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From a documentary on the 1970 arms trial to the return of Alan Partridge – your day-by-day guide to what to watch on TV this week
All the best shows and films you don’t want to miss
Charles J. Haughey, who would later become Taoiseach, pictured in 1968. © RTÉ Stills Library
Katie Taylor celebrates winning her bout against Sofya Ochigava of Russia during the London 2012 Olympic Games. Photograph: Scott Heavey/Getty Images
Russell Crowe in Unhinged. Photograph: Skip Bolen
Pete Davidson in The King of Staten Island
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey in Sisters
Steve Coogan (front right) in This Time with Alan Partridge. © Baby Cow. Photograph: Gary Moyes
London 7/7 tube passenger Karl in Saved By a Stranger. © Blink Films. Photograph: Toby Trackman
Former Taoiseach Enda Kenny in RTÉ One's Iarnród Enda
Eve Myles as Faith Howells in Keeping Faith. © BBC. Photograph: Scott Waller
Jamie Bell and Michael B. Jordan in Without Remorse on Amazon Prime
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In a documentary he made for Channel 4 in the 1980s, Charlie Haughey, acting the big man, stood with his foot on the invisible border and called it “an aberration”. A lot of hot air, you might say, but the younger CJ seems to have been prepared to put his money where his mouth was. In 1969, he and Donegal politician Neil Blaney were sacked over their involvement in an alleged plot to supply guns to Northern republicans battling an upsurge in loyalist violence. This new documentary speaks to historians, experts and family members in an attempt to get to the bottom of it.
Anxiety was high on both sides of the border in the summer of 1969, as loyalist mobs burned nationalists out of their homes with apparent impunity and a steady stream of refugees headed south. Jack Lynch’s Fianna Fáil government was under pressure to do something, and at one point a limited invasion by Irish troops was considered.
Instead a cabinet sub-committee was established to provide assistance for displaced families, with a then-substantial £100,000 budget under the sole control of one Charles J. Haughey. Blaney, Lynch’s Minister for Agriculture, had been making increasingly bellicose noises, and at the arms trial of 1970 it would be alleged that he, Haughey and an Irish Army officer called Captain James Kelly attempted to procure weapons for nationalist use north of the border.
How much of this was true, and who else knew?
GunPlot, Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
Film of the week
Unhinged
Saturday, Sky Premiere, 8pm
Pity the poor soccer mom who encounters Russell Crowe’s immovable SUV in this daft but enjoyable road-rage thriller. Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is getting divorced, about to lose her business and driving like the clappers to get her kid to school on time when she gets stuck behind a four-wheel-drive at traffic lights. When they go green, the jeep doesn’t move and Rachel starts angrily beeping. Big mistake, because Tom (Mr Crowe) is an unhinged maniac with an alarming tendency to take things personally and is about to make Rachel’s life a living hell. Big Russ is too good an actor for films like this but, in fairness, gives it socks here. Does the film have a moral? Driving courteously costs you nothing.
Highlights of the week
Saturday
A Life in Ten Pictures
BBC2, 9.30pm
Tupac Shakur was just 25 years old when he died in a drive-by shooting in 1996, the victim of a rapping feud. In this documentary, a series of photos reveal his inner life.
Film
Dark Lies the Island
RTÉ One, 9.40pm
Ian Fitzgibbon’s energetic adaptation of Kevin Barry’s story stars Pat Shortt as Daddy Mannion, a bombastic small-town businessman whose fraught relationship with his two grown sons will come back to haunt him.
Keeping Faith
BBC1, 9pm
When Rose is sent footage of Steve leaving Faith’s house at dawn, she realises she’s just lost an ally and, soon after, he disappears without trace.
Sunday
Reeling in the Years
RTÉ One, 8.30pm
Adele, Taylor Swift, Nathan Carter and Lisa Hannigan provide the soundtrack for this trip down memory lane to 2012, when Katie Taylor won gold at the London Olympics, Donegal claimed the Sam Maguire, and Barack Obama was elected for a second term as US President.
Katie Taylor celebrates winning her bout against Sofya Ochigava of Russia during the London 2012 Olympic Games. Photograph: Scott Heavey/Getty Images
Film
The Big Short
RTÉ2, 9pm
The mysteries of the 2008 global financial crash are made simple by Adam McKay’s busy thriller. Steve Carell plays a tenacious hedge-fund manager who realises America’s banks are laden down with bad debt from worthless subprime mortgages.
Line of Duty
BBC1, 9pm
Things have really spiralled out of control in the latest season of the breathless crime drama, and time is running out for AC-12 and Ted Hastings as he struggles to weed out embedded police corruption.
Monday
A Year to Change the World
BBC2, 9pm
As Greta Thunberg concludes her year of activism, the Covid pandemic has grimly illustrated the challenges climate change will bring, but she explains how individuals can reduce their environmental impact.
Film
The Martian
Film4, 6.15pm
Presumed lost by his colleagues and left behind on the red planet, astronaut and botanist Mark Watney must summon all of his resourcefulness if he’s to stand any chance of surviving. With Matt Damon.
Iarnród Enda
RTÉ One, 8.30pm
As our former leader continues his tour of Ireland’s forgotten railway lines, he travels from Derry city to the Donegal fishing village of Burtonport, where he learns about the Owencarrow Viaduct disaster.
Tuesday
Your Honor
Sky Atlantic, 9pm
As the pressure mounts, Michael is desperate to find a way of keeping Jimmy Baxtor’s son Carlo out of prison. Bryan Cranston stars.
Film
The King of Staten Island
Sky Comedy, 10.45pm
Pete Davidson co-wrote and stars in this comic drama as Scott, a 24-year-old college dropout whose obsession with his late father, a heroic firefighter, has stalled his life. With Marisa Tomei.
