Pick of the Week
The Day of the Jackal
Thursday, Sky Atlantic & Now, 9pm
The classic Frederick Forsyth novel has already been adapted into an acclaimed 1973 film starring Edward Fox – and a half-cocked 1997 update, The Jackal, starring Bruce Willis and Richard Gere. The book focuses on the race to stop an assassin before he can kill French president Charles de Gaulle; this new 10-part TV thriller series brings the action firmly into the geopolitical arena of the 2020s, and stars Eddie Redmayne as the titular hitman, whose fee for knocking off high-profile targets runs to a cool $100 million in today’s money. Lashana Lynch, who previously starred in 007 film No Time to Die, co-stars as Bianca, the agent who becomes obsessed with tracking the Jackal down before he completes his deadliest assignment yet. Top Boy screenwriter Ronan Bennett is the writer and showrunner, and he promises the series will remain true to the DNA of the original story while bringing viewers on a cat-and-mouse chase to so many exotic locations around the world that even James Bond would get jet lag. Redmayne is suitably wraith-like as the Jackal, a chameleon who can easily blend in with the crowd, while Úrsula Corberó from acclaimed Spanish series Money Heist is the Jackal’s glamorous girlfriend who has no idea she’s dating the world’s most hunted killer.
Asia
Sunday, BBC One, 6.30pm
This new series is certainly not short on ambition, as it sets out to document the nature and wildlife of the vast continent of Asia, from the eastern Mediterranean all the way out to western Pacific. In this first episode, titled Beneath the Waves, the film crew explore the continent’s coastline – the longest of any continent – and follow some of the world’s most powerful currents – including the notorious Indonesian Throughflow, which spawns deadly whirlpools – to discover some of the extraordinary variety of marine species surviving in these roiling seas. Among them are Moorish idols, whose spawning grounds are under constant attack from grey reef sharks; dusky-gilled mudskippers, a fish that can climb trees; the neon-blue firefly squid, and the harmless-looking sea bunny, actually a sea slug whose favourite food, the deadly poisonous blue sponge, protects it from predators.
Until I Kill You
Sunday-Wednesday, UTV, 9pm
Anna Maxwell-Martin stars as nurse Delia Balmer with Shaun Evans as John Sweeney in this true-life story of a woman who survived a relationship with serial killer. When Balmer meets Sweeney in a pub, they immediately hit it off, but soon Sweeney shows his dark side, subjecting Delia to violent attacks, and revealing to her that he killed his former girlfriend. Delia goes to the police and Sweeney is arrested, but as soon as he gets out on bail he tries to kill Delia. Seven years later, and still trying to rebuild her shattered life, Delia is called to testify against Sweeney, who is on trial for the murder of another girlfriend. The series is based on Balmer’s book Living with a Serial Killer.
10 Things to Know About
Monday, RTÉ One, 8.30pm
The science and sustainability show returns for its 10th series, presented by broadcasting boffins Kathriona Devereux, Amy Hassett, Fergus McAuliffe and Jonathan McCrea, and this first episode promises plenty of bite as the team go shark hunting in Tralee Bay in Co Kerry with a group of researchers on a mission to track and tag some of the 71 different species of shark, skate and ray to be found here. With many of these varieties on Ireland’s Red List of Threatened Species, it’s become vital to learn more about these creatures so we can better protect them. Then it’s off to Co Wicklow to data scientists working hard to preserve our precious peatlands – with help from AI and satellite technology.
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Gunpowder Siege
Monday, Sky History & Now, 9pm
On the eve of bonfire night, here’s a reminder of why November 5th, 1605 is a key date in British history. On that day, a group of Roman Catholic zealots plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and spark off a Catholic rebellion. The goal of the conspirators was to assassinate the Protestant King James and install his daughter Elizabeth on the throne, but the plot was foiled, and this three-part docudrama reimagines the most notorious plot in British history, and promises to explode a few myths about the events, focusing on the three main conspirators, Robert Catesby, Thomas Wintour and Thomas Percy, as they go on the run in England following the arrest and torture of Guy Fawkes, who had been caught before he could set off the explosives.
