TV guide: the best new shows to watch, starting tonight

Pick of the Week

Anna Haugh’s Big Irish Food Tour

Monday, BBC Two, 6.30

Irish chef Anna Haugh headed off to London to pursue her culinary dream, becoming a regular fixture on TV cookery shows and opening her own restaurant, Myrtle, named after her heroine, Myrtle Allen, the founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School and Ireland’s first Michelin-starred chef. In this series, Haugh returns to her home country, and she’s bringing a few well-known expats and stars with Irish connections along to reconnect with Ireland’s foodie culture. In this first episode, she’s accompanied by Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan, whose dad hails from Cork. Ryan admits she has some bad food memories of childhood stays in Cork, when meals were boiled to mush and herbs and seasoning were unheard of. Haugh is out to change Ryan’s mind about Cork cuisine, beginning with a visit to the English Market. Episodes will air every weekday at the same time, and among the guests taking part over the entire series are Ireland rugby international Bundee Aki, comedian Ed Byrne, presenter Laura Whitmore, pop stars Shayne Ward and Una Healy, and actors Pauline McLynn and Ian McElhinney.

Highlights

Malpractice

Sunday, UTV, 9pm

Niamh Algar starred in the first series of this acclaimed hospital drama, but series two has an almost entirely new cast, new storyline – and a new central character who is under investigation by the malpractice team. Tom Hughes plays Dr James Ford, a psychiatric registrar whose messy personal life bleeds into his work at a North Yorkshire hospital. On a particularly busy shift, Dr Ford is dealing with an anxious mother in for a routine postnatal assessment, and a psychotic woman who needs to be sectioned for her own good, but a series of bad decisions by the doc leads to a tragic outcome. Investigators George (Jordan Kouamé) and Norma (Helen Behan) must determine if Ford has a god complex or is he a victim of toxic hospital politics.

Dad’s Army at the BBC

Tuesday, BBC Two, 7.30pm

The BBC's hit comedy Dad's Army, 1970. Photograph: PA

Those of us of a certain vintage have fond memories of Dad’s Army, the British sitcom about a hapless Home Guard platoon armed and ready to repel Hitler’s forces should he dare try to invade old Blighty. Led by the pompous Captain Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe), this doddery crew couldn’t defend a letterbox, but that didn’t dampen their enthusiasm for the job. This special programme, aired in the run-up to the BBC’s VE Day 80th anniversary celebrations, looks back on some of the show’s funniest and most iconic moments, and also unearths some clips of cast members guesting on such programmes as Morecambe and Wise and The Lulu Show, and attending the Royal Gala in 1970 where they took on the perilous task of defending Buckingham Palace from enemy attack. Actor Toby Jones takes on the role of narrator – which is only appropriate, as he played Captain Mainwaring in the 2016 film version of the classic comedy.

Tarrac na Farraige

Thursday, RTÉ One, 7pm

Ireland’s fishing industry has hit choppy waters in the past few years, with local fisherman facing numerous threats to their livelihood in a fast-changing environment. This four-part series focuses on the captains running their own fishing boats and dealing with rising costs, diminishing returns and whatever other economic storms come their way. We get an up close and personal look at the hard daily realities for these skippers, as they work hard to keep their businesses afloat in a time of great uncertainty. Among the fishing families we meet are the O’Flahertys and the Murphys, along with skippers MacDara Breathnach, Enda Dirrane, John O’Donnell and Fionn Ó Corraoin.

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VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember

Thursday, BBC One, 8pm

Britain is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the end of the Emergency, which Britons called “the war”, and it’s no surprise that a spectacular show is planned to mark the day in 1945 when Germany’s surrender was formally accepted by the Allies. Zoe Ball, whose dad Johnny Ball was just six on VE day and remembers it well, will host this mega concert broadcast live from Horse Guards Parade in London. We’re promised a special night with some magnificent performances from such artists as Samantha Barks, Fleur East, Freya Ridings, Calum Scott, The Darkness, Toploader and Willard White, plus dazzling choreography from the Strictly professionals, and special appearances by Joan Collins, Mary Berry and Sheila Hancock. Veteran actor Brian Cox will re-enact Winston Churchill’s wartime speech, but what I’m really looking forward to is a special reboot of Dad’s Army featuring Kevin Eldon, Iain Glen, Nigel Havers, Derek Jacobi and Daniel Mays.

