Pick of the Week
Twitter: Breaking the Bird
Monday, BBC Two, 9pm
Oldies like me still remember when X used to be known as Twitter, and wasn’t owned by a chainsaw-wielding megalomaniac in a Maga hat. How did the world’s biggest digital town square transform in to the world’s septic tank of far-right sludge? This 75-minute documentary, made by Candle True Stories and Bitachon365 in association with CNN Original Series, will trace the meteoric rise of the social media app created in 2006 and its shocking decline since its purchase by Elon Musk. The programme will delve deep into X’s darkest recesses to see how online hate and extremism emerged as the app’s default setting for millions of misusers. The documentary features interviews with Twitter’s cofounders Ev Williams and Biz Stone and many who worked for the platform during its chaotic early years, revealing how the seeds of Twitter’s self-destruction were sown long before Musk muscled in, plus analysis from journalist Kara Swisher, who has been covering the platform in the US media since its first-ever tweet.
Highlights
Cheap European Homes
Sunday, RTÉ One, 8pm
It’s the same every summer: we do our two weeks in the sun, then spend the last week wishing we could afford buy a place right here by the beach and just remote work for the rest of our lives. Well, now Maggie Molloy and Kevin McGahern are here to help Irish people find a bargain gaff in their favourite holiday destination, in the second series of Cheap European Homes. In the first episode, Maggie and Kevin help Machelle, who is looking for a home in Spain with lots of extra acreage to accommodate a campervan park. But does Machelle know the ins and outs of running a campervan park? Never fear, Kevin will get the lowdown.
The Americas
Sunday, RTÉ2, 8.05pm
Tom Hanks is our dulcet-toned guide on this exploration of the wildlife and natural wonders of the American supercontinent, from the frozen north, where polar bears and wolves compete for food and walruses bask on the ice, to the Amazon, where giant otters hunt and army ants march. This documentary series covers North and South America, the world’s largest land mass, and features breathtaking cinematography and amazing animal behaviour. What it doesn’t feature, however, according to critics, is the elephant in the room: climate change. There’s lots of wow wildlife footage, but nothing here about how humans are encroaching on natural habitats, or about the impact of climate change on species. Never mind – in years to come, at least we’ll have docuseries like these to remind us of what we’ve destroyed.
Tribe with Bruce Parry
Sunday, BBC Two, 9pm
Film-maker Bruce Parry has been a prominent advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples for many years, and he returns to the BBC for this three-part series highlighting the environmental threats facing indigenous tribes in the most remote parts of the world. To really get an insight into tribal life, he visits three indigenous tribes and lives among them, the first foreigner to be welcomed into their midst. His first hosts are the Waimaha people, who dwell deep in the Colombian rainforest, and have a deep understanding and connection with the natural world – something we’ve lost a long time ago. To win the Waimahas’ trust, he must follow their customs and rituals, and take part in some icky initiation rites – sort of ancient bushtucker trials – including eating bugs, drinking saliva beer and snorting hot chilli.
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Kinahan: The True Story of Ireland’s Mafia
Monday, BBC One, 10.40pm
How did a family of small-time Dublin drug dealers become one of the world’s biggest and most feared international crime organisations? This documentary dares to tell the story of how Christy Kinahan, the “godfather” of the gang, built up his criminal empire in the 1980s, beginning with inner-city Dublin, then moving to the UK and Europe and expanding into drug and firearms trafficking, money laundering and, inevitably, murder. He groomed his two sons, Daniel Kinahan and Christy Kinahan jnr, to take charge of the business, and now all three have a $5 million bounty on their heads. The documentary hears from journalists who have risked their lives to reveal details about the gang’s operations, law enforcement agents who have worked tirelessly to smash this cartel, and ordinary people who have been caught up in the deadly Kinahan-Hutch feud.
Stacey & Joe
Tuesday, BBC One, 8pm
Not to be confused with the sitcom Gavin and Stacey, this series follows real-life celebrity couple Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash as they bring up their blended family in their cottage in – where else? – Essex. Fans have only had glimpses into the couple’s lives via social media, but this fly-on-the-stucco series will bring fans right inside their country cottage – more like a mansion, really, complete with swimming pool, conservatory and 2½-acre garden – to get a close-up view of their busy daily lives. And it’s always busy in Pickle Cottage, with five kids aged one to 16, four ducks and two dogs vying for Stacey and Joe’s attention, plus a crammed work schedule and numerous home-improvement projects on the go – including creating a huge fishing lake out the back. We join the Solomon-Swashes as they celebrate their second wedding anniversary and prepare to bring the whole family off on a Turkish holiday (not the ducks, though).
Kate Garraway’s Life Stories
Tuesday, UTV, 9pm
In her second series as host of Life Stories, Kate Garraway has lined up a celebrity guest who is sure to grab attention: TV personality Jeremy Kyle, returning to ITV six years after the station axed his controversial daytime show. The Jeremy Kyle Show was modelled on the Jerry Springer style of guest-baiting, but when a guest named Steve Dymond died shortly after appearing on the show, questions were asked about the show’s confrontational approach. An inquest last year found no link between Dymond’s appearance on the show and his death, and Kyle is sure to discuss with Garraway how he navigated the “lies, false accusations and unfair criticism” he has had to endure over the incident.
