Pick of the weekMrs RobinsonWednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
Former president Mary Robinson has been tirelessly battling inequality, injustice and human rights abuses for more than 50 years, and you’d need to bring out the heavy guns to narrate any documentary about her. And who better to tell her story than Robinson herself? This film, directed by Aoife Kelleher and released in cinemas in 2023, takes us back to her days as a crusading constitutional lawyer and senator. It follows her time as Ireland’s first woman president, when she changed the nature of the presidency forever, and her post-presidential career as a UN high commissioner, where she took on the dictators, despots and corrupt leaders perpetrating atrocities against their own people. Robinson is continuing to fight the good fight into her 80s, as chair of the Elders, a global group of human rights advocates founded by Nelson Mandela. Other voices chime in with their own views on Robinson’s life and legacy, including her former adviser the late Bride Rosney, entrepreneur Richard Branson, rock star Peter Gabriel and Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole, but mostly this is Mary Robinson herself, sharing her influences and inspirations in her own words. Prepare to be inspired.
HighlightsKaren PirieSunday, UTV, 8pm
Lauren Lyle is back for a second season as detective inspector Karen Pirie
Lauren Lyle is back as the titular detective in the Scottish-based crime drama written by Emer Kenny and based on the novels of Val McDermid. Series one, aired in 2022, was praised as a gripping slice of tartan noir, and Kenny promises that series two will be “a little more epic, a little bit bigger”. It seems Pirie’s talents have finally been recognised, and she has been promoted to detective inspector, but is soon facing a challenging and complex cold case mystery. She and her team are assigned to investigate a case that gripped the nation in 1984: the sensational kidnapping of a young heiress and her two-year-old son outside a fish and chip shop in Fife. Neither they nor their kidnappers have been heard from since, but the discovery of a man’s body may provide a vital link to events 40 years ago. Chris Jenks co-stars as DC Jason “Mint” Murray and Zach Wyatt as the brilliant DS Phil Parhatka.
Faraway DownsSunday, RTÉ2, 11.30pm
Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman in Faraway Downs
There’s a bit of a backstory behind this Aussie TV drama, set in the shadow of the second World War and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, originally aired in 2023. Eagle-eyed viewers may spot a startling resemblance to Baz Luhrmann’s 2008 epic film flop Australia, starring Kidman and Jackman, and that’s because it is Australia, reworked by the director into a six-part TV series, with unused footage from the original film added in to beef up the action. Lurhmann reckoned that if the bloated original movie didn’t click with cinema audiences, maybe an even more bloated series, broken down into digestible hour-long episodes, would connect better with viewers of streaming services. Kidman stars as English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley, owner of the titular cattle station following her errant husband’s death. A ruthless baron is out to snatch the ranch from under Lady Sarah’s toffee nose, so she joins forces with a gruff, uncouth cattle drover, known simply as The Drover (Jackman), to thwart the baron’s plans. Cue smouldering romance amid a backdrop of breathtaking scenery and lots of Aussie-Pommy culture clash – Gone with the Wind meets Crocodile Dundee. Lady Sarah also befriends an Indigenous child, Nullah (Brandon Walters), and vows to protect him from the Australian government’s cruel treatment of First Nations people – white saviour syndrome strikes again, say the critics. Still, if you’re a fan of Yellowstone and its historically set spin-offs, and you have a high tolerance for mawkishness, this could be worth passing the time.
The Narrow Road to the Deep NorthSunday, BBC One, 9.15pm
Jacob Elordi and Odessa Young in The Narrow Road to the Deep North on BBC. Photograph: BBC/Curio Pictures/Sony Pictures Television/
Sunday must be epic Aussie drama night, because here’s another series set around the second World War, this one based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Richard Flanagan, and coming with a thumbs-up from the critics. The story jumps between three time periods: before, during and after the war, and stars Jacob Elordi as medical student and soldier Dorrigo Evans, who is captured and sent to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, where he is forced to work on the Burma railway line. The scenes of brutality and torture will make Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence look like The Muppets Christmas Carol. We know Dorrigo survives, because Ciarán Hinds is on hand to play an older version of him, a formidable surgeon in Sydney who is interviewed by a journalist about his experiences as a POW. Odessa Young, Olivia DeJonge and Simon Baker also star.
MandyMonday, BBC Two, 11pm
Michelle Greenidge (left) as Lola and Diane Morgan as Mandy in BBC’s comedy series Mandy. Photograph: BBC/Richard Harrison
Whether she’s delivering dodgy natural history documentaries as the anti-Attenborough Philomena Cunk, or here playing the clueless job-hopping woman with the wonky mouth, Diane Morgan continues to mine comedy gold, and series four of Mandy promises to bring the absurdism – and the laughs – to new levels. In series three, Mandy inadvertently thwarted a terrorist attack on a plane, accidentally turned a blowtorch into a mass-murder weapon, and saw her dream job as a biscuit taster turn into a cookie-monster nightmare. Series four episodes include Petty Woman, in which Mandy learns the importance of meticulous paperwork, Mad Mandy: Fury Road, in which she finds herself held back by an unknown force, and Mand on the Run, in which a seemingly ordinary Tuesday afternoon descends into death and destruction.
Mr BigstuffThursday, Sky Max & Now, 9pm
Danny Dyer and Ryan Sampson in series two of Mr Bigstuff
Danny Dyer stars as Lee, the estranged brother of carpet salesman Glen (Ryan Sampson) in this comedy set in suburban Essex. Dyer’s performance in the first series, created and written by Sampson, earned him a Bafta – not bad for a bloke who’s become known for hard-man roles, TV presenting jobs and a stint in EastEnders. Mr Bigstuff has been a big hit with viewers, and the good news is the brothers are reunited for another chaotic adventure through a maze of family dynamics. We pick up the action shortly after Lee and Glen discover that their dad isn’t actually dead. Nothing else for it but to try to track the old man down. Meanwhile Lee is still determined to teach Glen to bloke up and grow a pair, while Glen’s fiancee Kirsty (Harriet Webb) is still on a mission to be the alpha female at work – and in the bedroom.
StreamingCritical: Between Life and DeathFrom Wednesday 23rd, Netflix
This fast-paced documentary series follows trauma teams across London’s hospital system as they race to save lives, and one of its stars is Irish medic Dr Marie Healy, who moved to the UK capital in 1989 and trained at Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, where she is now director of critical care. The makers bring viewers into the heart of London’s major trauma system to watch the teams they work against the clock to save patients who have suffered catastrophic injuries. In the first episode, they have to deal with multiple casualties after a fairground ride disaster.
The AssassinFrom Friday 25th, Prime Video
Keeley Hawes and Freddie Highmore head the cast of this thriller series created by the crime-writing duo of Harry and Jack Williams. Hawes plays retired assassin Julie, who is living quietly on an idyllic Greek island, and hoping to put her life as a hit woman behind her. But her solitude is interrupted by the arrival of her estranged son, Edward (Highmore), who is looking for answers about who his father is. Julie will have to consider coming out of retirement as some unwelcome faces from her past show up on the island, forcing her and Edward to flee for their lives. In this globetrotting thriller series, Hawes and Highmore are joined by a superb supporting cast including Gina Gershon, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Jack Davenport and Richard Dormer.