Pick of the week
Live Aid at 40: When Rock’n’Roll Took on the World
Sunday, BBC Two, 9pm
“Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?” The chorus of Band Aid’s 1984 single would ring across the world for decades to come, firmly planted into the canon of Christmas playlists. In October, fading Irish rock star Bob Geldof read a BBC news report about a “biblical famine” emerging in Ethiopia, and gathered fellow musicians for a charity single. In this three-part documentary on the song, the Live Aid charity concerts that followed and the movement’s legacy in Ethiopia, we hear from Geldof, Bono, Sting, the Ethiopian ministers responsible for aid and survivors of the famine. Few could scarcely have predicted the impact of the charity single and the Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia – raising millions towards aid in Ethiopia – and its legacy on the music industry in Britain.
Highlights
True North: High Stakes
Monday, BBC One, 10.40pm
Afraid of heights? In the latest entry in the long running series about life in Northern Ireland, told by remarkable people doing extraordinary things, we meet some of the country’s most experienced rope access crews. When scaffolding can’t reach, cranes aren’t an option and ladders are out of the question, highly trained professionals are called in to get the job done. From scaling Ireland’s tallest structure to fix a vital aircraft warning light to stabilising a crumbling cliff face above one of the country’s busiest roads, these daredevils take on jobs in some of the toughest places – armed with little more than rope, experience and determination. If you’ve ever wanted to install a replica RMS Titanic chandelier high above the Titanic Museum floor, this might be the career for you. Or a three-hour ascent of a 1,000ft mast in Strabane, Co Tyrone, with a storm closing in? Sounds like I’ll pass.
An Ghig Mhór
Monday, RTÉ One, 8pm
This heartwarming series follows up-and-coming acts in their mission to play their first big gig in their hometown. The first step can often feel like the largest, and RTÉ offers young acts a boost out the door to help them on their way. In this fourth instalment we follow Na hEasógaí as the band is mentored by Kildare hip-hop duo Tebi Rex. Na hEasógaí fuse their own sean-nós Connemara style with rock and contemporary influences. The precariousness of life as an artist is known all too well, and An Ghig Mhór shines a light on this journey, warts and all. From finding a venue to selling tickets, this series is a masterclass in how to get started from those who have carved a path.
Noraid: Irish America and the IRA
Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
Irish America has long looked fondly upon its ethnic homeland, and, importantly, has dipped into its pockets during times of need. This two-part documentary reveals the role Irish-Americans played during the Troubles, which included fundraising, propagandising and gunrunning for the Provisional IRA. Told through first-hand accounts and archive material, the series looks at how Irish America went from collecting money in New York bars to lobbying the then-presidential candidate, Bill Clinton, during the 1992 primaries – an effort that eventually led to a turning point in the peace process in Ireland: a US visa for the then-president of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams. In the first episode it looks at how Civil War era anti-treaty exiles made a Republican outpost in New York and built a movement that would, in later years, pay dividends to Republicans back home.
RM Block
Don’t Forget to Remember
Wednesday, RTÉ One, 10.35pm
Memories are precious things. Many readers may share an understanding of the difficulties in saving memories, when loves ones slip away before your eyes to Alzheimer’s disease. In this documentary, Irish artist Asbestos explores the fragility of memory through his lived experience of watching his mother’s advancing Alzheimer’s. In this emotive and unconventional documentary from film-maker Ross Killeen, the pair consider brittleness of memory, and although memories may be lost in the mind of the sufferer, the memories we have of our loved ones endure. This portrait of one woman’s memory loss is also a celebration of a loving family coming together in the face of this condition. Far too many viewers will relate to this struggle, but many still may receive warmth from this exploration of love and memory.
Supercruising: Life at Sea
Thursday, Channel 4, 8pm
There are countless documentaries telling all about on what goes on behind the scenes on the world’s biggest cruise ships. In Supercruising: Life at Sea, Channel 4 adds to the cruise cinematic universe with dispatches from Holland America Line’s ships on their trips around the Caribbean, South America, North Africa and the Canary Islands. Viewers will see the full supercruise experience, featuring onshore excursions including rum tasting in the Dominican Republic, horse riding in the Bahamas and toboggan rides in Madeira. In this episode, staff pull out all the stops for the biggest bash of the Europe and North Africa cruise: a full-blown Dutch Orange Party for nearly 3,000 passengers, with costumes, cocktails and a parade.
The Breaking Wave – The Buddhists of Beara
Thursday, RTÉ One, 10.10pm
West Cork isn’t exactly the spot you’d expect a Buddhist temple, but then again, all manner of folk are drawn to its wild and beautiful landscape. This feature-length film tells the remarkable story of a group of international misfits who established a traditional Tibetan Buddhist temple, Dzogchen Beara, in Ireland. Peter and Harriet Cornish founded the centre in 1973 on west Cork’s Beara peninsula. An internationally renowned Buddhist teacher, Sogyal Rinpoche, was appointed as its spiritual director in 1994. However, more than 20 years later, it came to light that Rinpoche was a serial sexual predator. With access to the community over five years, Maurice O’Brien’s documentary captures the community’s efforts to come to terms with this scandal and with the death of Peter Cornish, while constructing Ireland’s first Tibetan Buddhist temple.
Grace
Friday, Virgin One, 9pm
The addictive detective series starring John Simm takes us back to Brighton with a two-hour series premiere. Amid tragedy in his personal life, Grace and his team are called to a beach when a man’s body washes up in a barrel. To add to the pressure, on the same morning, a football stadium receives a chilling anonymous demand. Grace is faced with an impossible decision and finds himself in a frantic race to save countless lives. It’s the kind of race-against-time television viewers can’t seem to get enough of.
Streaming
Ballard
From Wednesday, July 9th, Prime Video
Renée Ballard is a hardworking, hard-hitting homicide cop in the LAPD, but she’s a bit too hard-assed for the higher-ups in the force, so when a bust goes pear-shaped she’s banished to the cold-case division, that desolate place reserved for cops who don’t play by the rulebook. Maggie Q stars in this new series based on the crime novels by Michael Connelly, part of the author’s Bosch universe – and yes, retired detective Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) is on hand to give Ballard advice, guidance and the odd reality check.
Foundation
From Friday, July 11th, Apple TV+
You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to save the galaxy, but, in this epic sci-fi series based on the books by Isaac Asimov, doing your sums definitely helps. Foundation tells the story of Hari Seldon (Jared Harris), who has developed the science of psychohistory, which allows him to create an algorithm that predicts the fall of the galactic empire. This is not good news for the emperor Cleon (Lee Pace). Seldon sets up the Foundation on the remote planet of Terminus, with the aim of preserving humanity’s collective knowledge and wisdom in order to rebuild civilisation following the inevitable collapse of the empire. Series three features a new threat to the galaxy in the form of the Mule, a charismatic but merciless warlord. As the empire is now in an unstoppable decline, it looks as though it won’t be able to resist the military and mental might of the Mule, but the Foundation is growing ever stronger: could it join forces with its historic foe to repel this new threat to the galactic order?
Dexter: Resurrection
From Friday, July 11th, Paramount+
We’ve missed our favourite vigilante serial killer ever since he made what appeared to be his bloody bow in 2021. The last we saw of Dexter Morgan, he had apparently been shot dead by his son, Harrison (Jack Abbott), in the final episode of Dexter: New Blood. But Michael C Hall is back as the homicidal antihero in a brand new series, joined by big-name costars that include Uma Thurman and Peter Dinklage. Dexter’s latest adventures take him to New York, where he must hide in plain sight, and where he encounters a sort of secret serial-killer society.
