Best of the Week's TV (Nov 30 to Dec 6)
Channel 4, 9pm
If you look at the revenues and shift in leisure patterns associated with modern gaming, then the title of this show is not an idle boast. Brooker traces the evolution of the
phenomenon from Atari to Angry Birds.
Premier League action features Cardiff v Arsenal (Setanta 1, ko 3pm) and Newcastle United v West Bromwich Albion (Sky Sports 1, ko 5.30pm). In rugby, the RaboDirect PRO12 features Zebre v Ulster (RTE Two, ko 3pm) and Leinster v Scarlets (TG4, ko7.15pm), while international fixtures include Wales v Australia (BBC Two, ko 5pm).
RTÉ One, 10.55pm
Keelin Shanley and John Murray present highlights of Tuesday’s awards ceremony from the DoubleTree Hotel in Dublin. Fiction shortlists include Roddy Doyle, Colum McCann and Donna Tartt, Factual books include offerings by Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, Darina Allen and Eamon Dunphy.
RTÉ One, 6.30pm
Anne Doyle has been out of our lives for too long, so it’s great to welcome her back on this new quiz show. Every modern quiz show needs a fancy format, however, this one involves splitting 32 contestants into two groups of 16 who are then locked in cargo holds. Each group chooses a leader to try and answer the first round of questions. The winning team is further divided into two groups of eight, and so on and so forth until a winner is found. ‘Division’, geddit?
RTÉ One, 9.30pm
Senator Katherine Zappone and her partner Ann Louise Gilligan enlist the services of Dermot Bannon to revamp the 100-year-old hunting lodge they own in Brittas, Co Dublin. The budget and the grand plan are quite a distance apart, so conflict begins almost immediately.
BT Sport 1 gets a rare Sunday game for the clash of Tottenham v Man Utd (ko noon), while other Premier League action comes from Hull City v Liverpool (Sky Sports 1, ko 2.05pm) and Chelsea v Southampton (Sky Sports 1, ko 4.10pm). The Leinster club hurling final features Oulart The Ballagh (Wexford) v Mount
Leinster Rangers (Carlow) (TG4, 1.30pm).
RTÉ Two, 9pm
The final episode of the excellent German WWII series. Needless to say, it’s not a happy ending for all involved.
RTÉ One, 9.45pm
Observational documentary following members of a private security firm as they do their bit at music and sports events, as well as nightclubs and building sites. From the Rose of Tralee festival to a Cage Warriors event at the Helix in Dublin, we see the various issues the security staff have to deal with while managing members of the public. We also follow a group of the security staff as they’re sent to Slovenia for special weapons training.
TV3, 10pm
The second and final part of Ursula Halligan’s look at the transition of Sinn Féin.
RTÉ One, 11.25pm
The development and human rights series returns for another run with an episode about the flocks of aspiring soccer stars that leave Africa every year. As we’ve seen from recent developments in London, modern slavery takes many forms, and it’s a tag being used to describe some of the practices of unscrupulous middle men. We meet Issa Kone from Mali, whose impoverished parents had paid 5,000 on the promise of a soccer contract. Instead, he was left abandoned in Paris. It’s not an uncommon fate for these gullible young men, and among the people speaking out against it is former Cameroon star Roger Milla.
BBC Two, 8pm
The first two of the semi-finalists work a shift at Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant in Knightsbridge, where they are asked to make a salamugundy — a salad of chicken oysters, roasted salsify, bone marrow and horseradish.
Sky Atlantic, 9pm
Documentary on Alec Baldwin’s attempts in Cannes to pitch his idea for a film to industry decision-makers.
BBC Two, 9pm
First of a three-part series in which the affable presenter meets people on some of the pilgrimage paths that are still in use around the world. First up is the 500-mile journey from the Scottish island of Lindisfarne to Canterbury. As well as the perils and piety of such journeys, we hear how they also provided relief from the drudgery of medieval life and ample opportunity for merriment along the way.
3E, 8.30pm
Another contestant will depart the show tonight on the back of viewers’ votes.
RTÉ One, 8.30pm
The rates of gonorrhea are at the highest ever recorded in Ireland, so Dr Ciara Kelly looks at sexual health issues, with a special focus on college students. Also, Paul Walsh, right, visits a retirement group in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, to see if they can change their attitude to aging, and Dr Terry Deeny will be explaining the telltale signs to watch out for with stroke risk.
TV3, 9pm
Paddy Doherty explores his Irish roots in the company of Sally Bercow, and the duo travel in Ireland in a barrel-top wagon to see what life was like for Travellers a generation ago.
RTÉ One, 8.30pm
Rural homelessness is an issue that receives much less attention than its urban equivalent. In tonight’s show, Helen Carroll is in Tipperary where she talks to a woman who ended up sleeping rough. On a more positive note, we meet a Londoner who has moved to Ireland who is able to make a living from just five acres by selling direct at farmers markets.
Channel 4, 10pm
More shocking and/or entertaining tales from the Corfu resort town of Kavos. Tonight it’s the ladies’ turn to explain the machinations of non-stop partying.
RTÉ One, 10.15pm
Not every arrow fired by this show lands a bullseye, but Barry Murphy and co still offer the sharpest satire we’ve seen in this country since Dermot Morgan’s days. Joan Burton’s voice has been done to death, but German character Gunther’s analyses of Ireland are so spot on, they’re almost not funny.
RTÉ Two, 4.35pm
We’re not there, but there should still be plenty to interest Irish soccer fans in this live draw from Rio de Janeiro. Who will England and Spain get? What’s the group of death?
BBC Four, 9pm
Part two of the excellent music documentary picks up the story in the mid-1940s when artists like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker became firmly established in the cities and began spreading the music beyond its black audience. Contributors include Keith Richards and Seasick Steve
Sky Atlantic, 9pm
Cult comedy hero Larry David enlists the help of a star-studded cast for this largely-improvised one-off. Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton and Kate Hudson are among those starring in a lighthearted tale of revenge.
BBC One, 10.35pm
Daniel Radcliffe has been popping up in all sorts of places to promote the latest phase of his post-Harry Potter career, and with him on the couch tonight will be baking queen Mary Berry and funnyman David Walliams. Cliff Richard will also perform a song and join the rest of the group for a few words.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
