TV not to miss
The Jonathan Ross Show
UTV, 9.45pm
The first week of September is probably the most exciting time of the year for TV viewers, and among the welcome new shows is Jonathan Ross’s first major outing since he left the BBC. It’ll be much the same fare as his Beeb show and the first episode has an impressive array of guests with actress Sarah Jessica Parker, driver Lewis Hamilton and singer Adele.
The Castle
RTE Two, 11.35pm
This is probably the best Australian film you’ve never seen. Some of the faces will be familiar from various other Aussie offerings, not least Eric Bana in his first big role. Famously filmed in 19 days on a budget of just AUS$19,000, it’s the hilarious account of a blue collar family fighting a compulsory acquisition order on their home to facilitate an expansion of Melbourne airport. The characters are so typically Australian it should be mandatory viewing for anybody planning to travel there.
March of the Penguins
TG4, 4.35pm
This spectacular documentary on Emperor Penguins raised the bar for wildlife films and was a massive hit in 2005 when it drew audiences across a wide age range who were more accustomed to regular Hollywood blockbusters. As well as the amazing footage, it manages to weave an engaging narrative into one of nature’s great stories.
The Genealogy Roadshow
RTE One, 6.30pm
Derek Mooney and his expert team are in Carton House in Co Kildare for this episode. We hear about some of the women who were in the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising, and learn how a Dublin woman’s father may have been responsible for the destruction of the nation’s precious genealogical records in the Four Courts during the Civil War.
Nature’s Miracle Babies
BBC One, 6.30pm
New series looking at the work of breeding programmes for some of the world’s most threatened species. First up is that cutest of cuddly creatures, the giant panda. Martin Hughes-Games visits a centre in China where medical techniques developed for humans are now being used for pandas.
Nelson’s Navy: Back From The Dead
Channel 4, 8pm
The first of a fascinating new series where modern forensic analysis is applied to the bodies of dead fighting men from an earlier era. This episode looks at 350 skeletons exhumed from Royal Navy graveyards from the age of Nelson’s Navy. Among the bones analysed are those of a child sailor, a freed slave, and a syphilis victim.
Four Lions
Channel 4, 9pm
Chris Morris established his reputation for pushing the boundaries of satire and comedy in such TV shows as The Day Today and Brass Eye, and here he’s managed to make a feature film about suicide bombers that is quite funny. It features a hapless group of Islamist extremists in Sheffield.
Ar Stáitse
TG4, 10pm
Bagatelle probably don’t get the recognition they deserve in the history of Irish pop music. This concert from 1983 at the Siamsa Cois Laoi in Cork shows them at the peak of their powers, though. As ever with archive material from this event, some of the best entertainment is to be had from the shots of the crowd.
Misineiri Radacach
TG4, 9.30pm
While we still don’t know the full story on the trail of sexual abuse and cultural destruction left by Irish Catholic missionaries around the world, this series looks at a more positive aspect of their legacy.
Many of those who went abroad were totally genuine people who dedicated their lives to helping the poor, and this programme’s focus on their work in Brazil shows how they helped forge a new movement in the Church.
Liberation Theology was a quite radical force far removed from the pampered outlook of the Church in the west, and attracted many Irish missionaries as they fought on behalf of the downtrodden against a repressive military government. Retired and current missionaries talk about their experiences, while much of the archive footage comes from the Church’s old Radharc series.
Emergency Room
Channel 4, 9pm
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, so expect a flood of programmes about that fateful day. This documentary tells of the Dunkirk-style flotilla of boats that evacuated the injured across the Hudson river, and the massive emergency response that pushed medical personnel way beyond their normal limits.
Craft Master
RTE One, 7pm
Another of the week’s new series, this explores the five disciplines of ceramics, glass blowing, wood turning, textiles and metal. As is the trend du jour for modern telly, it also has a competitive element with three apprentices ‘battling it out’ for a place in the final. Episode one has mentor Róisín de Buitléar in Waterford taking three competitors through a master class in glass blowing.
Inside Nature’s Giants
Channel 4, 8pm
A dissection of the little-known cassowary. Resident in Queensland’s rainforests, this flightless bird looks like a prehistoric ostrich, can grow up to its five-inch talons. As they cut up a bird run over by a car, the team explains its amazing physiology, while Simon Watt traces its ancestry to meat-eating dinosaurs.
The Irish of 9/11
TV3, 9pm
A focus on the Irish people involved in the tragedy, from firefighters and tourists to the families of those who were killed.
George W Bush: The 9/11 Interview
National Geographic, 9pm
The former US president speaks about the events which occurred on his watch, and his reaction at hearing the news of Bin Laden’s recent death. Needless to say, it’s unlikely to be full of admissions of his own ill-advised decisions.
MasterChef Ireland
RTÉ Two, 9.30pm
First of two qualifiers (see p44 for Thursday’s preview) in which 50 people will be whittled down to 16 contestants. Each aspiring chef will get 55 minutes to prepare and plate up a dish.
Bin Laden: Inside The War Room
Channel 4, 9pm
Barack Obama is obviously the star interviewee of this documentary on the killing of Osama Bin Laden. From film of the al-Qaida leader’s hideout to revelations that several of the US president’s staff turned against the mission after a downbeat intelligence briefing.
The Usual Suspects
Sky Atlantic, 9pm
One of those films on every movie critic’s ‘must-see’ lists, if you haven’t already indulged in this 1995 thriller, then prepare to be wowed by Bryan Singer’s masterpiece with a star cast.
Gardener’s World
BBC Two, 8.30pm
Summer is coming to an end so Monty Don has advice on how to keep the garden going through autumn and beyond.
In The Line Of Fire
RTÉ Two, 9.45pm
Excellent thriller from 1993 with the dream pairing of Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich (above). Clint is the secret service agent haunted by his failure to save John F Kennedy, while Malkovich excels as the psychotic assassin attempting to get at the US president.
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