The Crime I Can’t Forget
Tuesday, BBC One, 10.40pm
The RTÉ series The Case I Can’t Forget has been remastered into this new BBC series looking at high-profile criminal cases in Northern Ireland and the Republic that have haunted investigating officers for years afterwards. The stories are told by the detectives themselves, with actor Katherine Devlin narrating, and we begin with the harrowing case of Esther McCann and her 18-month-old daughter Jessica, who died in a house fire in Dublin. At first it seemed like a tragic accident, but investigating officers Sgt Pat Treacy and Supt Martin Walker uncovered evidence of death threats against Esther’s husband, swimming coach Frank McCann.
Black Snow
Friday, BBC Two, 9pm
Travis Fimmel from Vikings returns as hirsute detective James Cormack in the second series of this Australian crime drama set against the stunning landscapes of Far North Queensland. Series one saw Cormack investigate the cold-case murder of high school student Isabelle Baker 20 years ago; in series two, Cormack is trying to crack another cold case: the mysterious disappearance of Zoe Jacobs, who vanished from her own 21st birthday party back in 2003. There’s a chance she may be still alive, so Cormack will have to race against time to find her. But he also has another missing-persons cold case on his plate, and this one is personal: the disappearance of his younger brother when they were both kids.
Austin
Friday, BBC One, 9.30pm
Two Brit comedy greats, Ben Miller and Sally Phillips, star in this Aussie comedy about a dad learning to deal with the neurodivergent son he never knew he had. Miller plays successful children’s writer Julian, with Phillips as his illustrator wife, Ingrid. All is rosy and cosy in their world until Julian makes a social media faux pas and suddenly finds himself getting cancelled. When a young man with autism shows up at his doorstep claiming that he’s Julian’s son, the social media pariah sees his opportunity to get himself uncancelled. Michael Theo, who starred in docuseries Love on the Spectrum (series three starts on Wednesday, April 2nd, on Netflix), makes his acting debut as the titular Austin.
Paddy & Nigel’s Tourist Trap
Friday, BBC One, 10.40pm
Fans of comedian Paddy Raff will know Nigel, his posh alter-ego, and in this new comedy travel series, Nigel is tasked with promoting some of Northern Ireland’s lesser-known attractions, in a bid to prove there’s more to the North than the Giant’s Causeway and the Titanic Museum. He’s in charge of the Northern Ireland Promotional Society aka Nips, and the plan is to cajole a celebrity to come on a trip off the beaten track. Nigel, of course, is too hoity-toity to go himself, so Paddy has to round up the celebs and show them the sights. In this first episode, he brings actor Tara Lynne O’Neill to Moy in Co Tyrone, where they stay in a Georgian house converted into a luxury B&B. Will Nigel stick his toffee nose in and spoil the fun? You can count on it.
Streaming
Pulse
From Thursday, April 3rd, Netflix
Nurse – the TV screens! It’s time for another frenetic medical drama packed with the usual tropes and cliches, and featuring horny hospital staff giving each other googly eyes over the guts on the operating table. But could Pulse buck the trend and bring something fresh to this ailing genre? Willa Fitzgerald, who played feisty cop Roscoe Conklin in series one of Racher, stars as feisty Miami medic Danny Simms, who has to juggle her life-saving duties with her complicated love life – all in the midst of a devastating hurricane that is battering the south Florida city. To make things even trickier, her colleague Dr Zander Phillips (Colin Woodell) has been suspended, and Danny has been promoted in his place; as the trauma cases from the hurricane come pouring in, details of Danny’s illicit affair with Phillips start trickling out, making things slightly awkward around the wards.
The Bondsman
From Thursday, April 3rd, Prime Video
Bacon’s back! We’ve had sporadic sightings of Kevin Bacon in various movies and TV series over the past few years, but now we are just one degree of separation away from the legend as he takes the lead role in this supernatural horror series from Blumhouse Television. Bacon plays country music-lovin’ bounty hunter Hub Halloran, who has to find himself a new job after being brutally murdered. His new boss? None other than that ol’ devil himself. Satan sends him back to earth to hunt down the demons that have escaped from hell and cast them back in to the flames. But as Hub begins to repent his past sins, could this resurrection be his last shot at redemption?
Dying for Sex
From Friday, April 4th, Disney+
Michelle Williams stars as Molly in this drama inspired by a true podcast, which asks the eternal question: if you were diagnosed with a terminal illness, what would you do with the time you have left? For Molly, who learns she has stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, the answer is clear: have as much sex as possible in as many ways as possible. Molly is determined to get laid as often as she can before she’s laid to rest, and to accomplish her f**k-it list, she must of course leave her husband and recruit her friend Nikki to join her on her wild new sexual adventure. The cast includes Jenny Slate, Jay Duplass, Rob Delaney and Sissy Spacek.
