Murder in the Badlands continues with a teen killing, Stacey Dooley goes Inside the Undertakers, Inside M&S does exactly what you'd imagine, and there’s a Dylan Thomas night on the Beeb . . .
Pick of the Day
Murder in the Badlands, 10.15pm, RTÉ One
Streaming on RTÉ Player
This week’s episode takes a look at the inside story of the murder of Portadown teenager Marian Beattie.
In 1973, Marian had travelled with her brother and friend to attend a charity dance in Aughnacloy.
The body of the 18-year-old girl was found at the foot of a cliff in a quarry along a narrow country road.
Don’t Miss
The Art of Film with Ian Nathan, 8.00pm, Sky Arts
Streaming on NOW
This has been a pretty good series so far.
This week, Ian Nathan turns his eye to the new wave of horror that burst out of the late sixties and left the Hammer Horror standard looking old-fashioned and tame in comparison.
Starting with George Romero’s 1968 zombie-horror progenitor Night of the Living Dead and William Friedkin’s epochal 1973 superb possession story The Exorcist, Nathan sets the pace of change.
He then revisits the rise of the slasher film with John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween, as well as Sam Raimi splicing gruesome body horror with slapstick comedy in 1981’s The Evil Dead and its 1987 sequel Evil Dead II.
Ear to the Ground, 7pm, RTÉ One
Streaming on RTÉ Player
This week Maeve is in Carlow as one farmer says goodbye to her dairy herd, Darragh is in Limerick with a young man who turned a hobby into a fledgling business and Ella is in Galway with a returned emigrant who has come back to Ireland to farm.
Taskmaster, 9.00pm, Channel 4
Julian Clary, Lucy Beaumont, Sam Campbell, Sue Perkins (below) and Susan Wokoma battle to win an elaborate joust to become the 16th Taskmaster champion.
The mystery of the secret task is finally revealed to the baffled cast of comics, before the answers are gathered to some of the show’s age-old questions.
Such as why does everyone keep choosing Sam, why is Sue tossing her head like a lion - and, crucially, who will get to wear the 'Special Hat'?
New or Returning Shows
Stacey Dooley: Inside the Undertakers, 9.00pm, BBC One
As a new mother, Stacey Dooley’s worries for the future - and about death - have only exacerbated.
In order to try to overcome her fears, she wants to face death head on, so joins the team of funeral directors at Nottinghamshire-based firm, AW Lymn, one of the UK’s largest independent funeral enterprises.
Stacey fully immerses herself in every aspect of the company's day-to-day work to discover more about the business of death.
That ranges from arranging funerals to making coffins, learning more about embalming to carving elaborate headstones - and tries to get the answers she has been searching for.
Inside M&S, 9.00pm, UTV/ITV1
Staff of Irish Marks & Spencer shops will be particularly keen to see this new fly-on-the-wall series.
Filmed over a year and with unprecedented access, for the first time, cameras have been invited inside every corner of M&S - from the build of a multi-million-pound store to top secret development kitchens at HQ.
Store manager Dior prepares for the move to a new £15million shop, as well as the creation of a Percy Pig product the marketing team are hoping will rescue the little-known beauty department, and after years of fighting bad reviews and poor sales, the daring and bold new women's autumnwear range
The Newsreader, 9.00pm, BBC Two
Here’s the second season of this very enjoyable Aussie drama starring Anna Torv if you missed it when it was recently on RTÉ2.
As the country prepares for a vital general election in 1987, Dale and Helen and their colleagues at the News at Six have the pressure of an anticipated six hours of unbroken air time.
Added to this pressure is their direct competition headed up by none other than Geoff Walters, now making a well publicised 'comeback' on a rival network.
Dylan Thomas: From Grave to Cradle - Arena, 9.00pm, BBC Two
As part of a Dylan Thomas (below) night on BBC Four, Nigel Williams profiles the Swansea-born poet, whose work, especially his most famous piece Under Milk Wood, has influenced cultural icons such as John Lennon and Bob Dylan.
The film tries to find out whether the basic elements of his legend are false - including the 18 whiskies that supposedly killed him in 1953 - and asks if the lurid stories prevent readers from truly understanding his poetry.
Hullraisers, 10.00pm, Channel 4
Native Hullians Toni, Rana and Paula deal with a fresh batch of chaos, from pregnancy and menopause to DIY - via strippergrams and buttock-cupping as the Yorkshire-based sitcom returns.
In denial over her pregnancy, Toni continues to distract herself by obsessing over some serious gossip about Gloria, Craig's mother.
She has a new boyfriend, who Toni is convinced is a love fraud and true crime villain.
In the second episode at 10.30pm, after Craig's shock proposal, Toni flees the scene, leaving him without an answer.
Much to Paula's annoyance, Toni shows up at the DIY shop where she works, causing chaos for her and her long-time colleague Brian.
This show could do with subtitles for Irish ears though.
Under Milk Wood, 10.15pm, BBC Four
As part of the season of programmes celebrating the centenary of Dylan Thomas's birth, a community of Welsh talent come together for this one-off production of his 'play for voices', performed across New York, Los Angeles, London, Cardiff and Laugharne.
Michael Sheen (above) opens as First Voice, with Tom Jones as Captain Cat, and as each of Dylan's characters joins in, the piece builds into a collage of famous voices and faces.
They include Matthew Rhys, Ioan Gruffudd, Sian Phillips, Jonathan Pryce, Bryn Terfel, Katherine Jenkins, Griff Rhys Jones, Charlotte Church, Robert Pugh, Eve Myles, Owen Teale and Kimberley Nixon.
The words are intercut with evocative imagery inspired by the play, while the performance was created as part of a live event by National Theatre Wales.
