TV not to miss: Up For The Match
Is there no limit to Gok Wan’s talents? From style guru and ladies’ confidencebooster to Chinese travel and cooking, the presenter now fronts a new dating game show. The twist in the format is that contestants must choose or reject potential partners on the basis of those little secrets that people wouldn’t normally reveal on a first date — their baggage. For instance, Sophie encounters a candidate who says he likes to hang out in girls’ pyjamas, while Gary meets a woman who thinks she was a passenger on the Titanic.
Documentary filmed over a year with the Burmese opposition leader that includes an in-depth interview. She talks about her regrets at not being able to see her sons grow up, and the death from cancer of her husband Michael Aris.
Grainne Seoige and Des Cahill host the traditional pre-All-Ireland chat show. Expect plenty of guests from Donegal and Mayo, along with a few neutrals.
Michael Gambon is probably best known to the young generation as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, but the Cabra-born actor has much more than that to talk about. Also joining Wossy will be actress Emily Blunt and the ubiquitous John Bishop.
Jimmy Doherty is familiar to us from farm-themed programmes, but in this show he heads off to the Caribbean to meet a man who claims he can communicate with the local sperm whales. He’ll be joined by Joy Reidenberg of Inside Nature’s Giants in an attempt to get close enough to these amazing creatures to carry out some crucial experiments. In short, Doherty hopes to get right up to world’s largest predator just as it defecates. “It’s like swimming in a giant’s diarrhoea,” he explains of the experience. All in the name of science.
Timely documentary on the most famous terrace in Irish sport. Constructed in the 1930s with rubble from the Easter Rising, the Croke Park structure achieved its legendary status in the 1970s when Dublin football supporters used it to create the type of colour and atmosphere previously more associated with — pause before blaspheming — soccer stadiums. And just like the Kop in Anfield got its name from the Boer War, this terrace was originally called Hill 60, after a First World War battle in Gallipoli. We see the history and hear the testimony of fans about the special place it has become.
First of a major new series on the humans’ history of the planet. We’ve only been here for about 200,000 of the 3.5bn years that life has existed on Earth, but it has been quite an eventful period. Andrew Marr, right begins, appropriately enough, at our species’ origin in Africa, and takes us through the period when humans spread throughout that continent before settling down in semi-agricultural societies in the Middle East.
Despite the recent economic meltdown that shook the foundations of our modern capitalist societies, there are still many influential people who believe in free-market economics without government controls. One of the leading advocates of these theories was the late Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek, and this show talks to some of the thinkers who feel his work is as relevant as ever.
Bill Gallagher was the man behind Lark Rise to Candleford, and this new series is an adaptation of a novel by Emile Zola. It follows an ambitious country girl as she moves to the city and ends up working in The Paradise, England’s first department store. Period drama that also includes Irish actress Elaine Cassidy (Harpers Island, Disco Pigs).
Documentary on a 20-year-old student who has a rare ability to remember an incredible amount of detail about their lives. Known as superior autobiographical memory, the condition is examined by a number of experts and we also hear from other people with the same talent, including one who says it can make life quite difficult.
With series two on the way later in the autumn, this is probably your last chance to catch up on series one. If you haven’t seen it, the best American drama of last year is well worth catching.
Over the next two nights, this show will carry out scientific experiments on people who’ve taken MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy. It’s part of a six-month long neuroscience study designed by leading psychopharmacologists, and will include a discussion on the effects of the drug. The volunteers include actor Keith Allen (father of Lily), a vicar and a former MP.
The final episode in the series features 28-year-old office worker Anthony who gets the 50 members of his almost ever-present audience to decide if he should give up his job and go travelling. Underpinning the difficulty of the decision is the tragic loss of his parents when he was younger.
The arts show features an interview with Pauline McLynn and a look at the attempt in Cork to break the world record for the most people to be completely body painted at one time.
The popularity of British period dramas has heightened interest in the lives of the 1.5m people who worked as servants in Britain 100 years ago. A profession that employed more people than factories or farms, it was also a useful career for many Irish emigrants. In the first of three episodes, presented by Pamela Cox, right, we see how the Victorian elite promoted a new concept of loyal servitude in their large country houses.
¦ Series two of Homeland will debut on RTE on Tuesday, Oct 2. Israel has attacked Iran, causing turmoil in the middle east, and as traitor Brody continues his climb the US political ladder, Carrie goes undercover in Beirut.
¦ James Gandolfini is back with US studio HBO, his former home on The Sopranos, for his first major tv role since the demise of the mafia drama in 2007. Gandolfini is to star in the pilot of Criminal Justice, an American adaptation of the 2003 BBC drama of the same name.
¦ Online film and tv show provider Netflix has added RTE shows such as The Clinic, Killinaskully and Raw to its roster for subscribers here.
