TV guide: 12 of the best shows to watch this week

Evacuation

Sunday, Channel 4, 9pm

When the US and its coalition partners pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021, the way was clear for the Taliban to re-establish its control of the country. As they marched on Kabul, British forces frantically worked to airlift people from Kabul airport, and this documentary series brings us inside the chaos, as 15,000 British citizens were flown out amid an escalating humanitarian crisis. The series will feature never-seen-before footage from the biggest evacuation since the second World War.

Jon Snow: A Witness to History

Sunday, Channel 4, 10pm

In this new documentary, the real Jon Snow – the former Channel 4 news anchor, not the character from Game of Thrones – looks back on his long career as a news reporter, bringing gripping stories from the frontline into people’s livingrooms over five decades. As part of his job, Snow covered an IRA siege in London, exposed the atrocities committed by death squads in El Salvador and was there for 9/11, the release of Nelson Mandela and the election of Donald Trump as US president.

Long Lost Family

Monday, UTV, 9pm

DNA detectives Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell are back for a 13th series, helping people who were adopted or grew up in care to track down family members who may be out there somewhere. It’s a difficult task and, for some, there may be disappointment at the end of their search. In the first episode, McCall and Campbell help Paul Connolly, who was abandoned in east London as a baby and has spent most of his life trying to piece together who he really is. They also help Shaun Lawrence find out why his birth parents gave him up for adoption, then got married and had two more children.

Women at War: Mexico

Monday, Sky Documentaries & Now, 9pm

Award-winning frontline journalist Alex Crawford presents another film in her Women at War documentary strand, this time focusing on women in Mexico who face extreme violence daily – and in many cases femicide fuelled by the country’s drug cartels, who have pushed a culture of greed, corruption and toxic masculinity. Crawford meets women who have stood up to the cartels and women who have fled the violence and are trying desperately to cross the border and gain entry to the US.

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

The Heiress and the Heist

Tuesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm

How did a privileged young Englishwoman with connections to the royal family turn into an IRA activist and a master art thief? This documentary series tells the story of how Rose Dugdale became radicalised by the Bloody Sunday massacre of 1972, joining the IRA and masterminding the Russborough House robbery in 1974, making off with paintings worth more than €100 million in today’s money. Episode one looks at Dugdale’s aristocratic upbringing and how she turned from Oxford high achiever to bomb-making revolutionary.

Cooking with the Stars

Tuesday, UTV, 9pm

We know by now which celebrities can dance and which have two left feet, but can they waltz around a kitchen and whip up gourmet meals or do their culinary efforts invariably fall flat? In this third series of Cooking with the Stars, Emma Willis and Tom Allen introduce a new crew of celebrity would-be chefs, including actor Jason Watkins, boxing legend Chris Eubank, singer Peter Andre and Claire Richards from Steps. Each celeb will be paired with a professional mentor, who will help them beef up their cooking skills as they take part in some intense cooking battles.

Wham!

From Wednesday, Netflix

Once upon a time in England (1982, around teatime), two teenage best mates decided they were going to conquer the world and become huge pop stars. And lo and behold, it came to pass, and George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley embarked on a four-year adventure in pop superstardom, as the whole world fell at their dancing feet. The smiley duo scored effervescent hit after hit, with such tunes as Club Tropicana, I’m Your Man and Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. This documentary film delves into the personal archives of Ridgeley and Michael, and dusts off some rare footage to bring us deep into Wham! world just as they went stratospheric.

Joanna Lumley’s Spice Trail Adventure

Wednesday, UTV, 9pm

You can rely on Joanna Lumley to add a bit of spice to every programme or film she appears in, so it’s fitting that her latest travel series takes her on a journey into the heart of spice world. This is an epic voyage filled with exotic aromas and flavours, taking Lumley through Indonesia, Zanzibar, India and Madagascar, where the spice trade has thrived for centuries. In episode one she visits the nutmeg-producing Banda islands of Indonesia, once frequented by the likes of Mick Jagger, and goes to the capital, Jakarta, to learn why it has become the clove cigarette capital of the world.

Untold: OnlyFans Got Me Fired

Thursday, Channel 4, 12.05am

It’s one of the hazards of being OnlyFans superstar. After a hard day’s work at the office, you just want to get home and get your kit off for your thousands of followers. But then your boss finds out about your nixer in the nip, and hands you your P45. “My manager said: ‘There’s no easy way to say this, but is this you?’ He slid over a piece of paper of me spreading my arse, bent over, and I just burst out crying,” says one who was caught in social media flagrante. In this edition of Untold, we meet OnlyFans creators who have been sacked after their employers discovered their accounts, including Hollyoaks star Sarah Jayne Dunn, who was forced to quit the soap in 2021.

Face the Music

Thursday, RTÉ1, 10.15pm

This three-part series follows the students of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, including Sean Shannon from Ennis, who taught himself to play on a toy piano when he was a small child, and has since taken his musical skills to a whole new level. The series finale sees the students preparing for their big end-of-term performance, and the nerves are reaching nail-biting levels. Riona (12) and Daire (9) are preparing to compete in the Feis, while percussionist Rafael – who was hit by the drumming bug after hearing Phil Collins play – is looking forward to the chance of joining the junior academy’s symphony orchestra.

John Torode’s Ireland

Friday, RTÉ2, 8.30pm

The MasterChef presenter continues his culinary travels around Ireland with a visit to Wicklow coast, and to the place where, it seems, everyone wants to live: Greystones. Maybe that’s because it’s also where foodie twins the Flynn brothers aka the Happy Pear have a cafe, shop and bakery. They show Torode how to make a vegan “cheese steak” sandwich that’s even cheddar than the real thing. Torode then heads to Wexford to learn how to cook the Viking way.

Then You Run

Friday, Sky Max & Now, 9pm

Can’t be easy being a teenager these days, what with exam pressures, social media, going on the run with a big stash of heroin, being chased across Europe by a ruthless criminal gang run by your own uncle, your estranged dad turning up dead, and a scary serial killer known only as “The Traveller” stalking you. This is what happens to rebellious London teen Tara (Leah McNamara) while on a getaway to Rotterdam with her mates – now they’ll have to really get away if they want to make it to voting age.