Marie Antoinette

Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm

We’ve waited two years to be invited back to the royal court at Versailles for the next instalment in the very eventful life of France’s last queen, Marie Antoinette. Emilia Schüle returns as the teen queen who reportedly said “let them eat cake” when informed her subjects could not afford to buy bread. In this new series of the lavish costume drama, Marie and King Louis XVI (Louis Cunningham) are at the height of their powers, but their enemies are also growing in power, and rumblings of revolution grow louder as France’s economy plummets. But Marie has more pressing matters: she’s been accused of stealing a valuable piece of jewellery, in what became the infamous Affair of the Diamond Necklace.

Poker Face

Thursday, Sky Max & Now, 9pm

Charlie Cale has a very particular skill – she’s a human lie detector machine, always able to spot when someone is dissembling. This superpower – gained from years working in a casino – has helped her solve murder cases, but it’s also got her in a lot of trouble. She’s on the run from a deadly crime syndicate whose bosses don’t much like being caught telling porkies. So Charlie has to stay one step ahead of the mob as she travels the length and breadth of the US, solving crimes and getting herself into some very sticky situations. Natasha Lyonne returns as the brash, smoky voiced Charlie in this screwball crime comedy helmed by Knives Out director Rian Johnson, and you’re not going to believe the list of guest stars she’ll encounter along the way, including Awkwafina, Cynthia Erivo, Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Ritter, John Cho, Justin Theroux, Katie Holmes, Rhea Perlman and Taylor Schilling.

Eurovision 2025: When Graham Met Remember Monday

Friday, BBC One, 11.20pm

We’re on the countdown for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, on May 17th, but our entry, Laika Party by Emmy, doesn’t seem to be generating half the excitement and anticipation whipped up for Bambie Thug’s mad gothic tune Doomsday Blue in 2024. Maybe it’s because Laika Party sounds like a cookie-cutter Eurovision entry from the 1990s, or could there be a bit of begrudgery over singer Emmy being Norwegian? (Canadian Céline Dion represented Switzerland in the contest, and the Swiss didn’t mind – but then again, she won it for them.) There’s great excitement across the water, though, for Britain’s entry, a bonkers pop tune called What the Hell Just Happened? by girl trio Remember Monday, clearly channelling the Spice Girls in the video for the song. Graham Norton, who handles the Eurovision commentary for the Beeb, sits down for a chin-wag with the girls as they prepare for their biggest-ever performance.

Streaming

A Deadly American Marriage

From Friday, May 9th, Netflix

When Netflix announced it was making a documentary about the killing of the Irish man Jason Corbett in 2015, it promised to “shed a bright light” on the questions raised by this horrific crime and the subsequent trial of his second wife, Molly Martens, and her father, the retired FBI agent Thomas Martens. The pair tried to paint Corbett as an abusive spouse, but his two children, Jack and Sarah, who were eight and 10 when their father was beaten to death with a baseball bat and a paving brick in the family home in North Carolina, were in no doubt who the real abuser was. Molly and Thomas Martens were initially convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20-25 years in prison, but the sentence was overturned on appeal, and the Martenses cut a plea deal for voluntary manslaughter that saw them released last year, having served four years and three months.

Long Way Home

From Friday, May 9th, Apple TV+

Best mates Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman have been motorbiking around the world for the past 20 years for our delight and delectation, but in this new series they’re apparently staying closer to home, riding from McGregor’s native Scotland to Boorman’s English home. There’s a twist and a turn, however: rather than take the direct route, the pair will take a circuitous path around Europe, crossing the North Sea to Scandinavia, heading up the Arctic Circle and down the Baltics, and then across the Continent before hopping over the Channel to England. “We’ve never properly explored the countries on our own doorstep,” says McGregor, “so this time Europe is our playground.” There’s just one thing: the pals will be travelling on refurbished vintage bikes, and they’ll be hoping these temperamental 50-year-old machines will still have a few more kilometres in them. They’ll be motoring through 17 countries over 10 episodes, meeting local people and taking part in local customs along the way, kick-starting the old sense of adventure once again.