Pick of the week
Who’s Building Ireland?
Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
The way the Government talks about housing, you’d think they were living in Minecraft, and homes will simply materialise with just a few clicks of a console. But the reality is that the 300,000 new homes needed by 2030 are not going to magically build themselves – we need actual builders to physically put together the bricks and mortar so we can reach those real-life housing targets. In this documentary we meet the people on the ground in the construction industry who are laying the foundations for the country’s future, and hopefully building a better world for our children in which owning your own house isn’t a pipe dream. Among the tradespeople and craftspeople featured are Estonian-Irish electrical apprentice Chantreen O’Connor, who is a “construction influencer” using social media to encourage young women to take up trades; 21-year-old Kate Fahy, one of the world’s youngest tower crane operators; Colombian carpenter Juan, who fled his country after criminal cartels murdered his brother; and Romanian builder-priest Adrian Groza, who runs his construction company during the week, and delivers sermons in God’s house on Sundays.
Highlights
The Records Show
Sunday, RTÉ One, 6.30pm
Katie Hannon bravely risks allergies and sneezes as she blows the dust off another pile of old documents buried deep in the National Archives. Okay, it’s probably not all that musty – this isn’t Hogwarts – but Hannon will be hoping to uncover more long-forgotten stories about Ireland’s past as she sifts through some hitherto undisturbed documents in this second series of The Records Show. Once again she will travel the country to follow up on the stories she finds, visiting such places as Curracloe Beach in Co Wexford, where Steven Spielberg filmed D-Day scenes for Saving Private Ryan, and Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, which happens to be the hub of Ireland’s sports car industry, and hear tales of the inventor who promised to make Ireland a world energy leader, and the illegal arrival who had lunch with Ireland’s president, and meet historians and local experts as part of her quest to put flesh on the bones of recent Irish history. Over the three episodes in the series, Hannon will also look ahead to the much-anticipated release of the 1926 census – the first to be taken since independence, and a snapshot of the population at the birth of the State.
Rob and Rylan’s Passage to India
Sunday, BBC Two, 9pm
Rob Rinder and Rylan Clark reunite for another overseas adventure, buoyed up by the Bafta-winning success of their first outing, where they visited the cultural hotspots of Italy, retracing the steps of Byron 200 years before. This time they’re taking author EM Forster’s novel A Passage to India, published 100 years ago, as their guidebook, exploring the country’s ancient wisdom, art and culture, and maybe learning a bit more about themselves in the process. “Following in the footsteps of my literary hero, EM Forster, and being in India gifted me the sense of being more alive,” says Rinder. We’re promised teeming streets, incredible artworks and a bit of sexual tension between our hosts. “This place is so beautiful, it makes you want to propose,” says Rinder. “Don’t,” snaps back Clark. Their first stop is the country’s capital, Delhi, with a population of 34 million people, where they visit a chaotic street market and a tomb with a view, meet a billionaire art collector and a street rapper, and try their hands at puppeteering.
Coldwater
Sunday, UTV, 9pm
As men approach middle age, the advice is to get out of the mancave and make new friends, but what if you befriend the wrong bloke and end up in a cycle of violence and murder? John is a desperately unhappy, repressed dad with a cellarful of bottled-up rage and a marriage that’s fizzling out. He and his wife, Fiona, decide to move to a remote Scottish village in the hope of rebooting their lives, but when John falls in with their charismatic next-door neighbour Tommy, their new lives quickly begin to unravel. Tommy heads up the village’s men-only book club and his wife, Rebecca, is the local vicar, but Fiona is not too happy about the blossoming bromance between her husband and this oddball, and, sure enough, things soon come to a head and John and Fiona are in it up to their necks. The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln stars as John, making his return to British TV after 10 years, with Indira Varma as Fiona, Ewen Bremner as Tommy and Eve Myles as Rebecca.
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Abandoned Ulster
Sunday, BBC Two, 10pm
What can derelict buildings tell us about the past and the lives of previous generations? This 30-minute documentary looks at the work of photographer Rebecca Brownlie, who travelled around Northern Ireland taking pictures of abandoned sites, including a former linen mill in Co Antrim, a farmhouse in Co Down and a mission hall in Co Armagh, focusing on places with a link to Ulster-Scots culture. Complementing Brownlie’s evocative images are the spoken-word reflections of Ulster-Scots writers Darren Gibson and Anne McMaster.
