John Byrne’s TV choices for the week ahead (Dates covered: Saturday Jun 6 - Friday Jun 12)
Gore-fest Hannibal is back for a third season, Chris Evans returns with a TFI Friday 20th anniversary special, while new BBC crime drama The Interceptor comes full of promise.
Pick of the week
Hannibal, Wednesday, Sky Living
The genius of Bryan Fuller's imagination never ceases to amaze. His CV includes great shows such as Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies – but Hannibal may be his best yet, as it's beautifully shot, gloriously gory and makes cannibalism seem like a refined lifestyle option. Plus, Mads Mikkelsen is quite chilling in the lead role.
Everyone was invited to the table in the bloody season two finale as the friendship between Hannibal and Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) was shattered. Hannibal realised Will had betrayed him and plunged a knife into his stomach. Before that, the shocks had come in quick succession. The assumed-dead Abigail Hobbs (Kacey Rohl) surprised everyone by not only being alive but also hurling Alana (Caroline Dhavernas) out of a second -floor window. Minutes later though, her throat was slashed and she was left pumping blood in front of Will. Also left for dead was Jack (Laurence Fishburne), who was choking on his own blood as the credits rolled.
As the new season begins, Hannibal is on the run in Europe accompanied by Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson). But what is she to him? His therapist? His victim? His lover? Or his accomplice? Having escaped the FBI, Hannibal settles into a new life under a new identity in Florence. But, despite being happy abroad, he can’t resist the urge to send Will Graham a valentine.
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Star of the week
Chris Evans
TFI Friday, Friday, Channel 4
Back in the mid-to-late 1990s, Chris Evans was nothing less than broadcasting phenomenon in his native Britain. His popularity came on the back of co-hosting Channel 4's The Big Breakfast with Gaby Roslin, and he left that show in 1994 to set up his own production company, which led to Don't Forget Your Toothbrush and TFI Friday.
The latter was particularly popular and regularly featured live music, daft games, and a bar where guests were interviewed by Evans. It lasted for six seasons but was on life support once the main man departed at the end of the fifth run.
Now Evans' seminal entertainment show returns for a live 90-minute anniversary special with the original crew including Millwall fan Danny Baker. Evans presents brand new features and revisits former memorable segments, as well as celebrating some of the brilliant, anarchic moments in the show's colourful history. Guests include Blur, Noel Gallagher, Roger Daltrey, Mani and the previously banned Shaun Ryder. Fingers crossed they also retain the original theme music: Ron Grainer's Man in a Suitcase.
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Starting this week
Stonemouth, Thursday, BBC Two
Based on Iain Banks’ best-selling novel, Stonemouth is a two-part romantic mystery which delves into love, loyalty and vengeance. The impressive cast includes Peter Mullan, Christian Cooke and Charlotte Spencer.
The first TV adaptation of Banks' work since his death in 2013, it centres on the character of Stewart Gilmour, who returns for his best friend’s funeral. Run out of Stonemouth two years earlier by girlfriend Ellie Murston's criminal family, Stewart is forced to face up to his past whilst uncovering the sinister truth behind best friend Callum's apparent suicide. Stewart resolves to find out what really happened, which means he must face the girl he left behind: Ellie.
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Kevin McCloud's Escape to the Wild, Monday, Channel 4
Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud travels to a paradise desert island in the south Pacific to meet a British family who've quit the rat race to live a simpler life.
Lords and Ladles, Sunday, RTÉ One
Yet another food show. This one promises to takes viewers on a historical journey to celebrate Ireland's past through food and cooking. The series features three of Ireland’s finest Chefs in Derry Clarke, Catherine Fulvio and Paul Flynn.
The Met: Policing London, Monday, BBC One
Filmed over the course of a year, this five-part series follows officers from Britain’s biggest and busiest police service as they deal with life, death, crime and its victims, all across the UK capital.
The South Bank Show, Tuesday, Sky Arts
Melvyn Bragg meets Game of Thrones author George RR Martin for what's promised to be an eye-opening chat about his life and works.
How to be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell, Monday, BBC Four
Poker ace Mitchell traces the story of the original bohemians. She begins in post-revolutionary Paris, where poverty-stricken, garret-dwelling artists and writers gained a reputation for loose living, colourful clothing and wild parties.
Hawaii Five-0, Monday, RTÉ2
After McGarrett and Wo Fat narrowly escape from maximum security, gunmen storm Five-0 headquarters, compromising Kono and Adam's secret location in Hong Kong and forcing McGarrett to break the law and turn on his own in order to find a kidnapped Catherine.
