Larry Goodman, Ireland's beef barron, 'Too Big To Fail'
TOP SPECIALS
Goodman: Too Big To Fail (RTE 1, Monday 2nd, 9.35pm)
He hasn’t courted publicity in decades, rarely gives interviews and never seeks headlines, and yet, few people in Europe wield more power over what ends up on our plates than Larry Goodman. At the centre of Ireland’s vast meat processing industry stands this intensely private businessman, the single largest exporter of beef in Europe, with companies that generate €2.5 billion in annual turnover. Now 89 years old, Goodman’s reach extends far beyond slaughterhouses and export contracts as the biggest player in Ireland’s private healthcare sector, and the owner of a vast property portfolio. 'Larry Goodman is Ireland’s JR and beef is Ireland’s oil.' (Elaine Byrne, barrister and author.)
The Stolen Girl (ITV, Wednesday 25th, 9pm)
Elisa is a private jet hostess and busy mother who allows her nine-year-old daughter, Lucia, to go on a sleepover playdate with her new best friend – especially after meeting Josephine’s friendly mother. But when Elisa arrives to collect Lucia the next day, the house turns out to be an empty luxury rental and Lucia has vanished.
The Dunblane Tapes (Channel 4, Thursday 25th, 9pm)
On March 13, 1996, a lone gunman walked into a primary school in Dunblane, and shot dead 16 pupils and their teacher in a gym class. As the 30th anniversary of the tragedy approaches, the documentary sheds new light on one of Britain’s darkest moments and the aftermath of an atrocity which shocked the world.
Other Voices (RTÉ 2, Thursday 26th, 11pm)
The new series kicks off with music from unstoppable folk trio Amble, in addition to indie-pop’s fastest rising stars Florence Road, alongside a standout performance by Nigerian-Irish songwriter and producer Moio. The series also takes a moment to honour the former president of Ireland and poet, Michael D Higgins, who appeared in West Kerry alongside his collaborator Myles O’Reilly for a surprise set last November.
Eva Longoria: Searching For Spain (RTÉ 2, Friday 27th, 8.35pm)
Journey with former Desperate Housewife actress Eva Longoria across Spain’s sun-drenched plains, rugged mountains and dramatic seascapes to explore its incredible wealth of cultures, climates and cuisines. The six-part series delves into the country’s most famous restaurants, along with many of its quirkiest chefs.
DTF St Louis (Sky Atlantic, Monday 2nd, 9pm)
Jason Bateman plays a weatherman and micro-celebrity in the greater St Louis area, who is best buddies with good-hearted interpreter David Harbour and his wife Linda Cardellini, a previously single mother struggling to support a troubled tweenage son. The trio sign on to a new app called DTF St Louis, made for singles and swingers looking to ‘spice up’ their marriages. After a few fateful swipes, everyone’s lives begin to change – and not always for the better.
BEST FILMS
Calendar Girls (BBC 4, Thursday 26th, 11.20pm)
After the death of their best friend’s husband from cancer, Yorkshire housewives Helen Mirren and Julie Walters hatch a scheme to raise money for a memorial by encouraging their friends to create a calendar – using the middle-aged women of their village as nude models. Based on a true story that is hilarious and heartfelt.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (CH4, Thursday 26th,12.35am)
Melissa McCarthy plays a hard-drinking New York author who can barely pay her rent or bills. Hatching a plan to forge letters by famous writers and sell them to collectors, she enlists Richard E Grant as a willing accomplice in a downward spiral of counterfeit and deceit. A true story that really is stranger than fiction.
Jurassic World Rebirth (Sky Cinema Premier, from Friday)
Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind.
Plainclothes (Sky Cinema Premere, from Sunday)
At his mother’s New Year’s Eve party, a young police officer loses a letter no one was ever meant to read. The letter unlocks memories of an incident months earlier, while working undercover in a mall bathroom, his arrest of two men turned men electric and intimate – leaving the conflicted cop marooned between duty and desire.
CLASSIC MOVIE
Ambulance (Film4, Wednesday 25th, 9pm)
In this all-out actioner from director-producer Michael Bay, decorated army veteran Will needs money to cover his wife’s medical bills, and enlists career criminal Danny to plot the biggest bank heist in Los Angeles history: $32 million. When their getaway goes spectacularly wrong, the desperate pair hijack an ambulance ferrying an injured cop in a high-speed pursuit that never stops. Jake Gyllenhaal stars.
WATCH OF THE WEEK
Dr Strangelove (Sky Arts, Wednesday 25th, 9pm)
Seven-time Bafta winner Steve Coogan plays four roles in the world première stage adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s comedy masterpiece Dr Strangelove. This explosively funny satire, about a rogue US General who triggers a nuclear attack, is led by a world-renowned creative team including Emmy Award-winner Armando Iannucci and Olivier Award-winner Sean Foley.
KIDS STUFF
Big Cats 24/7 (BBC 2, Friday 27th, 9pm)
The series is a deep dive into the lives of the big cats – lions, leopards and cheetahs – living in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Following individual big cats, day and night, across two dramatic seasons, it offers the high and lows of filming these magnificent animals in their native habitat.
Adam Loves Adventure (RTÉ 1, Saturday 28th, 8am)
Adam and the crew of The Shelby meet unique aliens and explore fantastical worlds, solving problems that necessitate empathy, compassion, teamwork and logic. The aliens may look a bit strange to us, but Adam can find common ground with anyone, no matter how different they may appear, as the crew explore the great unknown, where every day is a hilarious new adventure.
ON DEMAND
The Singers (Netflix)
From two-time Academy Award nominated filmmaker Sam Davis, this genre-bending adaptation of a 19th-century short story written by Ivan Turgenev is set in a lowly pub full of downtrodden men who connect unexpectedly through an impromptu sing-off. With a cast comprising first-time actors from the corners of TikTok and YouTube, the film is a celebration of diamonds in the rough and the power of vulnerability through art.
56 Days (Amazon Prime)
Adapted from the Catherine Ryan Howard novel, this psychological thriller follows Oliver and Ciara, who have a chance supermarket encounter and embark on an intense relationship. However, when a savagely murdered corpse surfaces 56 days later, the investigation delves into their turbulent love story, revealing grim secrets hidden in the dark folds of a supposedly romantic entanglement.
The Swedish Connection (Netflix)
In this little-known true story of World War II, a Swedish bureaucrat becomes an unlikely war hero as he attempts to save Jewish lives during the darkest days of the Third Reich. The unknown hero, Gösta Engzell, was a lowly bureaucrat at the Swedish Foreign Ministry who saved thousands of lives and turned the so-called neutral Sweden into a moral superpower along the way.
SPORTS CENTRE
Rugbai Beo (TG4, Friday 27th, 6.35pm)
In this break week from the Six Nations, Leinster are away to the Dragons in Cardiff in another key match in the United Rugby Championship. Certain players will want to up their game hoping for Ireland selection the following week.
League of Ireland (Virgin Media 2, Friday 27th, 7.30pm)
Back to the round ball this evening as Bohemians take on Shamrock Rovers in this all action fixture from the Premier Division at Dalymount Park. This legendary Northside versus Southside rivalry has grown down the decades, and produced many of the greatest football matches in Irish soccer history.