Endeavour
Sunday, UTV, 8pm
Shaun Evans stars as the bright young tec with the try-hard name in the final season of the hugely popular Inspector Morse prequel series. The year is 1972 and DCI Endeavour Morse returns to Oxford amid seismic changes in his professional and private life. He and DCI Fred Thursday soon find themselves investigating a murder connected with the town’s much-feted orchestra. But there’s not just a highbrow homicide to deal with – a low-life criminal from London has been murdered in a disused warehouse – could the capital’s gangland wars be spilling out into the hallowed halls of Oxford?
Faking Hitler
Sunday, Channel 4, 11pm
It was the scoop of the century. In the 1980s, Gerd Heidemann, a journalist for the German magazine Stern, comes across detailed diaries apparently written by Adolf Hitler. The diaries give deep insights into the thoughts and motivations of the Fuhrer, and Stern is quick to publish them, while Heidemann sets off to find the rest of the diaries, which were supposedly lost in the wreckage of a plane crash. But the diaries turn out to be fake, forged by a small-time con man, Konrad Kujau, and this drama series recounts what turned out to be the hoax of the century.
Stories from the Street
Monday, Virgin Media One, 9pm
This three-part documentary series focuses on a diverse group of people in Dublin, just getting on with their work and family lives. What they have in common is that they’re all affected by homelessness in one way or another, from construction worker Cian, who is trying to hold down his builder’s job while sleeping rough; Tracey, who is trying to lift herself out of homelessness through education; and Michelle and Helen, who are dealing with the death of their brother, Thomas, in his tent in Loftus Lane.
Unforgotten
Monday, UTV, 9pm
Sanjeev Bhaskar returns as DI Sunil “Sunny” Khan in a new season of the cold case crime drama and, following the shock death of DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) at the end of season four, the investigating team has a new boss, DCI Jessica James, played by Dublin actress Sinéad Keenan (Fair City, Derry Girls). With Sunny still grieving Cassie’s death, he and Jessica clash, but when a severed leg is found in a chimney (not Santa’s), the colleagues are going to have to work together to solve the mystery.
Beauty & the Beast review: On the way home, younger audience members re-enact scenes. There’s no higher recommendation
Matt Cooper: I’m an only child. I’ve always been conscious of not having brothers or sisters
A Dublin scam: After more than 10 years in New York, nothing like this had ever happened to me
Patrick Freyne: I am becoming a demotivational speaker – let’s all have an averagely productive December
Réaltaí na Gaeltachta
Tuesday, RTÉ One, 7pm
Every summer, hundreds of students are packed off to the Gaeltacht, where they take part in a range of activities but must speak exclusively as Gaeilge or risk incurring the wrath of the fearsome bean an tí. In this new series, five grown-ups – broadcaster Des Cahill, writer Amanda Brunker, comedian Fred Cooke, TikTok star Lauren Whelan and AFL football star Oisín Mullin – are thrown in the deep end at Coláiste Bhríde in Rann na Feirste, where they’ll have to abide by the rules and dig deep into their memory to recall their Leaving Cert Irish.
The Mormons Are Coming
Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm
What’s it like to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? This documentary series follows some of the army of Mormon recruits as they travel far and wide to spread the word and add more converts to the nearly 17 million members of this religion worldwide. These missionaries are young, immaculately turned out and social media savvy – like a more strait-laced version of Love Island. With unprecedented access behind the scenes at a Mormon training centre in Lancashire, this programme promises some serious revelations and insights into the inner workings of the church.
The Dry
Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
Shiv has returned to Dublin after several years living in London, and naturally her family and friends are keen to celebrate this joyous homecoming with a few scoops. But Shiv has partied too much while away, and now she’s got sober and is trying to put her life back together. With everyone at home still immersed in a drinking culture, she is going to have to call on all her inner strength and resources to keep off the gargle and stay with the programme. Roisin Gallagher stars in this eight-part comedy series written by Nancy Harris and directed by Paddy Breathnach, co-starring Ciarán Hinds, Pom Boyd, Moe Dunford and Siobhán Cullen.
The Mandalorian
From Wednesday, Disney+
The first – and still the best – of the live-action Star Wars spin-offs, The Mandalorian has established itself firmly as a fan favourite, and Baby Yoda, aka Grogu, is a top meme. In series three, Mando (Pedro Pascal) is seeking forgiveness for past transgressions (taking off his helmet – gasp), while rumour has it that Grogu is learning the way of the Jedi from the best teacher in the galaxy – Luke Skywalker.
Stephen Fry: Willem and Frieda – Defying the Nazis
Thursday, Channel 4
After the Nazis occupied the Netherlands during the second World War, thousands of Jews were saved from the death camps thanks to forged identity cards made by a painter, Willem Arondeus, and a cellist, Frieda Belinfante. It took all the pair’s artistic skills, as Dutch identity cards were hard to replicate. And because duplicates were kept in a central records office in Amsterdam to prevent forgery, Willem had to find a way to blow up the building – but not leave any casualties. Stephen Fry travels to Amsterdam to tell this extraordinary but little-known war story.
Murder in the Pacific
Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm
In 1985, the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior was in Auckland harbour in New Zealand, preparing to lead a protest against French nuclear tests in the Pacific, when it was sunk by two explosions. One crew member was killed, and this three-part documentary series, billed as an environmental crime thriller, follows the crew of the Rainbow Warrior as they set out to expose the perpetrators, and continue their crusade to stop nuclear weapons testing by the world’s superpowers in their overseas territories, which had already inflicted horrific damage on indigenous peoples.
Daisy Jones & the Six
From Friday, Prime Video
The 1970s was the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll excess, when private jets, fashionable drug problems and complicated relationships were all part of the entourage. This new musical drama series – featuring original tunes – is based on the bestselling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and tells the story of the fictional band and the friction that follows as they top the charts and hit the stratosphere. It’s a little bit Almost Famous, a smidgen A Star is Born and a big dollop of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. Riley Keough plays lead singer Daisy, with Sam Claflin as her co-singer Billy Dunne, whose relationship is more highly charged than the Hollywood Bowl’s PA system.
Karen Pirie
Friday, Virgin Media One, 9pm
Aired on UTV last September, this adaptation of Val McDermid’s crime novel The Distant Echo stars Lauren Lyle from Outlander as the titular detective with more than a bit of attitude, not to mention fearlessness and tenacity. She’ll need all of the above in abundance when she is assigned to investigate a cold case murder of a young woman in the Scottish town of St Andrews a quarter of a century ago. Three students on a drunken night out claimed to have found the body, but no one has ever been charged. Needless to say, someone knows more about it than they’re letting on.
