THE HERALD TUESDAY 3 JULY 2018 ON THE BOX YOUR COMPLETE TV GUIDE ALL YOUR TV LISTINGS, CROSSWORDS & WITH PAT STACEY PUZZLES INSIDE ✒

RTE2’s new TONIGHT’S World Cup analysts TV HIGHLIGHTS Hope Solo and, inset, Stephanie Roche

BEST COPS SHADES OF BLUE Sky Living, 9pm NOT every big- screen star making a move into television is a guaranteed recipe for success, as you’ll know if you’ve stuck with this ludicrous corrupt cop drama with Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta, back for a third and final season. As Brooklyn cops Harlee Santos and Matt Wozniak continue to deal with the trauma of their near-death experiences, they encounter a grisly crime scene that launches a new mystery. RTE2 knows the way

BEST LOVERS THE AFFAIR to handle a woman Sky Atlantic, 9pm MORE from the perspective- switching, patience-straining drama with Ruth Wilson and the tournament kicked off on June and Peter Collins. She’s a hugely Neither contrived to ask her to Dominic West. Alison is saved TALKING POINT 14 that big names Germany, Spain, experienced sports broadcaster who explain the offside rule. by a handsome stranger. Argentina and Portugal would knows her onion sack. You patron- The relaxed atmosphere on RTE2 Elsewhere, Cole tries to keep IT’S GREAT TO HAVE already have fallen like dominoes at ise a woman with her knowledge at is in stark contrast to what’s been Alison’s behaviour from ruining FEMALE WORLD CUP this stage, or that Russia, branded your peril. happening in the UK. an important deal, and Luisa’s one of the weakest ever host na- But anyone expecting an air of The British broadcasters added legal status threatens her plans PUNDITS . . . UNLESS tions, would be looking forward to a awkwardness or unease when Ire- two ex-England women’s interna- for the future. quarter-final? land striker Stephanie Roche, carry- tionals to their World Cup panels: YOU’RE PATRICE EVRA The news off the field is good. ing heroically on with an extremely Alex Scott on the BBC and Eni The much-feared Russian hooligans sore throat, took her place along- Aluko on ITV. They’ve both been haven’t turned up to spoil the party. side the male pundits will have brilliant, offering the kind of MAKE no mistake: this is not a So far. Whatever else may be going been disappointed. intelligent, insightful good World Cup. This is a great on in Putin’s Russia, the running of Her gender was comment you’ll never World Cup. There have been plenty the tournament is as smooth as the immaterial, which is NEVILLE hear coming out of of thrilling matches and, so far, not top of Pierluigi Collina’s head. the way it should be. APPEARED Danny Murphy. too many outright duds. They treated her like But the reaction of Even Sunday night’s disap- BRILLIANT they’d treat anyone NOT TO some of the male pun- pointingly wan last-16 encounter A brilliant World Cup deserves who plays, loves and, KNOW THAT dits to their presence between Croatia and Denmark was brilliant television coverage and, to more importantly, has been cringe-in- BEST HISTORY redeemed somewhat by a nail-bit- the surprise of absolutely nobody, knows the game. URUGUAY ducing. When Aluko ingly crazy penalty shootout. RTE2 has as usual been wiping the And if you assume HAVE WON delivered a compre- AFRICA’S GREAT There have been superb goals floor with the bloated BBC, which that every ex-foot- hensive analysis of CIVILISATIONS too, some of which — Diego Costa appears to have more people in baller automatically THE WORLD Costa Rica before BBC4, 10pm for Spain against Portugal, Luka Russia than Gareth Southgate has possesses in-depth CUP TWICE their game with THE penultimate instalment Modric for Croatia against Argenti- in his squad, and the idiotic ITV. knowledge of football, Serbia, an impressed of Henry Louis Gates Jr’s na, Cristiano Ronaldo for Portu- We’ve come to expect smart, you haven’t been Patrice Evra patronis- terrific survey of Africa’s gal against Spain, Toni Kroos for comprehensive, no-bullshit World listening to the drivel coming out of ingly applauded her. Ugh! history. This episode examines Germany against Sweden — will Cup coverage from the national Ian Wright — the missing link be- Meanwhile, Philip Neville — who the continent’s relations show up in ‘best ever’ clip shows for broadcaster over the years, but one tween the football and plant worlds last week appeared not to know with the world beyond its decades of the most gratifying elements this — over on ITV. that Uruguay have won the World shores in the 15th and 18th to come. time around is the inclusion of As chance would have it, as I was Cup twice — has taken to simply centuries, including the seismic I don’t think I’ve ever watched women, and the low-key, no-fuss writing this paragraph US wom- repeating Scott’s observations of 30 transformation as West African a World Cup with so many twists, way it’s been handled. en’s goalkeeper Hope Solo was just seconds earlier as though they were kingdoms encounter European turns, reversals, surprises and No surprise to see the excellent making her first appearance on his own. For two men who talk a mariners travelling farther and shocks. Jacqui Hurley alternating present- the RTE2 panel, alongside Richie lot of balls, they don’t give much farther south along Africa’s Who would have believed when ing duties with Darragh Moloney Sadlier and Keith Andrews. indication of having any. Atlantic coast. THE HERALD TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019 ON THE BOX YOUR COMPLETE TV GUIDE ALL YOUR TV LISTINGS, CROSSWORDS & WITH PAT STACEY PUZZLES INSIDE ✒

