What to watch on TV this week
Tina Fey’s cult comedy is back for a second series with its tale of a woman adjusting to modern life after spending 15 years confined in a cult.
Michael McIntyre really does split opinion, but his personality is probably suited to the Saturday evening entertainment format.
In this new show he hosts celebrity guests and music performances (Tinie Tempah tonight), as well as engaging in various high jinks.
The great Welsh singer looks back on his formative years in south Wales, as he plugged into the international youth culture that was emerging during the 1950s.
Born in 1940, he describes life in the post-war years, and the influence of American music, as well as GIs stationed near his home.
The young Jones was also confined to bed with TB from 1952 to 1954, and he spent much of it watching TV on the first set his family bought.
“The sixties was the reward, but the fifties was the decade that made me,” he says.
New series looking at the history of Irish stand-up comedy, particularly from the 1970s when the International Comedy Cellar opened in Dublin.
Kenyan chef Kiran Jethwa begins a new series travelling around the globe sampling food in remote places. First up he’s in Bolivia.
Liz Bonnin looks at the place of zoos in modern society.
Many facilities push their breeding and conservation efforts, and the Irish presenter looks at whether this really makes a difference.
One of the upsides of having a relationship with an artist is that you might be immortalised in a piece of art, even if the results aren’t the most flattering.
This new 10-part series looks at the relationships between artists and their muses, beginning with Pablo Picasso who did some typically skewed paintings of his beloved Dora Maar in the 1930s.
Episode two looking at the life of Irish fitness model Louise Quinn, as she tries to stay on track while also marking the anniversary of the death of her five-week-old son Ashton.
Given the budget, the subject matter, and the pedigree of some of the people involved, we expected much more from this series. Final episode tonight.
Ever heard of the coital alignment technique (CAT)? Goedele Liekens explains its benefits to a couple in tonight’s show.
A double bill of episodes brings the curtain down on the penultimate series of Lena Dunham’s show.
During the last major conflict in Gaza in 2014, about 500 Palestinian children were killed and thousands more injured — the overwhelming majority by Israeli forces.
On the other side of the border, Israeli children may have a much less chance of being killed, but they still live with the terror of rockets fired at their homes, and the dash to the nearby bomb shelter is very much part of their lives.
The BBC-made film from last year provides a heart-breaking insight into young lives on both sides.
Among the most chilling testimonies is that of a young boy who describes how he saw his 10-year-old brother and three similar-aged cousins killed when an Israeli gunboat opened fire on them as they played football on a beach.
Sayed survived, but was left shocked after the incident and is one of thousands of Gazan children who needs treatment for shellshock.
The brilliantly engaging history show disguised as a comedy for young people marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with a special programme.
Manchán Magan turns his attention to the mighty oak, and visits Killarney to show the beauty of a type of forest that once would have been widespread. He also shows us a rare native tree called the strawberry tree.
Cork doctor Pixie McKenna begins a new series about sex-related matters.
First up, she focuses on younger adults, discussing such issues as contraception and sexually transmitted infections.
There’s also a ‘sex confession booth’, and a section for comedians to tell their sex stories.
Is your camper van or caravan your castle? If so, you might enjoy this two-parter in which contestants take on driving and cleaning challenges.
One of the more interesting homes featured in tonight’s show is that of pilates instructor Eva Berg, whose house was influenced by the time she spent in Norway.
Completing the multinational dimension, we hear how the house was actually built in Austria and arrived at the south Dublin site flat-packed on trucks, before the bulk of the main assembly was done over three days.
Gavin Ó Fearraigh and Gavin Ó Fearraigh begin a new round of visits to organic farms with a trip to a cattle ranch in New South Wales.
Anybody missing the departed CSI: Crime Scene Investigation might take some solace from the return of this offshoot with Ted Danson.
Tonight’s show meets Vernon Kerswell, one of the poster-boys for crowd-funding after his micro-drone project raised over $3 million on Indiegogo. There’s also a feature on the vinyl revival.
Monty Don is making raised beds to get his vegetable patch up and running.
The celebrity chef begins his new series in Bordeaux, and over the next 10 weeks will visit other locations in search of delicious food and new recipes at markets, restaurants and wineries.