Make Up: A Glamorous History
BBC2, 9pm
Makeup artist Lisa Eldridge finds out how the Victorians prized natural beauty above all else. But while makeup was frowned on, women of the period found all sorts of sneaky ways of enhancing their appearance.
Wednesday
First Dates Hotel
Channel 4, 9pm
Bengy is reluctant to share a trauma in his past, but might change his mind after meeting the caring Lara, and butcher Nick turns up at the hotel admitting he has no idea how to speak to women.
Film
The Drop
Film4, 9pm
Crime thriller starring Tom Hardy as a Brooklyn bartender who becomes embroiled in an investigation into a robbery that went disastrously wrong.
UEFA Champions League
Virgin Media Two, 7pm
Manchester City have looked imperious of late but face a daunting challenge in this Champions League against Mauricio Pochettino’s new-look PSG. Kick-off 8pm.
London 7/7 tube passenger Karl in Saved By a Stranger. © Blink Films. Photograph: Toby Trackman
Thursday
Saved by a Stranger
BBC2, 9pm
Trainee psychologist Karl was travelling on the Piccadilly Line tube train targeted by terrorists in the 7/7 attacks. As he feared for his life in the smoke-filled carriage, a woman changed his life by comforting him.
Film
Being AP
BBC4, 10pm
Absorbing documentary that gets inside the head of champion jockey AP McCoy, as his unquenchable thirst for victory is challenged by the march of time and a series of debilitating injuries.
Racing from Punchestown
RTÉ2, 4pm
Jane Mangan and Ruby Walsh join Hugh Cahill for coverage of day three at the Punchestown Festival, with races including the Pigsback.com Handicap and the Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle.
Steve Coogan (front right) in This Time with Alan Partridge. © Baby Cow. Photograph: Gary Moyes
Friday
This Time with Alan Partridge
BBC1, 9.30pm
Having somehow landed a permanent gig on the BBC talk show This Time, things are looking up for Alan. But dark mutterings behind the scenes soon have him worrying. With Steve Coogan.
Film
Sisters
RTÉ2, 9.35pm
Comedy starring Amy Poehler and Tina Fey as warring sisters who return to the family home to collect their stuff when their parents announce they’re selling up.
The Shelter: Animal SOS
RTÉ One, 8.30pm
Vet Maria treats a wild bird with a badly injured eye that could play havoc with its migration plans.
Sheena McGinley’s stream of the week
Without Remorse
Amazon Prime, Friday
Throw on the popcorn, dim the lights and buckle up as the (very) explosive origin story of action hero John Kelly/Clark (one of the most popular characters in author Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan universe) will blast on to your tellies this Friday. Produced by and starring Michael B. Jordan, this bullet-fest follows an elite Navy SEAL (is there any other kind?) as he uncovers an international conspiracy — while seeking justice for the murder of his pregnant wife. Joining forces with a fellow SEAL (Jodie Turner-Smith) and mysterious CIA agent who is fierce light on his feet (Jamie Bell), Kelly’s remorseless mission unwittingly exposes a covert plot that threatens to engulf the US and Russia in a ye-olde all-out war, as opposed to online... Stoic masks, bloodbaths, shirtless scenes, fireballs and subterfuge — if you like your action obvious, Michael B. Jordan’s got you well covered.
Also streaming…
The Mitchells vs the Machines
Netflix, Friday
Ever found yourself wondering what Terminator 2 would look like if it was an animated, child-friendly flick featuring a larger family unit, their pug and slightly less-scary machines? Wonder no more! From the humans who brought you the Academy Award-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The Lego Movie comes this action-comedy about an ordinary family who find themselves in the middle of their biggest family challenge yet — saving the planet from the robot apocalypse. Smartphones, Roombas and especially evil Furbys are part of the uprising to capture every human on the planet.
Shadow and Bone
Netflix, streaming now
This was released last week so if you haven’t binged this realm of dystopia based on Leigh Bardugo’s bestselling Grishaverse novels, chances are you never will. But should an army of magical soldiers training to fight a(nother) looming apocalypse whet your appetite, do give Alina and the gang a whirl.
The Mosquito Coast
Apple TV+, Friday
Justin Theroux (Jennifer Aniston’s ex-husband) and the actress who will ALWAYS be Angel from Home and Away (Melissa George) star in this new series depicting a family of four on the run in Mexico. Why Mexico? Well, it seems to be the easiest place for a radical idealist to flee from the US government.
Yasuke
Netflix, Thursday
A six-episode series set in an alternate fantastical Japan in the feudal era (stay with me), LeSean Thomas’s story is about a samurai warrior of African descent who must return to his life of violence in order to protect a mysterious child from those pesky dark forces.
Dinosaurs
Disney+, streaming now
D’you remember... “NOT THE MAMA, NOT THE MAMA, NOT. THE. MAMA!” Oh, what this Jim Henson puppet production might have become if The Simpsons hadn’t been pilfering its thunder circa 1992. If you’re looking for something relatively inoffensive you can watch with the kids — or indeed solo — all four seasons recently dropped and have been binged by yours truly already.
Things Heard & Seen
Netflix, Thursday
Based on the acclaimed novel by Elizabeth Brundage, this new release follows a familiar theme. A couple from Manhattan move to a historic Hudson Valley hamlet, only to discover their marriage has a sinister darkness, one that rivals their new home’s history, etc, etc.
Why Are You Like This?
Netflix, streaming now
Aussie comedy following “friends” Mia, Penny and Austin through the divisive sociopolitical hellscape of modern life. Think a more stylised Pulling, except Karen is a gay man.
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