Got the summertime blues? Here are John Byrne’s TV choices for the week ahead (Dates covered: Saturday Jul 25-Friday Jul 30)
Plenty of pluses this week with Ripper Street, Life in Squares and Partners in Crime all arriving, while it's cheerio to The Interceptor and Prized Apart.
Pick of the week
Ripper Street, Friday, BBC One
The classy period drama, filmed in Dublin and starring Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, and Adam Rothenberg as a trio of crime-solvers in Victorian London, returns for a welcome third run.
It's 1894 and four years have passed since the crime-fighting axis of Reid, Drake and Captain Homer Jackson split. Drake has left London for Manchester to become the policeman and man he felt he could no longer be back in Whitechapel, and is now an Inspector.
Jackson has reverted to the man Reid plucked out of the Tenter Street brothel, a two-penny, sawbones, clap-doctor. Reid has succumbed to his own shame and isolation, policing Whitechapel with a level of forensic detail and dedication that leads Chief Inspector Fred Abberline to fear for his old friend’s mental well-being.
Meanwhile, Long Susan has made good on her threats to both Captain Jackson and the dying Silas Dugan. She has separated from her husband and taken command of Duggan's criminal empire and turned it into a legitimate property empire of huge philanthropic ambition.
Out of the blue, two trains collide on the newly constructed bridge above Leman Street. This catastrophe falls into Reid’s world and demands explanation. It also reunites him with Drake and Jackson and set him on his own collision course with his past.
Now, where did I leave those check trousers and bowler hat?
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Star of the week
Jessica Raine
Partners in Crime, Sunday, BBC One
After appearing in BBC period drama Garrow's Law and Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, Jessica Raine became a star after she landed the lead character, 1950s' London-based midwife Jenny Lee in the first three seasons of the BBC One sensation Call the Midwife.
At the end of the second run she was asked to commit to eight more seasons of the programme, but in March 2014, it was announced that Raine was leaving the show at the end of season three to pursue a career in film in the United States.
So far that hasn't come to pass, and made sporadic appearances on British TV, including am impressive performance as Doctor Who 's original producer, Verity Lambert, in the drama An Adventure in Space and Time.
This week she's back – almost to square one - in a series lead role for the first time since Call the Midwife, playing alongside David Walliams in Partners in Crime, a six-part, 1950s-set adaptation of two detective novels by Agatha Christie, as snooping couple Tommy and Tuppence.
They have a chance encounter on a Paris train with an agitated young woman named Jane Finn, who suddenly disappears and doesn't return to her seat. Back in Blighty, Tuppence is determined to find out what's happened to her.
Looks like the type of show that should be watched while enjoying tea and crumpets.
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Starting this week
Creedon's Wild Atlantic Way, Sunday, RTÉ One
The effortlessly engaging John Creedon begins an epic road trip from Kinsale in Cork to the very top of Ireland, Donegal's Malin Head. The Wild Atlantic Way is the longest defined coastal drive in the world, coming in at two and a half thousand kilometres and Creedon is determined to cover every millimetre.
"My car is always happiest when it’s pointed west," he says of his 1960s' VW campervan, which he affectionately calls his Seanvan. "My parents had one just like this. It was even the same colour and we made a few trips to England in it back in the '70s. But the Wild Atlantic Way is more than just a road trip."
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Would I Lie To You, Friday, BBC One
Rob Brydon is back in the host’s chair for a brand new series of the award-winning comedy panel show, with Lee Mack and David Mitchell returning as the lightning-quick team captains.
Elementary, Wednesday, RTÉ2
Season three of this patchy-but-fun procedural starring Johhny Lee Miler as a contemporary Sherlock Holmes sees the sleuth return to New York with a new apprentice and a renewed interest in working with the NYPD.
Experimental, Sunday, Channel 4
The web is bursting with short videos showing amateurs around the world achieving incredible, funny or thrilling stunts. Engineer Tim Shaw wants to uncover the scientific truth behind these clips.
Atlantic - Earth's Wildest Ocean, Thursday, BBC Two
Narrated by Cillian Murphy, this three-parter reveals the amazing, surprising and resilient inhabitants of the Atlantic, both animals and people, as they pit themselves against the world’s wildest ocean.
The South Bank Show Originals, Wednesday, Sky Arts
Melvyn Bragg looks back at his 2005 meeting with celebrated English playwright, screenwriter, actor and author Alan Bennett.
