all farmers with the same brush; this new series profiles farmers who are working hard to protect and nurture the wildlife and native plants on their lands, and set a sustainable example for others to follow. With the populations of once-abundant birds such as the skylark and kestrel being decimated, these farmers are racing against time to improve biodiversity on their farmlands, creating new habitats and coming up with new ideas to boost biodiversity.
The Zelenskiy Story
Wednesday, BBC2, 9pm
When young actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy took on the role of the president in the Ukrainian TV series Servant of the People, he never imagined that just a few years later he would become the country’s real-life president, leading his people to defend Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. This three-part series charts the rise of Zelenskiy to fame in the entertainment world and his political awakening during the 2014 Maidan Revolution, which prompted him to call out corruption in his own country and to defy Russian president Vladimir Putin, and his extraordinary journey to becoming one of the world’s most recognisable leaders. Director Michael Waldman gains rare access to Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, and features contributions from Boris Johnson, Nancy Pelosi and other political figures.
Mercury Prize 2024: Album of the Year
Thursday, BBC4, 8pm
Nobody listens to albums any more, I hear you say. Well, tell that to the Mercury Music Prize panel, whose job it is to compile a shortlist of the best UK and Irish long-players of the year. Seems the art of making great albums is not dead yet, and the Mercury is still the Holy Grail for musical artists looking for recognition for their studio efforts – not to mention a tidy £25,000. This year’s shortlist includes The Last Dinner Party’s Prelude to Ecstasy, Beth Gibbons’s Lives Outgrown, Charli XCX’s Brat and Berwyn’s Who Am I, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed for Irish star CMAT aka Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, who is in the running with her second album, Crazymad, For Me.
Funny Woman
Friday, Sky Max & Now, 9pm
Gemma Arterton returns as up-and-coming comedian Sophie Straw in this second series of the dramedy based on Nick Hornby’s novel Funny Girl. Sophie is trying to make it in the male-dominated world of comedy in the 1960s, and in series two she finds herself in an enviable position as the nation’s favourite comedy star. Things are going great on the romance front, and the friend group is rock solid. All of this, of course, will be quickly upended as Sophie faces a new set of challenges, as her sitcom flops, her romance stalls and Hollywood beckons.
Streaming
Slow Horses
From Wednesday, Apple TV+
Slow Horses is that rarest of things: a brilliant novel series that has smoothly morphed into an equally brilliant TV series. Gary Oldman returns as the misanthropic M15 agent Jackson Lamb for this fourth series, based on Spook Street, the fourth novel in Mick Herron’s spy series. But if you think Lamb and his merry band of rejects are about to settle into a cosy routine in Slough House, think again. The action and the production values are ramped up for this adventure, with some explosive set pieces in the mix, and the interplay by the ensemble cast including Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Saskia Reeves and Jonathan Pryce is as sharp as ever. Hugo Weaving, Ruth Bradley and James Callis join the cast for this series, which centres on links between a terrorist attack and the death of an agent.
The Perfect Couple
From Thursday, Netflix
You are cordially invited to the society wedding of the year, hosted by the wealthiest family on the island of Nantucket. No expense will be spared as Benji Winbury, the son of bestselling novelist Greer Garrison Winbury, takes his fiancee Amelia Sacks to be his lawful wedded wife. What could possibly go wrong? Well, how about a dead body turning up on the morning of the wedding? That’ll put a dampener on the proceedings. Suddenly, all the guests have become suspects, while family secrets start to bubble to the surface, and Amelia’s dream of marrying into a rich family turns into a nightmare. Nicole Kidman plays the groom’s novel-writing mother, with Eve Hewson as the bride-to-be, Liev Schreiber as the groom’s dad, Billy Howle as the groom, Jack Reynor as the groom’s brother and Dakota Fanning as the sister-in-law.
Selling Sunset
From Friday, Netflix
You know a reality series is long past its sell-by date when the cast members start rabbiting on about “new beginnings”. This is series eight for the real estate agents of the Oppenheimer Group, and the LA property market has changed drastically. Apparently, people aren’t so willing to part with huge wads of cash for deluxe exclusive properties any more, putting the market into a tailspin. To stay on top of the property game, the high-powered agents of Oppenheimer are going to have up their game and revamp their sales techniques to persuade rich house-seekers to sign on the dotted line. But some drastic measures will have to be taken, and that means bringing bright young sales execs into the business, setting the scene for some serious personality clashes.