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The Marriage of Reason & Squalor, Thursday, Sky Arts
Rhys Ifans and Sophie Kennedy Clark star in what promises to be a wildly imaginative, hypnotic and unsettling four-part drama by Turner Prize-nominated visual artist Jake Chapman.
The Tribe, Thursday, Channel 4
This could be fascinating. Living in four mud huts in southern Ethiopia, a three-generational tribal family known to their friends and neighbours as the Ayke Mukos, have allowed cameras to film their lives.
Birthday, Tuesday, Sky Arts
Stephen Mangan appears alongside Anna Maxwell Martin and Louise Brealey in this humorous drama written by Joe Penhall. Adapted from Penhall’s sell-out 2012 Royal Court play, Birthday explores what might happen if men could take a starring role in childbirth.
Napoleon, Wednesday, BBC Two
Historian Andrew Roberts sheds new light on the Emperor as an extraordinary, gifted military commander and a mesmeric leader whose private life was littered with disappointments and betrayals.
Ending this Week
Alan Carr: Chatty Man, Friday, Channel 4
It's the time of the year for chat shows to take the summer off, and tonight it's Alan Carr's Turn. Joining him in the final episode of the current run is record producer and musician Mark Ronson, who drops in for an exclusive chat and performs his latest single I Can't Lose featuring Keyone Starr.
Here's AC with the BGT hypnotic dog:
Firefighters, Tuesday, RTÉ One
The recruits have graduated after a gruelling six-month training regime, but will they be up to the challenge of life in the field as fully trained firefighters and paramedics?
Drama of the week
The Interceptor, Wednesday, BBC One
This could be the business and promises to be a throwback to shows such as Kojak and The Professionals. A botched operation leads Ash (O-T Fagbenle) and his best mate Tommy (Robert Lonsdale) to join the UNIT, a new undercover law enforcement team whose mission is to get to the criminals at the top of the chain.
Ash loves two things: his family and catching criminals. Ignoring the fears of his wife Lorna (Jo Joyner), the risks this new job might entail and Lorna's dreams of a safe life for their family, he throws himself obsessively into his work. Driven by the ghosts of his past and uncompromising in his approach, Ash’s knowledge of the street soon starts to pay off.
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Comedy of the week
Channel 4's Comedy Gala, Sunday, Channel 4
In aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, this gala returns for a sixth year to London's O2 Arena. The all-star line-up for what promises to be a comedy spectacular includes: Aisling Bea, Alan Carr, Jack Dee, Jason Byrne, Jon Richardson, Josh Widdicombe, Katherine Ryan, Kevin Bridges, Michael McIntyre, Paul Chowdhry, Rich Hall, Rob Beckett, Romesh Ranganathan, Russell Kane, Sara Pascoe, Sean Lock, Seann Walsh, Shappi Khorsandi, Trevor Noah, Warwick Davis and many more.
Here's Lee Evans from last year's Gala: WARNING: strong language from the start
On Demand
Orange is the New Black and Sense8, Netflix
A double treat from Netflix as Sense8, a new TV series created and written by the Wachowskis, was launched on Friday June 5, while a third season of the successful, women's prison-based comedy-drama Orange Is the New Black is available from Friday June 12.
Sense8 is centred on eight characters that live in different cities around the world. They each experience a violent vision, and soon find themselves mentally connected by this experience. They are suddenly able to see and talk to each other as though they were in the same place, and have access to each other's deepest secrets.
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Documentary of the week
In a House That Ceased to Be, Monday, RTÉ One
Here's an IFTA-winning doc that follows the Irish humanitarian and children’s rights activist Christina Noble whose unwavering commitment and selfless efforts have seen her better the lives of countless children since 1989. Her drive stems from a childhood in Ireland fraught with poverty, loss and institutional abuse. Despite achieving so much in the face of adversity, Christina remains scarred by the memory of the children she was unable to save, her own brother and two sisters, who she was separated from at a very young age.
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Film of the Week
Animal Kingdom, Saturday, TG4
This 2010 Australian crime drama stars James Frecheville, Guy Pearce, Ben Mendehlson and Joel Edgerton and it's about a nasty Melbourne crime family called the Codys. Following the death of his mother, 17-year-old J moves in with his previousy-estranged family, which includes his doting grandmother and her three criminal sons, with the eldest hiding from a gang of renegade detectives. As tensions between the family and the police explode, J finds himself at the centre of a cold-blooded revenge plot.
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