Desperate Houses
Tuesday, RTÉ One, 8.30pm
Is your house hopelessly cluttered? Are your closets bursting with useless bric-a-brac and are your wardrobes spilling over with old clothes you’ll never wear? Ever wondered why you’re so reluctant to let things go? It’s all in your mind, apparently - you have to change the way you think and root out the underlying issues that cause you to become a hoarder.
Architect and designer Roisin Murphy can't do much about what's in your head, but she can help you declutter your home, which hopefully will open the door to a better state of mind and a happier life. Roisin and her team are back for another series of Desperate Houses, and once again they'll be going into people's pads and helping them clear out the clutter that's been piling up over the years.
Their first patient - I mean, client - is Annette from Tallaght, who has brought up three children in her house on her own after her husband, Michael, died of a brain haemhorrage when the kids were very young. Tragedy befell the family again when her son John died four years ago. The legacy of her loss is that Annette now has problems with letting things go, but ironically, her house so cluttered, the things that are worth keeping - and the important mementos of her life - are buried under a load of stuff that is no longer of any value.
Roisin’s task is to help Annette separate the junk from the things that really matter.
You Should Really See a Doctor
Wednesday, RTÉ One, 8.30pm
If your problem is more medical than storage-related, then Dr Pixie McKenna and Dr Phil Kiernan are back for a third series of You Should Really See a Doctor. They’ll be travelling around the country once again with their pop-up clinic, and among their patients is a guy with persistent mouth ulcers, a woman with chronic pelvic girdle pain, and a farmer with a mysterious burning sensation on his feet. You should really see some of these rashes, bumps and blisters - if you can stomach it. The doctoring duo will also be visiting the Blue Jean Country Queen Festival in Athboy, Co Meath, to show the belles how to carry out their own breast checks, and dropping by the Limerick Classic Car Show to help the motorheads check under the hood for testicular cancer. Actually, you’re looking a bit peaky yourself - maybe you should really see a doctor, too.
Sick Note
Tuesday, Sky One, 10pm
So, you’ve been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and suddenly everyone around you is being super-nice to you, your boss stops threatening to fire you, and your girlfriend has decided not to dump you after all. But then the doctor tells you he made a mistake and you’re not actually sick at all. What you do? You say nothing of course, and continue to enjoy all the attention and sympathy. Sick Note stars Rupert Grint as the misdiagnosed Daniel, with Nick Frost as the incompetent doctor who urges Daniel to keep the charade up. But of course, as with all telly lies, the deception spirals out of control with - we hope - hilarious results.
Golden: Our 50 Years of Marriage
Monday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
Imagine staying with someone for 50 years. I know, you can barely go 50 hours without having to go on Tinder and find a new fling. But amazingly, some people have lasted an entire half-century in each other's company without killing each other. Golden: Our 50 Years of Marriage meets ordinary couples who have stuck it out through thick and thin, and tries to uncover the secret to a long and happy relationship. The couples cast their minds right back to their courtship, their wedding day, the arrival of children and the many milestones, challenges, victories and tragedies along the way. Among the featured couples are Pat and Kathleen Mulcahy, who founded Project Children, a programme which brought young people from the North on a trip to America to escape the Troubles; Joan and Pierce Butler, who have known each other since they were kids growing up in Rathgar; Kees and Anneke Vogelaar, who moved to Ireland from the Netherlands and bought an apple farm, but had to deal with the tragedy of losing their son; and Ned and Eileen Cusack, who have been married for a whopping 73 years, and are probably Ireland's oldest married couple.
Motherland
Tuesday, BBC Two, 10pm
Two titans of comedy writing have joined forces for a new comedy series, so you might as well just surrender and swear allegiance to Motherland. Graham Linehan and Sharon Horgan have an impressive CV of great comedy shows between them and, with Helen Linehan and Holly Walsh completing the writing team, they're hoping their new show will do for motherhood what Father Ted did for the priesthood and Catastrophe did for relationships. Anna Maxwell Martin plays Julia, freshly introduced to mummy hell, trying to juggle work, baby and husband, and constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown/complete psychotic mum-ageddon. She's trying to prove she can be one of the elite "alpha-mums", led by Amanda (Lucy Punch), who take no prisoners when it comes to mum-upmanship, and she'll do whatever it takes - even down to lying and cheating - to rule all of motherland.
The A Word
Tuesday, BBC One, 9pm
It’s back to England’s scenic Lake District for a second series of The A Word, the family drama revolving around the life of Joe, a child on the autism spectrum. Two years have passed in the lives of the Hughes and Scott family - Joe Hughes (Max Vento) is now seven, still obsessed with music, and still with his headphones firmly fixed to his cranium. But he’s starting to suspect that he may be different from the other kids, and his parents, Paul (Lee Ingleby) and Alison (Morven Christie), know they must soon discuss the dreaded A word with their son. But they’ll also have to deal with some of their own issues as well. Meanwhile, Joe’s grandad Maurice (Christopher Eccleson) finds himself back in the orbit of his former music teacher and lover Louise (Pooky Quesnel).
