What to watch on TV this weekend: Late Late Show and new Sky Atlantic horror series Hausen

Hausen

Paloma Faith

Hausen

Pat Stacey

March 26 2021 07:39 AM

SCREEN horror owes so much to chilling German silent classics The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, The Golem and Nosferatu, it’s surprising the country’s TV hasn’t done more in the genre.

New eight-parter Hausen (Sky Atlantic, 9pm and 10.10pm; all episodes on demand), kicking off with a double bill, certainly sounds like it’s embracing classic haunted house — or in this case, haunted houses — ingredients.

New caretaker Jaschek (Charlie Hübner) and his teenage son Jurri (Tristan Göbel) move into a gloomy, rundown housing complex. A baby goes missing, but the child’s cries can still be heard from somewhere beyond the walls. Brrr!

GGI-heavy horror The Irregulars (Netflix, from today) pushes the Victorian street urchins, who occasionally assisted Sherlock Holmes in the original stories, front and centre. They’re enlisted by a somewhat creepy Dr Watson (Royce Pierreson) to fight supernatural forces, while the drug-addicted Holmes (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) stays in the background.

Crappy 1990s franchises never die, they just get regurgitated as streaming shows. In The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (Disney+), the junior ice-hockey underdogs of the original are now arrogant champs, which prompts their old coach Emilio Estevez to join forces with a woman and her son to build a new team of misfits.

At first glance, new animated superhero romp Invincible (Amazon Prime) might look like a kids’ show, but it’s actually aimed at grown-ups — as you’d expect from something based on a comic book by The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman. A wonderful voice cast, including JK Simmons, Mark Hamill and Sandra Oh, enhances a series that mixes action with father-and-son conflict.

With this year’s Daffodil Day cancelled, The Late Late Show (RTÉ One, 9.35pm) steps into the fundraising breach with a whole edition devoted to cancer. Guests include Shane Filan, Jedward (who’ll be shaving their heads), Oisin Kiernan, Averil Power and many Irish Cancer Society volunteers.

SATURDAY

THERE’S the usual chaotic mix of domestic and legal drama in the third and final season of Keeping Faith (BBC One, 9pm), which sees our heroine (Eve Myles) still locked in a custody battle with her useless husband while simultaneously trying to keep a hold on an ethically complex case involving a young boy. If slightly daft is your thing, your evening is made.

Paloma Faith

Paloma Faith: As I Am (BBC Two NI, 9.30pm; other regions, 9pm) is a refreshingly candid look into the life of the platinum-selling singer and occasional actress as she faces a problem all too familiar to women in their thirties: how to balance raising children with having a career.

Given all the money she’s made for her record company, it’s startling to see what she has to put up with from her management team. Not your average pop star biodoc.
We’re in more familiar musical terrain with Reel Stories: Dave Grohl (BBC Two, 10.30pm). The self-deprecating Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer, who’s the complete opposite of the egotistical rock star cliché, looks back on his career through the prism of TV clips.

Grohl — who still gets emotional when he talks about Kurt Cobain — hooks up from his Los Angeles studio with interviewer Dermot O’Leary, who’s in a cinema in London.
I Want My MTV (Sky Arts, 9pm) is a feature-length look at the birth of the music video channel, which went on air in 1981, immediately changing everything for audiences and artists. It’s a lot of fun, but it also looks at MTV’s rocky record on sexual and racial politics.

SUNDAY

HAVING been made available to stream and download through various platforms last November, Gabriel Clarke’s Finding Jack Charlton (Virgin Media 1, 9pm), which I reviewed at the time, finally gets a terrestrial screening.

It’s a wonderful, though never hagiographical, tribute to a unique footballing man that covers his Leeds and England career, as well as his remarkable tenure as Ireland manager.

The scenes of Jack, suffering from dementia, in the months before his death last July, will just break your heart, though.

If there was a little too little of Ted Hastings for your liking in Line of Duty (BBC1, 9pm) last week, fear not: he’s back and in top form tonight as he and his AC-12 team begin to get a handle on their latest case. He also has a sizzling showdown with a superior.

Long before LOD, television had another police corruption series: the BAFTA-winning 1990s hit Between the Lines (BBC Four, 10pm and 10.45pm), which gets a repeat run of double bills. Neil Pearson plays Det Supt Tony Clark, who sniffs out rottenness in the force. It’s well worth catching.

Even though a fishing contest provides the backdrop to the new Midsomer Murders (UTV/ITV, 8pm), it seems pointless to — ahem — carp (sorry) about how silly the series is. By now, the writers know exactly what they’re doing and lash on the lunacy with glee.

If you find all this excitement a bit too much, you can try retreating to Brotherhood: The Inner Life of Monks (BBC Four, 8pm), a gently-paced documentary about a dwindling community of monks in Leicestershire. There are only 25, more than half of them over 80 and the oldest 91. With their dairy farm no longer viable, they’ve turned to brewing beer.

Herald