The June Bank Holiday weekend always feels like the beginning of summer even if the weather is often rather mixed.

 

I’m a little late focusing on the Rugby World Cup, but with the final group matches this weekend there will be a lot of tension around and you may need a glass of wine to calm your nerves.

Aidan Turner, he of The Hobbit fame, is set to feature in a lavish and star-studded adaptation of the classic Agatha Christie tale

Your spoiler free guide to tonight's TV.

The long-awaited sequel to Jurassic Park has just released its first trailer.

Check out our guide to the best shows and films on TV tonight.

Cillian Murphy is back for a second series as the fearless Thomas Shelby, leader of the marauding Peaky Blinders, says Susan Griffin

South Africa couldn’t afford it. Brazil doesn’t want it. Russia mightn’t be right for it. Qatar shouldn’t have got it.

The World Cup kicks off shortly in Brazil, with associated nonsense either starting soon or already well under way (exhibit A: Wayne Rooney’s faux outtrage, with the English media’s interest in him and his family).

There’s a man that comes by this part of town some evenings. Leathery skin. Bristly grey hair. Gravelly voice.

In 1993, dinosaurs ruled the world, and smashed box office records as Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster ‘Jurassic Park’ stomped past ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial’ to become the highest grossing film of all time.

Cork heartthrob Cillian Murphy and Love/Hate star Tom Vaughan-Lawlor are set to star in the highly anticipated BBC gangster series Peaky Blinders.

NEW ZEALAND wine producers held their annual wine fair in Dublin earlier this month and it seems Ireland is now their fifth largest export market with sales having increased by around 12% in 2012.

Bright clean cherries and strawberries on the nose with lovely fresh clean red fruit flavours on the palate.

Irish-born actor Sam Neill may have left Ireland almost 60 years ago, but he still treasures his Irish passport.

You can’t promote your own award-winning wine in Ireland without including a visit to Cork.

IT’S that time of year again and the calendar is stuffed with delicious events.

MUSIC NEWS: If you’re not a fan of Olympic boxing, some of the best sporting fun of recent days has been the verbal sparring between Elton John and Madonna.

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

SATURDAY

Birdsong, BBC One, tomorrow

DRIVE (18s) may well be the coolest movie you’ll see this year.

O’Toole’s film from first to last, 'Dean Spanley' and a wonderfully complex yet entertaining film that’s full of observation, heart, humour and pathos.

The Tudors, the big budget mini-series shot in Ireland, has proved so successful Stateside that it will be back for a second series - and that’s good news for the local industry with locations planned for Ardmore, Dublin and Wicklow in June.

One of New Zealand’s most famous exports, Sam Neill, has exported a bit of New Zealand to Hong Kong.

Another fine performance from the terrific Blanchett and a strong script that breathes depth into the characters gives this story of family dysfunction a decided edge.

Irish star Jonathan Rhys Meyers says he doesn't look like King Henry VIII, but he's looking forward to playing him anyway … in the lavish mini-series The Tudors.

Golden Globe winner Jonathan Rhys-Meyers today said it was an honour to play Henry VIII in the new €29m television drama series shooting in Ireland.

NI-born Sam Neill joins Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Henry Cavill and Jeremy Northam in the up-coming costume series, The Tudors, with Meyers playing Henry VIII.

In The Triangle (Lions Gate, €24.99), billionaire Eric Benirall (Sam Neill) is running out of cargo ships, victims of the mysterious Bermuda Triangle.

We are, you must understand, in the land of wild and unbelievable fantasy with this sporting film; it is, after all, about a no-hoper Brit, way down the professional lists, who conquers the famous tennis tournament.

An Australian pensioner is to be interviewed by police after claiming he can provide conclusive proof that a dingo savaged a baby girl to death 24 years ago, officers confirmed today.

An old man’s claim that he shot a wild dog that snatched a baby at Ayers Rock in the Australian Outback nearly a quarter of a century ago today revived an investigation into one of the country’s most enduring mysteries.

ONE of Australia’s most enduring mysteries, the fate of a baby killed by a dingo in the Outback 24 years ago, took another twist yesterday with an elderly man saying he retrieved the baby’s body from the jaws of a wild dog he shot.

Australian movie director Tim Burstall died today at the age of 76 after suffering a stroke, his son said in Melbourne.

DIRTY DEEDS is the story of Sydney gangster Barry (Bryan Brown), who, with the help of bent cop Ray (Sam Neill), is coining it in stealing money from poker machines.

Planning is well under way for the fourth Jurassic Park.

There is nothing original or interesting in this dismal effort since the makers have clearly come to it without a script and decided to re-hash as many scenes as they could remember from other films.

It's no surprise that Steven Spielberg is considering another Jurassic Park movie.