Stephen Graham and Shea Michael Shaw in a tender TONIGHT’S scene from The Virtues. Inset below: Graham TV HIGHLIGHTS in Line of Duty

BEST DRAMA YEARS AND YEARS BBC1, 9pm AT the last count, things weren’t looking too perky, ratings- wise, for Russell T Davies’ terrific near-future drama. Last week’s episode drew just 1.5 million viewers on the night, although once the catch-up audience has been factored in, the consolidated figure is likely to be much higher. Maybe Davies’ determinedly liberal, anti-populist tone is putting off the easily bruised souls who put Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party top Is this the best acting of the Euro polls. Their loss. we’ve ever seen?

star in 2019. I was wrong, and the Al Capone); Tinker Taylor Soldier work that Meadows, who directed BEST IN PRAISE OF: actor who’s proved me wrong is Spy; The Damned United (playing and co-wrote it (with Jack Thorne), SCARE STEPHEN GRAHAM, Stephen Graham himself. Billy Bremner); the Pirates of has done since confronting his own CHERNOBYL Graham’s extraordinary the Caribbean franchise; and the repressed memories of childhood Sky Atlantic, 9pm WHO HAS RAISED performance in Shane Meadows’ just-released Elton John biopic sexual abuse – is the most realistic PENULTIMATE episode of the blistering four-parter The Virtues Rocketman (as record producer Gus drama to come along in decades is astonishingly powerful nuclear NATURALISM TO A on Channel 4 surpasses his work in Dudgeon). like saying grass is green. disaster drama. Valery Legasov Line of Duty and possibly anything In The Virtues, Graham plays the There’s not a single false note (Jared Harris) and Boris NEW LEVEL else he’s done up to now. damaged Joseph, who was born in in it. Every scene, every line of Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgard) Ireland but moved to Liverpool. He’s dialogue, every camera shot (which come up with a life-saving idea ENVIABLE a recovering alcoholic, clinging to Meadows often holds longer than to remove radioactive debris. IF Stephen Graham had appeared This is saying something about sobriety by his fingernails for the many directors would dare) has the Meanwhile, the authorities are in nothing this year except BBC1’s a hugely versatile actor whose sake of his young son (Shea Michael ring of absolute truth. still trying to hide the truth from Line of Duty, he’d still be a red-hot enviable CV includes roles in This Is Shaw), who he adores. Saying it resembles a the wider world. favourite to pick up an award at next England and its TV follow-ups (all When his ex-wife and her partner documentary doesn’t quite do year’s BAFTAs. written and directed by Meadows); take the boy to begin a new life it justice. It goes beyond that, It’s easy to visualise any number Scorsese’s Gangs of New York in Australia, Joseph, whose just dissolving the wall between the of gifted actors playing conflicted and the upcoming The Irishman; about kept it together through actors on screen and the viewers at and compromised undercover Boardwalk Empire (as a terrifying an unbearably