Monday’s TV tips
(2005) In this heart-warming real-life tale of determination and perseverance in the face of adversity, Antony Hopkins commands the screen, playing an eccentric motorcycle enthusiast with a troublesome heart condition who leaves his home in New Zealand to embark on an extraordinary adventure of self-discovery.
The film is based on the charming tale of Burt Munro, whose lifelong dream was to travel to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and set a new land speed record on his lovingly restored 1920 Indian Twin Scout.
Directed with a light touch by Roger Donaldson, this gentle-paced road movie is a joyous and quirky slice of life that inspires laughter and tears in equal measure, with underlying rich vein of earthy humour.
New series. He’s soundtracked plenty of car rides with his BBC Radio 2 shows, but now broadcaster Terry Wogan is setting out on a road trip of his own as he joins forces with London cabbie Mason McQueen for a culinary journey around the UK, following a route mapped out by the adventurous gourmand Samuel Chamberlain in his 1963 travelogue British Bouquet: An Epicurean Tour of Britain.
They begin in the Dorset seaside town of Weymouth, where they sample lots of fresh seafood before heading to the countryside to eat Portland lamb.
Lenny Henry has been on our screens for so long, it’s easy to forget just how remarkable his career has been.
So, this fictionalised account of his early life, which he wrote and co-stars in, should be a real eye-opener. Kascion Franklin plays Danny, a talented teenager growing up in 1970s Dudley.
His daily challenges include dealing with his ebullient but strict mother, and trying to get the attention of the Irish girl he’s fallen deeply in lust with, but unlike most other teens, he’s also got an emerging comedy career to worry about.
His impersonations of everyone from Mohammed Ali to Frank Spencer eventually take him out of the local clubs and on to TV, but when an unscrupulous manager gets him a slot on the Musical Minstrel Cavalcade – clearly based on The Black and White Minstrel Show – it looks like impressionist Danny is going to have to find his own voice.
If you’re a fan of the American series The Deadliest Catch, which has spent the last 10 years documenting the lives of fishing crews on the Bering Seas, there may seem something slightly familiar about the premise of Channel 4’s new show.
It follows the people who have one of the toughest jobs in Britain – deep sea fishing.
As well as battling the rough seas off the cost of England in order to hunt out the most valuable fish, there’s also the little matter of the six-man crews having to eat, sleep and work together in such close quarters, where tensions are almost inevitable.
In this first edition, we’re introduced to Phil, the skipper of a large Gill netter called the ’Govenek of Ladram’.
He runs a tight ship, his crew can’t turn up for dinner with fish guts on their clothes, but needs to bring in new blood before his most experienced deckhands move on. Can 21-year-old Louis, who has never been at sea before, make the grade?
The comedians celebrate 25 years of working together on TV, introducing their favourite sketches from programmes including Harry Enfield’s Television Programme, Harry Enfield and Chums and Harry and Paul.
Clips feature Tim Nice-But-Dim, Wayne and Waynetta Slob, Dragons’ Den, the Scousers and Smashie and Nicey, while Harry and Paul also appear as Mark Rylance, Rob Brydon, Ricky Gervais, Prince Charles, Miranda Hart, Stephen Hawking, Boris Johnson, Melvyn Bragg and Jimmy Carr as they take viewers on a trip down memory lane.
RTÉ cameras go behind the scenes as the latest group of recruits battle to make it through the gruelling 17-week training to become fully fledged soldiers in the Irish Defence Forces.
Thousands applied, 350 made it but can they stay the distance?
At the height of the holiday season, Leo Maguire presents a timely report telling the stories of the migrants in camps Calais.
He examines the harsh realities of their lives, joining them as they attempt to evade security guards and police to get into the back of lorries and waits with them in the trailers as they try to make the channel crossing undiscovered.
Shot over the course of a year, the programme follows a selection of people who have each fled their homeland in the hope of starting a new life in the UK.
(2013) Spanish director Diego Quemada-Diez collected the prestigious A Certain Talent prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for this powerful drama concerning the plight of Mexican immigrants, who cross the border into America.
Juan (Brandon Lopez), Samuel (Carlos Chajon) and Sara (Karen Martinez) live in Guatemala, where poverty has left them facing a bleak future. So the three teenagers decide to head for America and begin the arduous trip across the Mexican border. En route, they meet another immigrant called Chauk (Rodolfo Dominguez), who takes a shine to Sara.
The four travellers encounter myriad obstacles as they attempt to realise their dreams, including Mexican immigration officials, sadistic soldiers and drug traffickers, who place a higher value on narcotics than human life.
