Succession returns for a fourth and final season, Ireland opens the Euro 2024 campaign with a home game against France, there's new BBC drama Blue Lights, and Kiefer Sutherland stars in Rabbit Hole . . .
Pick of the Day
Succession, 9.00pm, Sky Atlantic
Streaming on NOW
The ten-episode fourth and final season of the Emmy-winning drama series begins. Expect nasty people from the start.
In case you’ve been living a Succession-free existence for the last few years, the show explores themes of power and family dynamics through the eyes of potty-mouthed patriarch Logan Roy (a superb Brian Cox).
Along with his four grown - if not quite 'adult' children: Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Siobhan (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Connor (Alan Ruck), it adds up to quite a high-powered, ego-driven circus.
As the show returns, the sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) moves ever closer.
The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is complete.
A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed.
Don’t Miss
Live International Soccer, 7.00pm, RTÉ2
Streaming on RTÉ Player
Live coverage of the UEFA Euro 2024 Group B qualifier from the Aviva Stadium as Ireland host group favourites France (KO 7.45pm).
The last meeting between the sides came in 2018, when goals by Olivier Giroud and Nabil Fekir gave the French a 2-0 win in a friendly at Stade de France.
Ireland face another massive test tonight given their opponents come into this match off the back of their recent second successive appearance in the World Cup final, though they lost their crown after a defeat at the hands of Argentina in a penalty shootout.
As for Ireland, after a bright start they looked vulnerable in Wednesday’s 3-2 friendly win against Latvia, though Evan Ferguson (above) marked his first start in a green shirt with a goal.
Stephen Kenny’s side is in an extremely tough group – the Netherlands and Greece also feature – so even a third-place finish would be quite an achievement.
The real hard work starts here . . .
Whiplash, 9.30pm, TG4
Here’s a superb drama, starring Miles Teller, Paul Reiser and an Oscar-winning JK Simmons.
A talented young jazz drummer thinks all his dreams have come true when he lands a place at a prestigious music academy.
But the experience turns into a nightmare thanks to an uncompromising tutor, who will stop at nothing to make his students realise their potential - including physical and mental abuse.
Tempting Fortune, 9.00pm, Channel 4
Paddy McGuinness presents the new competition where a dozen strangers trek across South Africa.
The journey continues (and you can watch last week's opener on All4), and alliances are starting to form within the group.
With the gruelling trek starting to take its toll on the 12 Brits' bodies and morale, the temptations are becoming a lot harder to resist, as each enticing offering gets placed quite literally in their path.
Will the thought of a hot shower be too hard to resist?
Don't Look Now, 11.15pm, BBC Two
Nicholas Roeg's psychological thriller based on Daphne du Maurier's short story, with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, is deservedly regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made.
I've seen this film about a dozen times and it still spooks me out! I've been fascinated by Venice ever since.
Sutherland and Christie play John and Laura Baxter, a grieving couple trying to get over the death of their young daughter in a drowning accident.
They decide to take a trip to Venice where John has been commission to restore a church, and while there they are shocked by a psychic's claim that the child is trying to contact them.
Although the wife believes the psychic's story, the husband remains sceptical - until he begins to be troubled by spectral visions of his own.
New or Returning Shows
The Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland, 10.40pm, BBC One
Here's something that should lay bare the conditions that led to The Troubles.
Professor Alvin Jackson explores the lives of the six men who held the post of Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from the birth of the six-county state in 1921 to the fall of the Stormont administration in 1972.
He also examines the key moments and critical decisions that defined these men's time in office.
In the first episode, Alvin examines why James Craig (above) introduced extreme security measures in 1922, and how John Andrews’ legacy was damaged by the bombing of Belfast by Hitler's Luftwaffe.
Blue Lights, 9.00pm, BBC One
This new drama series stars Sian Brooke and follows the fortunes of three new recruits to Belfast's police force.
Probationer Grace tries to help a fellow single mother whose son has fallen in with a notorious gang - but fulfilling her promise could put her at risk from both sides of the law.
Her fellow new recruits Annie and Tommy deal with an apprehensive colleague and undercover agents at work in the city, while their superior officer finds himself being threatened by MI5.
Scam Interceptors, 8.30pm, BBC One
Working with ethical hackers to hack into fraudsters' illegal call centres, Rav Wilding uses cutting-edge technology to monitor the scammers' phone calls in an effort to stop victims losing out to real-time scams.
The programme also explores the biggest anti-social issues troubling UK neighbourhoods, such as bike theft, fly-tipping and romance scams, and meets the local heroes using their own time and resources to tackle these problems head-on.
CrimeCall, 9.35pm, RTÉ One
Streaming on RTÉ Player
Sharon Ní Bheoláin (above) is back once again to present the monthly round-up of appeals for help from the public in solving crimes, featuring reconstructions, CCTV footage, news features and a panel of police advisers taking calls.
New to Stream
Rabbit Hole, Paramount+ & NOW
This new US drama starring Kiefer Sutherland opens with a double episode.
Nothing is what it seems when John Weir (Sutherland), a master of deception in the world of corporate espionage, is framed for murder by powerful forces with the ability to influence and control populations.