sad home. cop John Corbett. It’s a lot harder, farewell meal with the Two scenes in however, to imagine anyone making three of them, falls to EVERY SCENE, particular – when as brilliant a job of it as Graham. pieces. EVERY Joseph and his son Being the guest lead in Jed During a single are spending their Mercurio’s police corruption night of binge- LINE, EVERY last, tender moments drama has evolved into one of the drinking (the most CAMERA together, and when plummest roles on TV. Over the horribly realistic Joseph and Anna BEST HISTORY course of Line of Duty’s five seasons, depiction of alcoholic SHOT HAS are having their first it has given actors including Lennie collapse ever put on THE RING OF conversation since BREAD: A LOAF James, Keeley Hawes and Thandie screen), repressed they were separated AFFAIR Newton wonderful opportunities to memories of the ABSOLUTE as children – feel so BBC4, 10pm shine. sexual abuse he TRUTH authentic, so intimate, A typically wry look (or maybe But Graham, cycling through a suffered as a child it’s like eavesdropping that should be rye look) from complex range of feelings — anger, break through the on real lives. the Timeshift strand at the fear, confusion, vulnerability, surface. Anchoring it all is Graham, who evolution of the loaf and how near-suicidal despair — arguably Having woken up the following raises naturalistic acting to a whole the bread that British people outshone all of his predecessors. morning covered in vomit and piss, new level. consumed in the past had a lot It was a terrific performance, Joseph cleans himself up and takes He’s simply stunning. That BAFTA to say about their social status. locating the kind of depth and the ferry to Ireland to confront the next year no longer looks like a White bread, for instance, used nuance in the character that only ghosts of his past and reunite with strong possibility. It looks like a to be exclusively for the rich, the very finest screen actors are his sister Anna (Helen Behan), who certainty. until dietary experts discovered capable of tapping into. hasn’t heard from him in years and EPISODE 3 OF THE VIRTUES that brown is much better for I honestly didn’t believe we’d see had assumed he was dead. IS ON CHANNEL 4 you. First shown in 2010, but it’s a better piece of acting from a male To say The Virtues – the first TOMORROW AT 9PM not in the least bit stale (sorry!). THE HERALD TUESDAY 14 MAY 2019 ON THE BOX YOUR COMPLETE TV GUIDE ALL YOUR TV LISTINGS, CROSSWORDS & WITH PAT STACEY PUZZLES INSIDE ✒

The suggestion that Derry Girls was diddled out of a TONIGHT’S Bafta on Sunday is foolish TV HIGHLIGHTS

BEST DRAMA MARY KILLS PEOPLE More4, 9pm PITCH-BLACK new Canadian drama series starring Caroline Dhavernas as ER medic Dr Mary Harris. She’s a struggling single mother who, having performed a routine assisted suicide with the help of her assistant Des (Jay Ryan), decides to start offering it as a service. Before long, complications start to pile up along with the dead bodies. This certainly sounds like one to keep an eye on. Derry Girls fanatics

