Whether you're devoted to action, sci-fi or music - or all three - we've found something you should watch tonight.
Pick of the Night:
The Wolverine, RTÉ2 9:00pm
A few years before the Ryan Reynolds-starring Deadpool owned the box office, Copland director James Mangold tried to bring some Blade-like grit to the Marvel movie universe with this Hugh Jackman-starring solo outing. Set in Japan, this pulpy story mixes stranger-comes-to-town dynamics with Witness to create a movie with a hardboiled, 1970s feel. Looking like the Man with No Name in Robert Mitchum's overcoat from The Yakuza, Jackman is allowed to power up the darkness and intensity of his career-making X-Men character. Like a lot of comic book adaptations, the villains are crap and the franchise parameters result in a disappointing ending, but it's far better than some Marvel offerings. We're looking at you, Fantastic Four and Ghost Rider.
Old School Thrill of the Night:
Alien, Film4 9:00pm
Time has done nothing to dull the impact of John Hurt's onscreen gastric gyrations - if anything, director Ridley Scott's Sigourney Weaver showcase looks even better now than it did way back when. Released in 1979, Alien's influence on every science fiction, horror and action movie that has followed can't be overstated. It was one of the first mainstream films to promote the female hero; following on from Star Wars it broke new ground in special effects and its vision of a future of multinationals, genetic research and expendable workers is more uncomfortable now than on its first release. There's also proof that a seven-foot-tall man in a rubber suit works better than any amount of CGI.
RTÉ Player Pick of the Night:
A Nation's Voice
You may have missed this gem on Easter Sunday amid all the other 1916 commemorations. A Nation's Voice featured the world premiere of One Hundred Years a Nation, a major new work performed by a choir of over a thousand and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. Composed by Shaun Davey with text by poet Paul Muldoon, it has already been hailed as a classic. Watch them here.
Click here for TEN's full, all-channel TV listings
