Ray Goggins takes PJ Gallagher and Liam Cunningham to the Himalayas on motorbikes
TV WEEK (Wednesday 13th to Tuesday 19th)
TOP SPECIALS
Ireland On Empty (Virgin Media One, Wednesday 13th, 9pm)
After the conflict in Iran erupted, petrol prices shot up across Ireland causing social and commercial unrest. With disruption across cities and towns, this one-off documentary examines the efforts to stem the problem and asks if it will get much worse as we move into the tourism into summer months.
The Hunt (TG4, Wednesday 13th, 11.05pm)
In 1999, the body of a 16-year-old girl was found next to an asylum seeker centre in the Netherlands. Inspired by a true crime that gripped a whole nation for more than a decade, The Hunt depicts how the long and frustrating search for the perpetrator confronted the inhabitants and asylum seekers of a little Dutch town with xenophobia, racism, and bizarre conspiracy theories.
Help! We Bought A Village (CH4, Thursday 14th, 1.10pm)
Across Europe, there are hundreds of remote villages, hamlets, borgos and cortijos lying empty as inhabitants have left agriculture behind to seek employment in the cities. A few brave couples are breathing new life into these beautiful historic enclaves – including Francesca and Carl who are racing against time to reopen their Italian hamlet for business, while the owners of a derelict French settlement come to terms with the need to demolish some of its buildings.
Unreported World: Faith Healers – Saints Or Scammers? (CH4, Friday 15th, 7.30pm)
Sahar Zand reports from the Philippines and the controversial world of spiritual healers. Is the popular practice a blessing or a curse? With high medical costs and difficulties accessing healthcare, patients put their trust in alternative treatments to cure anything from chronic pain to cancer. Faith healers, blending Catholic rituals with centuries-old traditions, promise miraculous recoveries through prayer, herbal remedies and psychic surgery.
WATCH OF THE WEEK
Uncharted With Ray Goggins (RTÉ 1, Wednesday 13th, 9.35pm)
Adventurer and former special forces soldier Ray Goggins takes well-known Irish faces on extreme outdoor expeditions through some of the most remote and unforgiving environments on Earth. Each week, a new pairing are challenged with a physically and mentally demanding adventure, designed to push their limits and spark real personal growth. Comedian PJ Gallagher and actor Liam Cunningham take on the treacherous high altitude dirt roads of the Himalayas on motorbikes, where they eat, pray and bike their way along some of the diciest roads in the world.
BEST FILMS
Free Fire (Film4, Friday 15th, 11.50pm)
In 1970s Boston, a group of arms dealers led by Vernon (Sharlto Copley) and a group of Irish buyers led by Frank (Michael Smiley) meet in an abandoned factory to negotiate a deal. This tense powder keg of a meet is set alight when Harry (Jack Reynor) realises that one of the opposite gang is the man he beat up the night before for assaulting his cousin. Cue explosive encounter as the two gangs fight for survival. Watch out for Cillian Murphy in a minor role.
The Equaliser 2 (CH4, Saturday 16th, 9pm)
Denzel Washington returns as Robert McCall, the retired CIA agent turned vengeful Robin Hood. In action director Antoine Fuqua’s action crime sequel McCall works as a cab driver, where he drives deep into the city’s seedy underbelly when a former CIA friend is murdered.
She Said (CH4, Sunday 17th, 11.05pm)
A gritty adaptation of New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s book about their investigation into the sexual abuses of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Carey Mulligan plays the reporter investigating accusations of sexual misconduct by Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election campaign – a struggle resulting in threats, but which blows up globally when Trump wins the presidency.
CLASSIC MOVIE
Ann (RTÉ 2, Friday 15th, 9.35pm)
In 1984 a pregnant teenager in a small Irish town awoke to realise that she was about to give birth, ending up in the Grotto of her local church. Two hours later, Ann Lovett and her baby would be dead. This story shines a light into the last 13 hours of a tragic life, a girl alone abandoned by Irish society. With present-day Boyle standing in for 1980s Granard, the film conjures the claustrophobia of small town life, featuring a powerful performance from Zara Devlin in a chilling recreation of a time when a culture of shame and secrecy prevailed.
KIDS STUFF
Bowling For Columbine (Sky Documentaries, Thursday 14th, 11.30pm)
Political documentary filmmaker Michael Moore explores the circumstances that led to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and the proliferation of guns in America. In his trademark fashion, Moore accosts K-mart corporate employees and pleads with them to stop selling bullets, investigates why Canada doesn’t have the same excessive rate of gun violence and questions actor Charlton Heston on his support of the National Rifle Association.
Smoggie Queens (BBC 3, Friday 15th, 10pm)
Written by BAFTA nominated Middlesbrough native Phil Dunning, Smoggie Queens tells the story of volatile Dickie, along with drag queen Mam, self-styled hun Lucinda, awkward Sal and newly out Stewart. In this second series, the gang navigate love, friendship and plenty of drama in the hunt for romance on date nights, coming-out parties, a male beauty pageant and even a football match.
ON DEMAND
Rivals (Disney+)
The wonderful Jilly Cooper may now be quaffing champagne above us on Cloud Nine, but her glorious fiction lives on with the second series of Rivals. Set in the cutthroat world of 1980s television, where the shoulder pads are big and ambitions bigger, a long-standing rivalry boils over as ex-Olympian and notorious womaniser Rupert Campbell-Black goes head-to-head with the media mogul Lord Tony Baddingham in a bid to win a valuable television franchise. Amidst the hedonistic glamour of ‘80s excess, the Rutshire inhabitants are once again at ‘it’ with gusto.
Untold UK: Jamie Vardy (Netflix)
Record-breaker. Gamechanger. Mischief maker. Jamie Vardy’s rise from non-league unknown to Premier League legend is a story that goes from factory shifts and part-time football to firing 5,000–1 outsiders Leicester City to the Premier League title. Vardy’s journey feels less like a career and more like a footballing miracle.
Roosters (Netflix)
Roosters is about Mike, Ivo, Daan and Greg, four Dutch 40-somethings who all feel lost in the new world of empowered women. In Roosters, we follow this tight-knit group of friends in the midst of their crisis of masculinity, each desperately trying to salvage what’s left of their relationships and careers in the funniest ways possible.
SPORTS CENTRE
Ali’s Comeback (RTÉ 2, Thursday 14th, 9.35pm)
In 1970, Muhammad Ali was exiled from boxing for his firm stance against the Vietnam War, stripped of his title, convicted of draft evasion. But in Atlanta that all changed when a diverse group of individuals came together to make sure the greatest boxer on Earth received a fair fight. The combination of an ambitious white attorney turned promoter, Atlanta’s first Jewish mayor, and a visionary black senator made the impossible possible as the greatest athlete of the 20th Century was rescued from the shadows of the boxing ring, and led back to the world stage.