BEST KITSCH EUROVISION SONG CONTEST get a reality check 2019 RTE2, 8pm THE first semi-final, live from Tel Aviv in Israel. Artists and songs from 17 countries compete for to it to loudly (and very occasion- involved with. The four entries why it’s been so wildly overrated by 10 places in next Saturday’s TALKING POINT ally more than a little obnoxiously) with the most votes make up the so many people, including quite a final. Marty Whelan is in the express their anger that Bafta had nominees. The winner is then picked few seasoned TV critics who seem commentary box. You’ll have SHOCK HORROR! named Julia Davis’ Sally4Ever and by a specially selected nine-strong to have mistaken exuberance for to wait until Thursday to see not Derry Girls as the best comedy judging panel. originality. Ireland’s Sarah McTernan. NOT EVERYBODY series of 2018. Nothing dodgy or underhand It’s funny in spots, but the charac- REVERES THE Moderation went out the window. about it. No favouritism or back- ters are so cartoonish and the acting I wish I had €10 for every tweet handers. You may not like the final from the younger members of the RAUCOUS COMEDY that claimed Derry Girls was either result (it’s all a matter of taste, after cast so high-pitched and hysterically “robbed” or “snubbed”, or that the all) but the voting process is about over the top that it begins to grate whole thing was “a fix”. I’d be spend- as fair as it can be. on the nerves after a while. ALFRED HITCHCOCK reportedly ing today checking out a brand I can understand, Put it this way, if had a droll way of dealing with new car to replace my clapped-out up to a point, why so Tommy Tiernan is actors who tied themselves in 11-year-old Skoda Octavia with the many people have tak- I WISH I giving the most re- psychological knots worrying about boot that no longer opens. en to Derry Girls. Yes, HAD €10 strained performance their character’s motivation. “Relax,” it’s warm-hearted and on screen, then maybe Hitch would tell them, “it’s only a RAGING good-natured, and yes, FOR EVERY you need to dial movie.” One tweet went: “Raging Derry Girls it’s great to see a series TWEET THAT things down a little. BEST What can you say to all those didn’t get a Bafta! I has (sic) never set in 1990s Derry To be honest, the PROFILE Derry Girls fans feeling disappoint- heard of the others.” Can I suggest that doesn’t put The CLAIMED hype around Derry BOB FOSSE: IT’S ed, distraught and even outraged watching more television? You never Troubles front and DERRY Girls has spiralled out SHOWTIME that their favourite comedy didn’t know, you might find something else centre all the time, of control. Once peo- Sky Arts, 10.15pm win an award at Sunday night’s you like almost as much as Derry but instead celebrates GIRLS WAS ple start claiming that IF YOU saw the 1979 film All Baftas? You could try: “Relax, it’s Girls. the good things about ‘ROBBED’ it’s the best thing to That Jazz, starring Roy Scheider only a sitcom.” Another asked: “How the f*** did the city and its people, happen to television as choreographer and film And in the opinion of some of us Derry Girls not get a Bafta? I need a who were just trying comedy since Father director Bob Fosse, you’ll know — because an opinion is all anyone f***ing explanation!” to get on with their ordinary, every- Ted (presumably, they haven’t been to expect plenty of excess and can offer about something as Okay, here’s a f***ing explanation. day lives. I can also understand, watching much television comedy outrageous behaviour in this subjective as comedy — not as great Broadcasters, production companies up to a point, why it’s become the over the last 21 years), you know it’s feature-length documentary a sitcom as it’s cracked up to be. and sometimes individual perform- most-watched series ever in North- time for a big, fat reality check. profile. Fosse created some of I don’t know if that puts me in ers submit entries for the awards. ern Ireland. If you had to endure And a big, fat reality check is the most enduring works for the minority. It’s difficult to gauge. Once all the entries are received, 77 episodes of Give My Head Peace exactly what the Baftas delivered on stage and screen, including People who are indifferent to some- they’re voted for online by the — or even 77 seconds of Soft Border Sunday night. Chicago, Cabaret and Lenny, thing generally don’t take to Twitter 8,000 eligible members of Bafta. Patrol — you’d probably consider all the while blazing a trail of to loudly express their indifference Nobody can vote for themselves or Derry Girls a comedy masterpiece SEASONS 1 AND 2 OF DERRY booze, pills and bed-hopping. in the same way some people took for the programme or series they’re too. What I’ll never understand is GIRLS ARE AVAILABLE ON ALL 4