Sunday’s TV tips
Presented by Anne Cassin, the All-Island School Choir Competition is a five-part television series celebrating and encouraging the tradition of choral music in second-level schools throughout Ireland.
Organised by Co-operation Ireland, in association with RTÉ, the series features twenty choirs competing in four regional finals, building up to the Grand Final live from the Titanic Centre in Belfast on Sunday November 16th.
This year, for the first time, one of the four regional finals will be staged in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, the burial place of Brian Ború.
For a second successive year, two regional events will be held in the magnificent St. Patrick’s College Chapel at NUI Maynooth.
The Curtis Auditorium in the Cork School of Music will host the fourth regional final.
The subject of this one-off documentary is pretty self-explanatory looking at the title, but will it shock many to learn the inner-most details about Hitler’s extraordinary medicinal regime during the Second World War?
Possibly not, although that’s not to say that this doesn’t make for fascinating viewing, as based on a secret American intelligence dossier and the journals of Dr Theodor Morell, the Fuhrer’s personal physician, new light is cast on his health.
Dr Morell’s diaries have been locked away since 1945, but they reveal that Hitler was a nervy hypochondriac and chart his descent into illness and drug dependency. He used uppers and downers, quack cures, powerful stimulants and various injections for ailments, both real and imagined.
The programme also airs film footage that the German censors tried to suppress, and which suggests that by 1945 Hitler was in the later stages of a serious degenerative disease.
This year’s annual John Peel lecture is a rather special affair – it marks 10 years (to the month) since the legendary broadcaster and disc jockey died of a heart attack aged 65.
And it’s only fitting that such a notable figure in the music industry - ’Godfather of punk’ Iggy Pop – should give the lecture, as Peel was the first DJ to play Iggy as part of the Stooges on UK radio, introducing listeners to their track Little Doll.
Iggy Pop said of Peel: “He’s done a lot to give others a voice, and that’s the most important gift you can give. Here was a person with strong opinions and enthusiasms who wasn’t defined by any system, and because of that his show became an exciting location, kind of like a shop that’s a good hang. So it was a social as well as a musical phenomenon.”
Iggy will be speaking on the subject of free music in a capitalist society.
Downton Abbey certainly has a lot to answer for.
It has turned us into a nation obsessed with beautiful-looking period dramas and the depraved and class-judged characters within them – so it’s just lucky for us then that we have another four whole episodes to enjoy yet.
Tonight’s instalment pays attention to art expert Simon Bricker and Lady Cora. The pair have grown close in recent weeks, and their flirting reaches boiling point. She’s enjoying the attention he’s paying her, but it looks like he might be about to cross a line anytime soon...
Meanwhile, romance could be blossoming elsewhere too, as Cora’s eldest child, Mary, is enjoying the company of Charles Blake, and he surprises her with a cunning plan to help her get exactly what she wants.
Rose meets a dashing stranger, Branson makes up his mind about Sarah Bunting, and Inspector Vyner has some ominous words of warning for Anna.
When little-known actress Claire Danes managed to clinch a role in My So-Called Life a whopping 20 years ago, she probably didn’t dare dream she’d go on to achieve such massive success.
However, the hint came when she won a Golden Globe for the aforementioned role.
Now, after that performance alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet, two decades down the line, she’s one of Hollywood’s leading lights, and shining brightly in this addictive drama, which kicked off it’s fourth series last week.
In tonight’s episode, Carrie makes her way back to America for an official inquiry, as she continues to struggle with her ambivalence toward motherhood.
Meanwhile, Quinn’s on that unsteady spiral out of control, and a disgraced former case officer reveals disturbing new information.
Danes is ably supported by Rupert Friend, Tracy Letts and Mandy Patinkin.
The most well-travelled man on the box wraps up another stunning series tonight with a jaunt along the Yangtze, as Simon discovers a revival of religious faith in today’s China.
Reeve begins his journey at the first bend of the river, and follows it to Dazu, where he comes across 50,000 ancient rock carvings, which are revealed to be some of the only religious artefacts not have been destroyed under communist rule.
Knowing how much he’s been packing into these travels, he’s of course not done there – and taking in a river cruise, he visits the Three Gorges Dam, the biggest power station on earth.
Simon then winds up in Shanghai, a shining symbol of the country’s new economic might. However, he soon learns that it’s a city where many of its residents are rediscovering religious faith.
Hats off to Simon Reeve and team for another series well done...
Ambitious politician David Norris (Matt Damon) falls for beautiful ballet dancer Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt).
However, he soon learns he is up against the agents of Fate itself – the mysterious men of the Adjustment Bureau – who will do everything in their considerable power to prevent David and Elise from being together.
Inspired by a Phillip K Dick story, this offbeat thriller features brilliant central performances from Damon and Blunt; the chemistry between them is superb. Just a pity she seems to vanish for half of the film.
Good support comes from Terence Stamp, Anthony Mackie and John Slattery. This is definitely one to be sure you catch if you’ve not had the pleasure of seeing it already.
Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Terence Stamp, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery.
