Pick of the week
Legacy
Sunday, RTÉ One, 6.30pm
It sounds like the perfect title for an epic family drama in the vein of Succession, but this four-part documentary series looks at Irish history through the prism of Ireland’s national historic properties. These are the castles, country houses, memorial sites and gardens owned by the Office of Public Works (OPW), and include such iconic buildings as Áras an Uachtaráin and Dublin Castle. Writer and director David Hare previously took us around Ireland’s rugged coast via his book and TV series The Great Lighthouses of Ireland, and here he brings us inside 15 of the State’s most famous historic buildings, grouping them under different themes such as Writers and Collectors and Memory and Commemoration. “The thematic approach enabled us to include very different and seemingly unrelated buildings and sites from very different eras, and weave them together so that the connections between them become clear,” says Hare.
The first programme, Centres of Power, looks at the places where the big political decisions were made, and where Irish history was rewritten: Dublin Castle, the former seat of British rule in Ireland; Oldbridge House in Co Meath, site of the biggest battle in Irish history, the Battle of the Boyne; Derrynane House in Co Kerry, home and political headquarters of Daniel O’Connell; and Pearse Museum at St Enda’s Park in Rathfarnham, where Patrick Pearse set up a school and taught a new generation of Irish leaders. Former president Mary McAleese recalls her own inauguration at Dublin Castle and how she was deeply affected by the castle’s historic resonance.
Highlights
Elsbeth
Monday, Sky Witness & Now, 9pm
It’s now a requirement for every TV series to be part of a wider televisual or cinematic universe, a la Marvel or Star Wars. Elspeth is the latest spin-off from The Good Wife, so I guess that means we’re back in the Goodiverse. Carrie Preston played lawyer Elsbeth Tascioni in The Good Wife and its follow-up The Good Fight, and in this new series Elsbeth has left Chicago and moved to New York, where she is helping the NYPD catch wealthy, privileged perpetrators who think their status and connections will help them get away with murder. Series two begins with the mystery of the philandering financier who is found stabbed to death after a night at the opera. Was it a jealous husband, a jilted lover ... or a crazed opera lover wreaking vengeance on anyone who forgets to turn off their cellphones during a performance?
Virgin Island
Monday, Channel 4, 9pm
Channel 4 is calling this a “thought-provoking” series exploring body-image anxiety and fear of intimacy. Sounds more like another Love Island-type reality gameshow with a ridiculous twist. As the name suggests, all the contestants, despite being well into their 20s, are newbies to the sex and seduction game, and have never properly had it off with anyone before. The Svengalis behind this series are hoping that once they’re thrown together in a luxury Mediterranean treat, all their anxieties – and their clothes – will fall off and they’ll soon be going at it like social-media influencers on steroids. There’ll be lots of sexologists on hand to help them in their quest to lose their virginity – and Channel 4 are hoping there’ll be lots of viewers rooting for them too.
Bad Nanny
Monday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
Carrie Jade Williams was an award-winning writer who suffered from a terminal disease, and her story of bravery in the face of her diagnosis won hearts in Ireland and the UK. Unfortunately, Carrie Jade Williams did not exist – she was in fact Samantha Cookes, a serial fraudster and scammer who used a number of aliases over the years to build up false backstories, defrauding people by playing on their sympathies and vulnerabilities. She posed as the perfect Mary Poppins-type nanny, pretended to be a surrogate mother, and raised money for treatment for her nonexistent illness. Eventually, a number of her victims worked together to expose Cookes, and she was finally convicted in March and sentenced to three years in jail. This two-part documentary untangles Cookes’s web of lies, which she wove over a decade of deception.
Eurovision Song Contest 2025 Semi-Finals
Tuesday & Thursday, RTÉ2, 8pm
It’s Eurovision week, so put away your Radiohead records and clear the decks for some serious Euro cheese as 31 countries compete for a place in the grand final in Basle, Switzerland, on Saturday. Thursday’s second semi-final is where we’ll find out if Ireland can repeat last year’s feat of actually making it through to Saturday’s final. Our entry, Laika Party by Norwegian singer Emmy, sounds like the perfect Eurovision winner – from 1995. Marty Whelan will be doing the commentary for RTÉ viewers during both semi-finals, and though viewers in the Republic won’t be able to vote on Tuesday, don’t worry – we’ll be able to do some bloc voting on Thursday.
Uncharted with Ray Goggins
Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
A politician and a pop star head off on a head-spinning adventure in the South African wilderness – are we in uncharted TV territory here? In this new series, former special forces soldier Ray Goggins takes two celebrities right out of their comfort zones and brings them on a death-defying expedition into some remote locations, far from their PR handlers and social media managers. Episode one sees former taoiseach Leo Varadkar and singer Lyra attempt to reach the top of Tugela Falls in Drakensberg, South Africa, one of the world’s tallest waterfalls. They’ll have to sleep in caves, scale sheer rock faces and keep each other – and the viewers – entertained as they take on the ultimate survival challenge.
Forever Home
Thursday, BBC Two, 7pm
So you’ve moved to the big city, landed your perfect job and met your ideal partner. Now you’re thinking of getting out of the rat race and finding a nice place to settle into married life and start a family. Forever Home follows couples as they seek a less stressful life away from the bright lights and big traffic jams. Helen Skelton presents this pilot programme, following young couple Jess and Colin as they return to Wales in search of somewhere to settle down. They’ve found a rundown Victorian cottage in the rural area of Powys, and it has a connection to both of their families, but how do they go about restoring it? Helen brings in Northern Ireland architect Patrick Bradley to help the couple turn this cottage into the perfect family home.
Streaming
Overcompensating
From Thursday, May 15th, Prime Video
Benny is a former school football star and homecoming king who needs some help navigating his way through college – and finding his way out of the closet. Luckily there’s no shortage of outsiders and misfits at Yates College, desperately trying to find their tribe, and when Benny makes friends with Carmen, campus life soon becomes a whirlwind of “horrible hook-ups, flavoured vodka and fake IDs”. It’s a world where everyone is overcompensating, and terrified of showing their real selves for fear of being laughed at. Presumably, viewers will laugh at this comedy series starring the US actor and comedian Benito Skinner, who is also the show’s creator, writer and executive producer.
Murderbot
From Friday, May 16th, Apple TV+
Alexander Skarsgård is the star and executive producer of this sci-fi comedy thriller based on the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novels by Martha Wells. Skarsgård plays a security unit, or sec unit, an android tasked with protecting a space colony from slimy monsters and other alien perils. But this sec unit has managed to hack its own system, and has now gone rogue. But we don’t mean going on a killing rampage a la Terminator – more like going off into its own world and watching endless interplanetary soap operas. While keeping its newfound self-awareness a secret, Murderbot sets out to learn more about its masters, and discovers a profound truth: humans are pretty much idiots. Nicknaming itself Murderbot may not have been a smart idea, however, because when the members of the colony learn the truth about their sec unit, they are naturally a bit nervous around this newly sentient – and somewhat clueless – killing machine.
Welcome to Wrexham
From Friday, May 16th, Disney+
The Welsh underdog club continues its rise through the English Football League, with the encouragement of its Hollywood-star owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, in this fourth series of the fly-on-the-dressingroom-wall documentary. We join the club as it attempts to make the leap from League One to the Championship, which would put it within kicking distance of the Premier League, but the pressure is on to gain ever more wins on the pitch despite a growing injury list, and keep the fans coming back week in, week out to support one of the world’s oldest professional soccer clubs.