Dag, Friday, Sky Arts
This hit Norwegian comedy series centres on a reclusive marriage counsellor who tries to coax all the couples he treats into divorce.
Also starting this week:
Melissa & Joey, Monday, E4
The Penine Way, Monday, BBC Two
Bomb Girls, Saturday, TG4
Jane the Virgin, Saturday, 3e
Hello Campers, Monday, UTV Ireland
Ending this Week
The Interceptor, Wednesday, BBC One
This pretty solid drama starring OT Fagbenle, Ewan Stewart and Trevor Eve comes to a climax. With Roach’s identity finally revealed, and the villain seemingly within the Unit’s grasp, the team now face the challenge of intercepting his massive shipment of drugs - and even more crucially, somehow linking it to him. Meanwhile, Roach is feeling under pressure from both outside and inside his organisation, and becomes convinced that there is a traitor within his own gang. But what is he prepared to do to restore order in the ranks?
Here's a set tour with OT Fagbenle and Robert Lonsdale:
Strike Back: Legacy, Wednesday, Sky 1
It’s the final two instalments of high-octane action and the Section 20 crew are showing no signs of fatigue after their cross-global mission to track down a slippery North Korean terrorist.
Prized Apart, Saturday, BBC One
The show reaches its climax as the four remaining adventurers compete to get one of the three places in the final showdown in the studio.
Guitar Star, Tuesday, Sky Arts
Edith Bowman presents the final of Sky Arts' competition to find the UK' next guitar star, with the winner getting the chance to perform live at Latitude this summer.
Also ending this week:
The Three-Day Nanny, Tuesday, Channel 4
Don't Tell the Bride, Wednesday, BBC One
Drama of the week
Life in Squares, Monday, BBC Two
Penned by BAFTA-winning writer Amanda Coe (Room at the Top), this promises to be an intimate and emotional portrayal of the complex relationships between the Bloomsbury group, a collection of friends and lovers who were pioneers of artistic and sexual freedom.
Life in Squares dramatises the close yet often fraught relationship between painter Vanessa Bell and her sister Virginia Woolf, alongside Vanessa’s complicated alliance with gay artist Duncan Grant.
The story begins with the Stephen sisters in 1905, where a young Vanessa and Virginia are struggling to escape the confines of Victorian England and forge a new life for themselves. Their dream is to find freedom in creativity and live their lives without society’s rules or restrictions.
Expect lots of bare fresh from the start.
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Comedy of the week
Parks and Recreation, Monday, Dave
The fourth season of this superb Amy Poehler-starring comedy opens with Leslie being torn between Ben and her dreams of running for public office, while Ron braces himself for the arrival of his first wife, Tammy One.
If you haven't yet seen this comedy about a group of US public servants – most notably Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope, a perky, mid-level bureaucrat - in the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana, do yourself the proverbial. It really is a treat.
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On Demand
Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, from Friday, Netflix
This is an eight-episode series, yet another original yarn from Netflix, this time a prequel based on the 2001 satirical movie Wet Hot American Summer.
The actors involved include original cast members such as Elizabeth Banks, Bradley Cooper, Janeane Garofalo, Amy Poehler, David Hyde Pierce, Paul Rudd, Josh Charles and Molly Shannon, as well as new characters played by Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, John Slattery, and more.
If that lot's any indication, this has to be a cracker.
Here's a spoof Meet the Staff orientation video:
Documentary of the week
The Long Shot, Tuesday, RTÉ One
Horse owner David Keoghan makes the punt of his life taking on the big names of horse racing, and this documentary gives viewers a unique perspective on what it takes it make it in that world.
The Long Shot was filmed over three years and features races from all over Ireland as well as in the UK, and promises a unique and personal insider glimpse into the day-to-day reality of the competitive world of horse racing - the highs and lows, the thrills and spills, the challenges, disappointments and successes.
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Film of the Week
Gone Girl, Friday, Sky Movies Premiere
As well as being a cracking thriller, this is also a satire about the judgmental times we live in. David Fincher directs the Golden Globe and BAFTA-nominated adaptation of Gillian Flynn's best-selling novel. Suburban bar owner Nick Dunne (Affleck) finds his life turned upside down when his wife, Amy (Pike), suddenly goes missing without trace. Nick is hauled in for questioning and when suspicions arise, he becomes prime suspect in the case of her disappearance. But as details of the couple's life together become known, it emerges that nothing is as it seems.
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