What to watch on TV this week
A recording of the 2013 concert in the hometown of the ever-popular conductor and his orchestra.
If you missed Spike Lee’s documentary on BBC last week, this broadcast is another chance to see it.
The film traces the career of the pop prince in the era before Thriller, particularly focusing on the classic Off The Wall album he recorded with Quincy Jones.
Lee doesn’t delve much into the side issues around Jackson, but keeps his focus on the music with a plethora of talking heads and some great archive footage.
It serves as a fine reminder of Jackson’s talent before his life became a public circus.
Alfred Hitchcock’s tale of avian killers is still a creepy experience, not least because we now know the director shocked Tippi Hedren with his use of real birds in the final scene, an action that was another strange chapter in his attitude to the Swedish actress.
Ryan Tubridy presents a show about letters written by various people around the time of the Rising. They include tales from the trenches of WWI; a love affair that over six months in 1916; letters from prisoners interned in Frongoch after the Rising; and requests for compensation in the wake of the conflict.
The third series of the survivalist show has a twist this time around as the men and women are abandoned on the opposite side of the same island, and neither realises the other is there.
Joe Duffy tells the story of the 40 children aged 16 or under who were killed during the Easter Rising, and who were largely forgotten until the broadcaster published his book on the subject last year.
We hear about the likes of two-year-old Sean Foster, killed in a crossfire as he sat in his pram; Lionel Sweny, 13, shot while attempting to give water to a wounded British soldier; and 15 year old Brigid McKane, accidentally killed when rebels looking for refuge while escaping the GPO shot the lock off the door of her home.
Is this what the men of 1916 died for? Actually, in lots of ways, it was. This documentary follows Rory O’Neill and his character Panti Bliss as they became the figurehead for the campaign for equal rights in Ireland.
Cork may have stayed quiet during the Easter Rising, but the last man out of the GPO was from Tracton in the Rebel county. This documentary looks at the incredible life of the ‘forgotten volunteer’.
It’d be interesting to compare the amount of food shows to the number of 1916 documentaries this week. This spin-off series from Bake Off has Michelin-starred Tom Kerridge overseeing the competition in which teams made up of culinary professionals show off their skills with pastry.
Kemp looks at the subject of child sexual exploitation in his native country, As well as horrifying tales of abuse, he also delves into such issues as pornography use among the young, and the increasing incidents of sexual offences being committed by young people.
The Ryan family of Tipperary open their doors to the show’s doctors, and the seemingly fit father Tom gets a surprise when his cholesterol is discovered to be high.
There are more revelations for his wife Fiona, who has been piling on the weight, and is told she has non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Can they improve their situation over a six-week period?
The prospect of Donald Trump as president of the United States is clearly a worrying one for many people. Matt Frei looks at the Republican front-runner’s chances of making it all the way to the White House.
Among the three houses on show this week are a 100-year-old cottage in Co Clare that reflects the creative talents of the owning couple, Emma and Andrew, one of whom is a children’s illustrator and the other is a planning consultant.
We also see architect Clodagh Nolan’s converted carriage house in Dublin, and the contemporary extension artists John and Helen put on their 1960s semi-d.
Monty Don is helping his insect pals this week by trying to ensure there are plants in flower for bumble bees and other early pollinators.
Elsewhere, Carol Klein visits a man making the most of his shady garden, and there’s also a look at trials by the Royal Horticultural Society to trial vegetables for taste and productivity.
Richard Ayoade and Jo Brand are in the water-bound Italian city to check out the food, masks and inevitable gondolas.
After an Easter period in which the Brits will get a bit of a bashing on our screens, perhaps it’s a good idea to finish the week with a reminder ourselves of one of the great things that wonderful country has given us.
Members of such bands as Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and Motorhead describe the emergence of their music from the working class of industrialised cities in the 1970s.
It’s actor-central on the show tonight, with Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, Kirsten Dunst and Stephen Mangan all taking their place on the couch.
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