Monday’s TV tips
New series. Jeremy Paxman may have left the Newsnight studio after 25 years, but he is still the one asking the questions as the academic quiz returns for its 22nd series since the revival of the show in 1994.
Students from 28 UK universities answer questions on all manner of subjects, and the opening match of the first round sees the University of Glasgow and Peterhouse, Cambridge, battle it out for a place in the second stage of the contest as they seek to succeed 2015 winners Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
If you’ve not seen this quiz show before during either its run on BBC Four or previous series on BBC Two, and want to gauge how hard it is, here’s a clue - you should probably regard University Challenge as a warm-up.
That’s mainly because Only Connect doesn’t just test your general knowledge, it also challenges your lateral thinking skills as the contestants try to work out what links a set of apparently random clues.
The first brave souls to take up the challenge are the Operational Researchers and the Cluesmiths, who have a day job compiling crosswords.
On paper, that should be an advantage, but they’ll probably still be glad that Victoria Coren Mitchell tends to be more forgiving of wrong answers than Jeremy Paxman.
In one of the most anticipated fights of the year, a change in opponents has not rattled Conor ‘The Notorious’ McGregor’s confidence.
As he shifts from facing Jose ‘Scarface’ Aldo to fighting Chad ‘Money’ Mendes for an interim title at UFC 189, McGregor predicts he will knock Mendes out four minutes into the first round.
UFC boss Dana White has confirmed that whoever comes out on top during this fight will take on Aldo for the featherweight title, once he has fully recovered.
With his foppish dress sense and even more flamboyant taste in interior decoration, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen was arguably the break-out star of the hugely successful Changing Rooms.
His fame helped him to launch his own range of cushions and picture frames, which he sells through a well-known catalogue, but in the current economic climate, even household names face difficulties shifting their wares.
Luckily, Llewelyn-Bowen thinks he has spotted a potential new market, as he tries to start a business selling to emerging middle classes of China and Mexico.
However, instead of sticking to home decor, he is instead branching out into lingerie, and this documentary follows him in the build up to the launch.
Most people who play the lottery are hoping to change their lives – but what if that life is only just beginning? Jane Park was just 17 when she bought her first ever EuroMillions ticket, only for her numbers to come up on the Raffle.
This documentary finds that the teen did what many people would do, and splashed out on a couple of holidays.
However, while the cameras follow her to Benidorm and Magaluf, they also find her reflecting on how best to use her money, and what changes it will bring to her life.
In The Irish Pub, we meander across Ireland from Connemara to Carlow, from Monaghan to West Cork, from Louth to Limerick, from conversation to captivating conversation.
The Irish Pub is also a look at Ireland and who we are as a people. The history of Ireland, characters, song, music, anecdotes, politics, sport, religion, famine and the Irish sense of humour are all reflected upon.
These pubs reach out not just to every Irish person today but to the Irish 50 years ago, 100 years ago and even as far back as 500 years ago and to the Diaspora abroad.
The names over their doors are iconic. The stuff hanging on their walls is historic. However, the stories these pub owners tell are priceless.
(2012) The real-life dalliances of Beat Generation standard-bearer Jack Kerouac provide the creative spark for director Walles Salles’s handsomely crafted road movie based on the 1957 novel of the same name.
Sam Riley plays writer Sal Paradise, whose humdrum life in the late 1940s is sent into a tailspin by the arrival of nomadic free spirit Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund), whose home is wherever he drops his trousers.
This could be the bed of his beautiful girlfriend Camille (Kirsten Dunst), tormented poet Carlo Marx (Tom Sturridge) or incandescent 16-year-old Marylou (Kristen Stewart).
Sal’s odyssey of self-discovery coincides with Dean’s painful fall from grace, set against stunning American landscapes that cinematographer Eric Gautier captures in their glory.
(2007) Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro and David Duchovny star in Danish director Susanne Bier’s muted yet powerful study of grief and redemption, with Berry and Del Toro delivering compelling performances as emotionally damaged creatures, united in mourning.
Recent widow Audrey (Berry) invites her husband’s drug-addicted best friend Jerry (Del Toro) to live with her and her two children, offering to help him turn his life around.
As he gradually begins to escape his troubled past, Jerry’s presence unites the family as they struggle to cope with their grief, ultimately leading them to confront their loss.
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