Tonight's TV includes Colm Meaney looking back on The Snapper, Reeling in the Years hits 2016, Aziz Ansari’s sitcom Master of None returns, and there’s the final episode of period drama Pursuit of Love . . .
Pick of the Day
Back to Barrytown, 9.30pm, RTÉ One
In the second episode of this series about Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown trilogy, Colm Meaney turns his attention to The Snapper.
Various members of the cast and crew, including Tina Kellegher (below), Ruth McCabe, Roddy Doyle and director Stephen Frears - who, in this documentary, describes The Snapper as the best film he ever made - tell the stories behind the memorable characters of Georgie Burgess and Sharon Curley, and how they were adapted from the book.
While revisiting the making of the film, the documentary also explores the suburb of Kilbarrack, a place synonymous with the world of Barrytown, hearing the human stories of the locals and why the film still endures both there and beyond.
Don’t Miss
Reeling in the Years, 8.30pm, RTÉ One
This week’s episode looks back to 2016.
It was a year that saw a general election in Ireland, the Brexit referendum in the UK, and Donald Trump's election as US President (below). Five years already . . .
It was also the year of the Rio Olympics and the Euro 2016 football championship finals in France, when Ireland recorded a memorable victory against Italy.Music on Reeling in the Years 2016 includes Rihanna and Calvin Harris, Walking on Cars, Picture This, and Sibéal.
Call the Midwife, 8.00pm, BBC One
Here’s a show that continues to mix nostalgia with human interest for a near-perfect Sunday night sofa experience.
Trixie stirs up controversy in the community when she speaks out on behalf of a patient who is pregnant with her fifth child, but whose personal life is far from stable.
Dr Turner and Sister Frances try to help a woman who is refusing medical treatment through the last weeks of her pregnancy, and Nancy reveals a secret about her background that could threaten her relationship with Nonnatus House.
Gods of Snooker, 9.00pm, BBC Two
Desperate for success and tempted by the lucrative rewards brought by towing the line, Jimmy White (above) joined Barry Hearn in the hope he could be turned into a champion like his new stablemate Steve Davis.
With White as the hot-favourite and with the crowd urging him on against 21-year-old Stephen Hendry, the final of 1990 world championship turned out to be a pivotal moment in British snooker and paved the way for what was to come in the next decade.
New or Returning Shows
Dark Matter: A History of the Afrofuture, 9.00pm, BBC Four
Here’s something a bit different.
This documentary looks at how science-fiction and fantastical influences the work of black artists around the world, examining how they address the horrors of the past while imagining alternative futures.
The film explores the work of techno musicians Drexciya (below), visual artists Ellen Gallagher and Hew Locke, visionary musician Sun Ra, multidisciplinary artist Tavares Strachan, writer Ekow Eshun and painter Kerry James Marshall.
New to Stream
Master of None, Netflix
Back for a third season following a long gap (after unsavoury accusations were made about him), Aziz Ansari’s sitcom on the perils of modern romance returns.
This time around, the show takes the focus away from Ansari and instead presents a series of vignettes on Lena Waithe’s character Denise and her new relationship.
Echo Boomers, Sky Cinema & NOW TV
Michael Shannon and son of famous people Patrick Schwarzenegger star in this twisty crime-thriller.
Recent graduate Lance Zutterland (Schwarzenegger) leaves school in debt, realising everything he had worked towards was built on a lie.
When he is pulled into a criminal underground operation, he finds his peers fighting the system by stealing from the rich and giving to . . . themselves.
With nothing to lose, they leave behind a trail of destruction. But with with cops closing in and tensions mounting, Lance soon discovers he's in over his head with no way out.
Ending Tonight
The Pursuit of Love, 9.00pm, BBC One
It’s the final episode of Emily Mortimer’s adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s inter-war novel of the same name, starring Lily James and Andrew Scott.
Fanny is put out to find that Linda has once again fallen head over heels in love, and is openly living as Fabrice de Sauveterre’s mistress.
But when war breaks out and threatens to tear Europe apart, will Linda and Fanny be able to reconcile before it’s too late?
Sunday Night Cinema
Allied, 11.15pm, Channel 4
Here’s a quirky WWII drama starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, and directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Pitt plays a Canadian intelligence officer and Cotillard is a French Resistance fighter who fall in love while posing as a married couple during a mission in Casablanca.
Naturally, it draws comparisons with the wartime Casablanca-based classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, but it’s more allusion than reality. For starters, here they marry and relocate to London, where the real fun begins.
For seconds, it’s nowhere near as good as Casablanca. But it’s worth a watch.
Family Flick
Frozen, 2.50pm, BBC One
They don’t come much bigger (or better) than this hugely popular Disney animated fantasy adventure, featuring the voices of Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel.
A princess with the power to freeze anything she touches loses control of her abilities and plunges the kingdom into a perpetual winter.
She goes into hiding, but her sister remains determined that she can be saved from her own magic and sets off on a quest to find her, aided by a mountain man and a living snowman.
