What to watch on TV this week
Take Me Out
UTV Ireland, 8.05pm
Paddy McGuinness introduces another crop of hopeful lads to the ladies of the lights, including a taekwondo champion, a window cleaner and a car salesman. No likey? No lighty.
Spiral
BBC Four, 9pm
Recent events in Paris have ensured we look at French police dramas in a slightly different manner than before, but the fifth instalment of this series is again worth a look. The first two episodes were a mite harrowing in parts; hopefully tonight’s double bill is more palatable.
Fair City
RTÉ One, 8pm
It’s the end for Paul and Niamh, while Jackie makes the mistake of pushing Neil towards seeking professional help. Dolores is struggling with her cancer treatment all this week, while Mondo may have missed his chance with Kerri-Ann, as she has a date set up with Garda Maguire.
At Your Service
RTÉ One, 8.30pm
The brothers Brennan visit another business for whom the outlook is grim, as they try to turn around the fortunes of McGarrigle’s Restaurant in Bundoran, Co Donegal. Again there’s a generation clash, as owner Sean McGarrigle doesn’t quite agree with some of the ideas of his daughter Yvonne.
Walking the Nile
RTÉ One, 9pm
In the second-last instalment of Levison Wood’s journey along the world’s longest river, he encounters thousands of Sufi pilgrims celebrating a Muslim holy day with music and trance-inducing dances. Sufism is a branch of Islam frowned on by more extremist sects, and its cultural expressions include the famous whirling dervishes and the Qawwali music of the likes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Scannal: Mature Recollection
RTÉ One, 7.30pm
With the renewed interest in Charlie Haughey and the workings of Fianna Fail, this episode is a timely look at the watershed 1990 presidential election when hot favourite, the late Brian Lenihan Snr, was caught out on untruths he told about previous dealings with the president. We also heard the lovely Pádraig Flynn question Mary Robinson on her record as a wife and mother, a tactic that backfired into increasing the vote for the eventual winner.
Winterwatch
BBC Two, 9pm
Other than recent storms, we’ve experienced a relatively benign winter in Ireland and Britian, but it can still be a difficult time for many animals in the wild. Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Martin Hughes-Games are based in the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland for a week of shows on how animals are coping.
Broadchurch
TV3, 10pm
The second series continues with new evidence being uncovered about the murder of the 11-year-old boy in Dorset. It remains to be seen whether it can match season one.
Catastrophe
Channel 4, 10pm
Irish actress Sharon Horgan stars alongside American comedian Rob Delaney in a new comedy about a couple who enter into a ‘flaming hovel of a relationship’ in London.
Claire Byrne Live
RTÉ One, 10.35pm
The presenter begins a new current affairs series with a panel and live studio audience.
Ear To The Ground
RTÉ One, 8.30pm
Includes a feature on social farming in Ireland, a scheme that offers work on family farms, as a form of support for people with learning difficulties, brain injury or mental health issues.
Grey’s Anatomy
RTÉ2, 9pm
The hospital drama returns for an 11th series. Cristina is gone, so a new doctor takes her place, and Meredith gets on with life against the background of a troubled marriage.
Neven Maguire: Home Chef
RTÉ One, 7.30pm
The celebrity chef is in Haulbowline Naval Base in Cork harbour, where he cooks up bacon chops with vegetable rosti, and a speedy fish soup.
Red Rock
TV3, 8.30pm
There’s a frisson of sexual tension in the air tonight as Liam tries to keep it all business-like with café landlord Patricia.
Operation Transformation
RTÉ One, 8.30pm
A recent survey showed that Ireland is on track to have the most overweight children in Europe, and many schools still don’t implement enough in the way of physical education. Tonight’s episode launches a ‘Fit at School, Fit Forever’ campaign to encourage the introduction of PE teachers in primary schools. Tomorrow, the participants in the show will perform more tasks with the Dublin Fire Brigade, and dietician Aoife Hearne will explain why good nutrition is important to a child’s development even before it is born.
Clubland: Reality Bites
RTÉ Two, 9pm
With four floors and a capacity for 2,000 punters, the Wright Venue in Swords, Co Dublin, is regarded as Ireland’s biggest nightclub. This documentary in the Reality Bites strand goes behind the scenes at the venue as the staff prepare for the fifth birthday bash. As ever, not
Norah’s Traveller Academy
RTÉ One, 9pm
Norah Casey mentors Ann-Rose Mongan from Blanchardstown as she attempts to build her business putting a bit of bling on accessories and clothes for her fellow Travellers.
Ross Kemp Extreme World
Sky 1, 9pm
The British presenter returns for another instalment of his excellent series in which he visits trouble-spots around the world to highlight various issues. Over the next few weeks, he’ll be meeting rapists and their victims in South Africa, bikers in Australia and refugees in Calais. In this first episode, Kemp is in Ukraine, looking at the rise of ultra-right militias.
Surviving The Holocaust: Freddie Knoller’s War
BBC Two, 9.30pm
Freddie Knoller was a young Jewish man in Austria when the Nazis took over. Now 91, he describes his difficult life as he left his parents and moved from Vienna to Belgium and then Paris, before he was eventually sent to Auschwitz. One of the lucky ones to survive the death camp, he tells his story to help ensure that those dark days are never forgotten.
Sound Of Song
BBC Four, 9pm
Neil Brand looks at the emergence of the magnetic tapes that revolutionised recording technology and paved the way for the pop music explosion through the 1950s and ‘60s.