Shetland
Wednesday, BBC One, 9pm
The crime drama set on the Scottish archipelago returns for its ninth series, with Ashley Jensen and Alison O’Donnell reprising their roles as detectives Ruth Calder and Alison “Tosh” McIntosh. In this new series, Calder and Tosh are faced with a missing persons case that is also very personal: Tosh’s friend Annie Bett and her young son Noah have disappeared, and as the two detectives begin their inquiries, they learn that Annie and her husband Ian have become estranged, and encounter a Prof Euan Rossi, who claims to have been Annie’s tutor at Oxford, and travelled to Shetland after receiving a distressed voicemail from Annie.
Lucan
Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm
It’s one of the biggest missing persons mysteries of modern times – whatever happened to Lord Lucan? The aristocrat vanished into thin air 50 years ago; shortly afterwards, the body of his children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was found in a mail sack in Belgravia, and a worldwide manhunt began for her killer, Richard John Bingham, the seventh earl of Lucan. Despite countless sightings, no one has ever found the chief suspect in Rivett’s murder. Then comes a twist to the tale: in 2004, Neil Berriman, a builder from Hampshire who was adopted, learns that he is actually the birth son of the murdered nanny. This three-part series follows Berriman’s 17-year journey to learn more about his birth mother’s life and track down her killer, with help from investigative journalist Glen Campbell.
Christy Brown: Self Portrait
Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
Daniel Day-Lewis delivered an Oscar-winning tour de force as Christy Brown in My Left Foot, but the makers of this 50-minute feature documentary want to go beyond the film to show how Brown’s poetry transcended his physical disability to reach for universal truths. Writer and director Alex Verner sets out to paint a “raw, unfiltered and deeply human” view of Brown’s life and work, drawing on his poems, letter and other writings. Aidan Gillen is the narrator, while Saoirse Ronan reads Brown’s poetry, bringing them to vibrant life, while Jim Sheridan, John Banville, Mary Duffy and Peter Sheridan offer insights into Brown’s life and art.
Junior Taskmaster
Friday, Channel 4, 8pm
It had to happen. Taskmaster has been allowing grown-up celebrities to act like big kids, so now it’s the real kids’ turn to take on bizarre tasks that sorely test your grip on reality. This spin-off of the successful show takes place in a brand new child-friendly Taskmaster house, and will be hosted by Junior Taskmaster Rose Matafeo and her able assistant Mike Wozniak, who will be setting the surreal challenges for their young contestants, all aged between nine and 11. “To be appointed as Junior Taskmaster is one of the greatest honours of my already wildly successful career. I’m greatly looking forward to the power going to my head,” says Matafeo, while Wozniak adds: “All I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a Little Alex Horne (or a regional manager for a major provider of motorway service stations) so this is literally a dream come true.”
Streaming
The Old Man
From Wednesday, Disney+
Jeff Bridges is back as the titular geriatric in another all-action adventure, this one set on very dangerous ground: Afghanistan. In series one, if you recall, former CIA operative Dan Chase (Bridges) had been living off the grid in Vermont when an incident with an intruder put him back on the agency’s radar and turned him into a fugitive. Now the hunted becomes the hunter as Dan’s daughter Emily (Alia Shakwat) is kidnapped by a powerful Afghan warlord, Faraz Hamzad (Navid Negahban) and Chase sets off to rescue her. Helping Dan on this assignment is former FBI man Harold Harper (John Lithgow), but there’s an added complication: Chase, Harper and Hamzad all claim Emily as their own daughter.
Countdown: Paul vs Tyson
From Friday, Netflix
Is this the heavyweight bout of the year, or just another example of how boxing has turned into a circus? In one corner is boxing legend Mike Tyson, aged 58, returning to the ring for his first professional fight since he retired in 2005. In the other corner is YouTube star Jake Paul, who made his debut in the ring in 2020, but so far has only had to wear kid gloves against a series of MMA fighters. This documentary series follows the preparations for the big fight on November 15th, but in taking on Tyson, has Paul bitten off more than he can chew? The series also brings us inside the build-up to another hugely anticipated clash on November 15th: the rematch between undisputed super lightweight champion Katie Taylor and unified featherweight champion Amanda Serrano.