Nationwide at the Áras
Monday, RTÉ One, 7pm
All good things must come to an end, and this year will bring the curtain down on the presidency of Michael D Higgins, as he and his wife Sabina prepare to hand over the keys of the Áras to Ireland’s next president, whether that be a former MMA fighter, dancer, GAA manager or weather reporter. As a sort of last hurrah for Michael D’s 14-year stint, Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh goes behind the scenes at the annual garden parties at the Áras, which usually take place over three weeks in late June/early July and see up to 600 guests benefit from the Higgins’s hospitality. Ní Chofaigh gets an insight into the painstaking preparations for these events, which have been a tradition in the Áras since 1939, and meets some of the staff who keep the show running smoothly, including executive head chef Tina Weir and her talented team, who create the sandwiches and delicacies for the guests, and head gardener Robert Norris, who maintains the stunning formal gardens, walled gardens and tree-lined avenues of the Áras. “There are not many presidents in the world that would open their houses free of charge to people to come in to,” notes household staff supervisor Bernadette Carroll. “What is the magic thing about it is, we are here for 14 years and in 14 years every garden party has been a beautiful sunny day,” says Sabina Higgins.
Twiggy
Monday, BBC Two, 9pm
In the 1960s, teenager Lesley Hornby from Neasden in London was the modelling world’s most famous face, known to millions as Twiggy. She was an icon of the Swinging Sixties, and this documentary film by Sadie Frost looks back at her amazing career, as she successfully navigated the shark-infested waters of the fashion industry and emerged relatively unscathed to become a British national treasure. The film delves in to her working-class upbringing and her sudden success at just 15, her marriages and relationships, and her constant reinvention following her retirement from modelling at just 22. This is a snapshot of an innocent age of glamour, with contributions from Dustin Hoffman, Paul McCartney, Charlotte Tilbury, Joanna Lumley and Brooke Shields.
Scannal – Death on Ireland’s Eye
Tuesday, RTÉ One, 7pm
On September 6th, 1852, a young Irish artist, William Kirwan, and his wife, Maria, went on a day trip to Ireland’s Eye, but only William returned to the mainland. He claimed his wife had gone swimming while he sketched, and when she didn’t return he searched the entire island but found no sign of her. Her body was subsequently found in an inlet, and an inquest found that she had died by drowning, but when it was discovered that the marriage had been marked by cruel behaviour and that William had been living a double life, he went from grieving husband to prime murder suspect. In this episode of Scannal, Sinéad Ní Churnáin and Síomha Ní Ruairc explore the story of a murder trial that gripped the nation in Victorian times. To dig deeper into this mystery, read Death on Ireland’s Eye by Dean Ruxton, of this parish.
Streaming
The Morning Show
Apple TV+ from Wednesday, September 17th
Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon kick up more sparks in the fourth series of the drama set in the studios of a popular Manhattan morning-news programme. Aniston, who plays The Morning Show’s cohost Alex Levy, and Witherspoon, as news anchor Bradley Jackson, are working in a very different environment since the merger between the UBA and NBN networks. The broadcasters have to navigate new work practices and a new reality where AI, deepfakes, conspiracy theories and corporate skulduggery threaten to undermine fact-based reporting. As usual, The Morning Show is packed with stars, including Billy Crudup, John Hamm, Mark Duplass and Greta Lee, plus new arrivals Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Irons.
Black Rabbit
Netflix from Thursday, September 18th
Jude Law stars as Jake Friedkin, who runs a popular New York restaurant and VIP lounge called Black Rabbit. The business is on the cusp of becoming the jewel of Big Apple nightlife, but when Jake’s wayward brother, Vince (Jason Bateman), returns to the family business, he brings a heap of trouble with him. Soon everything they’ve worked hard for is in danger of collapsing like a badly made soufflé. Will their brotherly bond save the business or destroy it?
