TV not to miss
T in the Park
BBC 3, 8pm
As Irish music fans flock to Oxegen, in Scotland there’s an impressive line-up of acts being covered by the BBC over the weekend. This segment has Edith Bowman and Reggie Yates introducing live action from Friendly Fires and N-Dubz, above.
The Kennedys
RTÉ One, 10.50pm
The final episode has Bobby blaming himself for his brother’s death, only to meet with a similar fate himself five years later. It’s a pity that this below-par take on the Kennedy clan probably means that no other TV company will go near their incredible story for many years again.
Farmers: A Year On The Land
TV3, 6.20pm
The spotlight is on the sheep farmers this week, and while many city slickers will scoff at the complaints of their country cousins, the figures for many in the ovine trade just don’t stack up. The nation’s 31,000 sheep farmers earn an average of under €10,000 a year. One of the reasons for this is that artificial fibres have replaced wool in many garments and carpets. Perhaps this is good news for the environment, however, as the Irish flock has almost halved from a high of 4.8m sheep to just over 2.6m today. This programme visits six sheep farmers, and includes the slaughtering process. Those baulking at the price of lamb may be interested to hear that the farmer can be left with just €18 per animal after costs.
Marley & Me
Channel 4, 8pm
Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston star in a harmless chick-flick based on the real life autobiography of journalist John Grogan. With no children to fill his newspaper column, John turns to the couple’s labrador puppy for amusing anecdotes. His profile and circulation soar on the back of the dog’s appetite for destruction. There’s also an Irish angle, as this fair isle is the location for the couple’s honeymoon. What’s not to like?
Jaws: The Inside Story
Bio, 9pm
Steven Spielberg was just 29 when he made his breakthrough with a superb adaptation of Peter Benchley’s novel. This documentary looks at how the director overcame all sorts of problems to create the original summer blockbuster.
University Challenge
BBC Two, 8pm
The quiz show that leaves viewers feeling chuffed if they get one question right also humiliates the participating boffins who often aren’t tuned into pop culture trends. Beyoncé? Sorry, never heard of her.
Sisters of the Lodge
BBC One, 10.35pm
They live just up the road, but to many Southies, members of the Orange lodges might as well be from another planet. Film-maker Alison Millar spent a year behind the scenes with the ladies of the lodges, and produced an insightful documentary.
Perfume — The Smell Of The Future
BBC Four, 9pm
Final part of the excellent documentary on the perfume industry. While the big manufacturers have traditionally catered for the tastes of the western world, there is now a race on to appeal to people in the emerging economies. What works in Paris may not be a success in Sao Paulo or Beijing. We see how perfumers check out home bathroom cabinets to monitor minute shifts in taste, and an American scent guru tries to suss Latin adolescents in order to define the smell of a new mass-market bodyspray.
Nurse Jackie
Sky Atlantic, 10pm
While RTÉ is showing season two on Fridays, this Sky channel has edged ahead into the third series. Eddie is feeling guilty about lying to Kevin, and though Jackie remains unmoved, she agrees to help him reveal the truth.
Fíorscéal
TG4, 10.30pm
A documentary entitled The Light Bulb looks at companies who engineer their products to fail. In other words, it can be bad for business to build consumer goods that last too long. The title of the show comes from the early abandonment of ideas for an everlasting lightbulb.
Imagine — Lennon In Limbo
BBC One, 10.45pm
Alan Yentob delves into John Lennon’s life in New York. The late Beatle moved to the city to escape the fallout from his former band’s breakup, and spent his time hanging out with his family and writing material in his apartment in the Dakota building. Yoko Ono and his one-time collaborator Elton John are among the interviewees, while archive material includes never-before-heard studio recordings from the Double Fantasy sessions and outtakes from Lennon in concert and his home movies.
Peep Show
RTÉ Two, 11.55pm
More classic comedy from the first series as the odd couple both make friends. Mark finds a kindred spirit, Daryl, at the office, while Jeremy bumps into a lad he used to bully in school and tries to jump on the bandwagon of his old victim’s success.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
TG4, midnight
Season seven continues with Vehicular Fellatio, in which Larry manages to offend one of Richard Lewis’s girlfriends. Excellent stuff that unfortunately doesn’t get the more prominent slot it deserves.
Roger — Genocide Baby
BBC Three, 9pm
Moving documentary on Roger Nsengiyumva’s return to Rwanda. He was born during the genocide of 1994 and survived because his mother spent 100 days in hiding to protect her infant from murderous gangs. Despite also witnessing the murder of her husband, she is willing to forgive those who took part in the slaughter.
Pimpernel sa Vatican
TG4, 9.10pm
Repeat of the fascinating documentary on Irish cleric Hugh O’Flaherty, who ran an escape organisation for Allied POWs and civilians, including Jews, during the Second World War. German chief of police in Rome, Herbert Kappler, ordered him captured or killed, but after the war, when the notorious Nazi was imprisoned, O’Flaherty visited him every month. In 1983, Gregory Peck played the Irishman in the film, The Scarlet and the Black, and a grove of Italian trees in Killarney National Park is the only monument in Ireland to him.
The Open
BBC Two, 9am
The words ‘Rory’ and ‘McIlroy’ will be much used over the coming days as the young Irish golfer attempts to take the top prize at Royal St George’s in Kent. Last year, he stormed into a lead with a 63 on the first day. It was the best score of the entire competition but McIlroy couldn’t sustain his form and Louis Oosthuizen won out. Could this year be different?
Single-Handed
UTV, 9pm
This is the series you may have seen in November on RTÉ. Stephen Rea joins the usual lead Owen McDonnell for the opening episode of a tale involving dark deeds from Ireland’s Catholic past. Overall, the six episodes provided some decent entertainment.
The Killing
Channel 4, 9pm
Second episode of the US adaptation of the superb Danish murder mystery. Politics and crime intertwine as new characters come under suspicion. If you missed the pilot episode, it gets a repeat on Wednesday.
My Lai
RTÉ Two, 7.30pm
A look at why a company of American soldiers massacred around 400 men, women and children in south Vietnam in 1968. As well as the killings themselves, the documentary also looks at the subsequent cover-up and the soldiers who broke ranks to testify against their comrades. Interestingly, the investigating major criticised afterwards for what was termed a “whitewash” was an up-and-coming 31-year-old by the name of Colin Powell.
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