Today’s TV tips
In recent times Ireland has had many high profile events, which have been covered across the world by extensive television coverage.
What is not known is how they were organised and how close they came to not happening at all.
On the eve of President Higgins’ state visit to the UK this week we look behind the scenes at the State visit Queen Elizabeth II in 2011 and talk to the insiders who made it happen.
We meet the key people who delivered the event and worked on the visit. And we hear from journalists and commentators about the hidden tensions and the impact the visit had on Anglo Irish relations.
She’s been demonstrating the finer points of cooking for almost 60 years now, and what Mary Berry doesn’t know about baking couldn’t fill a cake tin – so we’ve been engrossed in this series, which has seen her impart her wisdom on all manner of culinary constructions, from sandwiches and scones to cottage pie.
Sadly, like all good things, it must come to an end, and it draws to a close this evening, after which time Mary leaves us on our own in the kitchen once again – but not before providing us with a few recipes for an outdoor summer lunch (we could just do with the weather to brighten up a bit to go with it).
Mary will be demonstrating salmon fillets with herb sauce, ham with home-made chutney, and fillet of beef with garlic and mustard cream. She’s not stopping there, though, as she prepares two salads to accompany the cold meats – one with fiery red rice, and the other featuring broad beans and little gem.
Episode 2
Prison Families is a documentary series filmed over a six-month period following the lives of four families as they cope with a family member’s imprisonment, which often has detrimental consequences for everybody involved. Families say that they themselves serve a sentence “as bad or worse” than the prisoner’s own.
In episode two of Prison Families, we meet a downcast Brendan, who hasn't heard from his son Stephen since he kicked him out of the family home for smoking heroin. A habitual drug user Stephen has slipped back into old habits following his recent release from prison.
In Mountjoy Prison, Santa has made a special appearance and Donna is handing in a present to her partner. prior to the Christmas deadline. Lauren is still anxious about Jason abiding by his temporary release conditions as they continue to make plans towards their Valentine's Day wedding.
With the majority of the prison problems having drug addiction problems, we meet a Bray woman, who is sticking by her partner in Wheatfield with the proviso that he stays off drugs in prison and on his release.
To the outside world, university student Natalie seems like your average young woman determined to go far in life; she’s studying policing and criminology - but she has a lot more experience than most.
Ever since she was 13, Natalie has been in and out of the criminal justice system. It’s taken her nine years, but she’s stopped offending and turned her life around and in this documentary, for the Crime and Punishment season, she’s examining the impact prison has had on other young adult offenders.
Natalie meets Sephton, who was also 13 when he left home, with his street life leading to gangs, drugs and spells in prison.
After so long trapped in a cycle of re-offending, and only breaking it when he was 24, he’s now struggling to adjust to outside life – and he puts it down to anxiety. In prison, everything was within his reach, provided for him, but now even basic tasks such as shopping and cooking are a struggle.
Oh how the other half live...
Actually, it’s much the same as us – complete with all the usual love-life dramas and friendship fallings out – the only difference being that these men and women are preened to perfection and armed with all the latest designer gear. Can’t be bad.
The beautiful people of Chelsea return to allow us a window into their world of fast-paced careers and high-end living, and in the first instalment, the fact that Jamie’s been playing away is about to become common knowledge – so it’s only a matter of time before Lucy finds out.
And after he’d gone to all that trouble to win her over at the end of the last series with a horse and carriage...
Meanwhile, Alex and Binky are one couple that is blissfully loved-up – but all that could change with the bombshell that Spencer is about to drop.
And Victoria is determined to make a fresh start so seeks peace with Cheska.
Another chance to see the award-winning 1996 documentary that first brought the story of the recently-deceased Christine Buckley to the Irish people.
The unwanted child from a relationship between a Nigerian medical student and a married Dublin woman, Christine Buckley was abandoned at three weeks and subsequently brought up in Goldenbridge orphanage where life for her and other children like her, was pure hell.
The traumatic experiences of Christine Buckley at the Goldenbridge Orphanage and on her subsequent search for her birth parents who left her in the care of the institution.
A young boy is taken on an adventure through time and space by a gang of renegade dwarfs, who are on the lookout for treasure.
The lad, Kevin, meets various famous faces from history, including Napoleon, Robin Hood and Agamemnon, before coming face to face with evil incarnate.
Despite its reputation as a children’s film, this is an adventure for all ages and easily one of the best fantasies of the 1980s.
Visually stunning, very funny and occasionally disturbing, it is a tribute to the manic talent of director Terry Gilliam and an impressively game cast.
Jonathan Pryce was offered the role of Evil Genius, but had to drop out when filming clashed with another project. Never mind – David Warner is fantastic in the role.
The original script described King Agamemnon as looking like ’Sean Connery, or an actor of cheaper but equal stature.’ So, Gilliam was stunned when Connery got hold of the script and said he wanted the part.
Craig Warnock, David Rappaport, John Cleese, Sean Connery, Ian Holm, Ralph Richardson, Michael Palin, David Warner, Jim Broadbent
92%
A family move into a new house and have barely unpacked when their son goes exploring in the attic – and falls into a coma.
The doctors are unable to explain his condition, but a series of strange events and bumps in the night leave his parents wondering if the supernatural may be to blame.
It seems the only way to get their son back is to call in someone who can get rid of the ghosts....
Is It Any Good? Insidious initially holds us in a vice-like grip, following the Paranormal Activity template (with a sprinkling of Poltergeist) by escalating the threat to the family from creaking doors and strange shadows to full-blown physical violence.
If this supernatural horror had ended after the first hour, it would be the creepiest thriller of the last few years.
Unfortunately, screenwriter Leigh Whannell, co-creator of the bloodthirsty Saw films, engineers a hare-brained second act that alters the mood.
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Barbara Hershey
66%
The story begins in the New York neighbourhood Hell’s Kitchen during the 1960s, when four teenage friends take part in a prank that goes tragically wrong.
They are sent to a reform school, where the guards subject them to horrifying physical and sexual abuse.
Years later, two of the quartet spot their chief tormentor in a diner and shoot him dead, setting in motion a series of events that gives the former friends a chance for justice in the courts, and an opportunity to lay the ghosts of the past to rest.
Once the movie is over, you may find yourself picking up plot holes and questioning its apparent endorsement of mob justice.
But while you’re watching it, there’s no question that it’s a powerful experience, and the heavyweight cast makes sure it packs a real emotional punch.
Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Minnie Driver, Billy Crudup
74%
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