Pick of the week
Mrs Robinson
Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
Former president Mary Robinson has been tirelessly battling inequality, injustice and human rights abuses for more than 50 years, and you’d need to bring out the heavy guns to narrate any documentary about her. And who better to tell her story than Robinson herself? This film, directed by Aoife Kelleher and released in cinemas in 2023, takes us back to her days as a crusading constitutional lawyer and senator. It follows her time as Ireland’s first woman president, when she changed the nature of the presidency forever, and her post-presidential career as a UN high commissioner, where she took on the dictators, despots and corrupt leaders perpetrating atrocities against their own people. Robinson is continuing to fight the good fight into her 80s, as chair of the Elders, a global group of human rights advocates founded by Nelson Mandela. Other voices chime in with their own views on Robinson’s life and legacy, including her former adviser the late Bride Rosney, entrepreneur Richard Branson, rock star Peter Gabriel and Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole, but mostly this is Mary Robinson herself, sharing her influences and inspirations in her own words. Prepare to be inspired.
Highlights
Mandy
Monday, BBC Two, 11pm
Whether she’s delivering dodgy natural history documentaries as the anti-Attenborough Philomena Cunk, or here playing the clueless job-hopping woman with the wonky mouth, Diane Morgan continues to mine comedy gold, and series four of Mandy promises to bring the absurdism – and the laughs – to new levels. In series three, Mandy inadvertently thwarted a terrorist attack on a plane, accidentally turned a blowtorch into a mass-murder weapon, and saw her dream job as a biscuit taster turn into a cookie-monster nightmare. Series four episodes include Petty Woman, in which Mandy learns the importance of meticulous paperwork, Mad Mandy: Fury Road, in which she finds herself held back by an unknown force, and Mand on the Run, in which a seemingly ordinary Tuesday afternoon descends into death and destruction.
Mr Bigstuff
Thursday, Sky Max & Now, 9pm
Danny Dyer stars as Lee, the estranged brother of carpet salesman Glen (Ryan Sampson) in this comedy set in suburban Essex. Dyer’s performance in the first series, created and written by Sampson, earned him a Bafta – not bad for a bloke who’s become known for hard-man roles, TV presenting jobs and a stint in EastEnders. Mr Bigstuff has been a big hit with viewers, and the good news is the brothers are reunited for another chaotic adventure through a maze of family dynamics. We pick up the action shortly after Lee and Glen discover that their dad isn’t actually dead. Nothing else for it but to try to track the old man down. Meanwhile Lee is still determined to teach Glen to bloke up and grow a pair, while Glen’s fiancee Kirsty (Harriet Webb) is still on a mission to be the alpha female at work – and in the bedroom.
Streaming
Critical: Between Life and Death
From Wednesday 23rd, Netflix
This fast-paced documentary series follows trauma teams across London’s hospital system as they race to save lives, and one of its stars is Irish medic Dr Marie Healy, who moved to the UK capital in 1989 and trained at Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, where she is now director of critical care. The makers bring viewers into the heart of London’s major trauma system to watch the teams they work against the clock to save patients who have suffered catastrophic injuries. In the first episode, they have to deal with multiple casualties after a fairground ride disaster.
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The Assassin
From Friday 25th, Prime Video
Keeley Hawes and Freddie Highmore head the cast of this thriller series created by the crime-writing duo of Harry and Jack Williams. Hawes plays retired assassin Julie, who is living quietly on an idyllic Greek island, and hoping to put her life as a hit woman behind her. But her solitude is interrupted by the arrival of her estranged son, Edward (Highmore), who is looking for answers about who his father is. Julie will have to consider coming out of retirement as some unwelcome faces from her past show up on the island, forcing her and Edward to flee for their lives. In this globetrotting thriller series, Hawes and Highmore are joined by a superb supporting cast including Gina Gershon, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Jack Davenport and Richard Dormer.
