John Byrne’s TV choices for the week ahead (Dates covered: Saturday Aug 15-Friday Aug 21)
It's Rose of Tralee time again, Natalie Dormer's back on telly in yet another drama, while it's the last waltz for Imelda May and the CSI Cyber crew faces their final case of the season.
Pick of the week
The Rose of Tralee, Monday/Tuesday, RTÉ One
The surest sign yet that it's almost time to get into 'back to school' mode. Returning host Dáithí O Sé has made The Rose of Tralee his own in recent years, which is no mean feat for a bloke on a show about ladies.
The 56th International Rose of Tralee will be broadcast live from the festival dome in Tralee on both Monday and Tuesday, with 32 roses over the two nights who will be up for anything, really. Ridiculed it may be, but the contest keeps on proving to be a spectacular success.
Last year saw Philadelphia Rose Maria Walsh crowned, and she'll be there to pass on the mantle to this year's winner.
Maria Walsh wins last year's Rose of Tralee:
Star of the week
Natalie Dormer
The Scandalous Lady W, Monday, BBC One
She's done alright, has Natalie Dormer. The 33-year-old English actress has enjoyed some hugely successful and high-profile roles over the years and is best known for playing Anne Boleyn on The Tudors, Margaery Tyrell on Game of Thrones: Mockingjay, Irene Adler on Elementary, and Cressida in The Hunger Games.
In The Scandalous Lady W she leads in what promises to be a gripping 18th century drama about the scandalous life of Seymour, Lady Worsley. The passionate and courageous Seymour escapes her troubled marriage only to find herself at the centre of a very public trial brought by her powerful husband Sir Richard Worsley, played by Shaun Evans (Endeavour, The Lost Weekend), who seeks compensation from her lover for the affair.
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Starting this week
Zoo, Sunday, Sky 1
This is definitely a curious beast. Based on the James Patterson novel of the same name, this is a global thriller about a wave of violent animal attacks against humans.
In Botswana, American zoologist Jackson Oz (James Wolk, Mad Men) witnesses strange behaviour in the wild animals he studies. When a group of lions viciously attack a group of French tourists on safari, Jackson manages to pull a sole survivor to safety. She's Chloe Tousignant (Nora Arnezeder), a French Intelligence agent.
Together with safari guide Abraham (Nonso Anozie), they begin to investigate the evidence behind the increasing number of animal attacks.
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Great Canal Journeys, Saturday, Channel 4
To celebrate their golden wedding anniversary, actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales make four spectacular canal journeys, sharing a passion that they've enjoyed for decades.
Top Coppers, Wednesday, BBC 3
This is a brand new, apparently action-packed comedy that follows the adventures of two detectives as they attempt to rid the fictional Justice City from its deranged criminal underworld.
Ending this Week
The Imelda May Show, Friday, RTÉ One
The fifth and final edition of the music and chat show sees Imelda May and her band joined by Marc Almond, Camille O’Sullivan, The Bionic Rats, Mike Sanchez and Delorentos.
Almond was, of course, the lead singer with 1980s' synth-pop duo Soft Cell, before embarking on a lengthy solo career; Camille O'Sullivan's Brechtian approach to performing has been a firm favourite for many years; The Bionic Rats are a five piece reggae/ska-influenced band from Dublin; Mike Sanchez is a London-based rhythm and blues singer, pianist and songwriter; and Delorentos is a four-piece Dublin rock band.
Here's Camille O'Sullivan singing The Ship Song:
CSI Cyber, Tuesday, RTÉ2
The first season of the Patricia Arquette-starring CSI spin-off comes to an end. Arquette's character Avery Ryan confronts the hacker who released her patient’s information online when she was a psychologist. Meanwhile, Krumitz confronts the man who murdered his parents. Grteat news for season two is that Ted Danson will join the cast, reprising his CSI character, DB Russell, who will transfer from Las Vegas to the FBI's cyber crimes division.
OAP Internet Virgins, Thursday, Sky 1
This week, 28-year-old beauty vlogger Charlotte hopes to use the power of the internet to bring 71-year-old Grenadian-born online virgin Theresa closer to her home country.
Drama of the week
Show Me a Hero, Monday, Sky Atlantic
Penned by Treme and The Wire creator David Simon and directed by Paul Haggis (Crash), this new six-part drama is based on the 1999 non-fiction book of the same name by New York Times writer, Lisa Belkin. Starring Oscar Isaac, Winona Ryder, Catherine Keener and Jim Belushi, the series depicts the racial controversy faced by a young mayor in Yonkers, New York in the late 1980s.
When a federal court order demands that low-income homes are built in the middle-class white suburbs of his city, Mayor Nick Wasicsko (Isaac) finds himself at the centre of a race row that will ultimately devastate Yonkers, divide the people and ultimately destroy his political career.
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Comedy of the week
Parks and Recreation, Monday, Dave
The fourth season of this brilliant mockumentary starring Amy Poehler as a perky, mid-level bureaucrat continues with another double episode. First up, Leslie and Ben are excited about the opportunity to lead a Model United Nations conference, but their post-dating relationship becomes the major crisis of the event.
Later, Leslie attempts to delay completion of Indiana's smallest park in order to spend more time with Ben before he transfers out of the parks department.
Chris Pratt talks about season four:
On Demand
The Strain, From Monday, Sky 1
Ahead of a new batch of episodes, here's an opportunity to see the entire first season of this engrossing horror drama co-created by horror maestro Guillermo del Toro. Corey Stoll (Ant-Man) stars as the head of a centre for disease control that is called into action when an evil vampiric virus grips New York City. Great fun! FYI: season two begins on August 26th.
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Documentary of the week
The Saturday Night Story, Saturday, UTV Ireland
This two-part series narrated by Stephen Mulhern looks back at some of the most memorable British television moments, and tells the story behind the biggest shows and names in entertainment. In this first episode The Gladiators - including bad-boy Wolf and glamour-puss Jet - are reunited by the show's host Ulrika Jonsson in Birmingham at the venue where the series was filmed in the 1990s.
Also, Henry Kelly and Matthew Kelly get back together again at the studio where they shot to fame in entertainment show Game For A Laugh. The documentaries also feature interviews with the likes of Ant and Dec, Jonathan Ross, Vernon Kay, Bruce Forsyth, Ricky Wilson, Dermot O'Leary, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, Petula Clark, Cannon and Ball and Marty Wilde.
Wolf attacks Jeremy Guscott:
Film of the Week
The Town, Wednesday, RTÉ One
Loads of good films on this week, but I'm plumping for this one. It stars, is co-written and directed by Ben Affleck, but don't let that put you off. Four lifelong friends from the Charlestown area of Boston rob a bank.
They take the manager hostage, but release her unharmed. When they find out she lives in their neighbourhood, one of the gang begins to follow her to find out how much she has told the authorities, and a romance grows between them. The cast includes Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner and Blake Lively and, although there's a lot going on, it's worth the effort.
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John Byrne
