04 October 2011 (TV Previews)

The usual box offerings your telly is purveying for the middle of October. As ever, you can keep yourself up to date with your viewing by visiting our TV Page for our four daily highlights.

Mixed Race Season - Twincredibles. 10th October. 9pm. BBC2.
There's only a slim chance that black and white parents will have twins of different skin colour and 50 years ago these twin births were almost unheard of in the UK; however, with the number of interracial relationships increasing, so too will the number of cases. Telling the surprising story of this genetic phenomenon, Twincredibles, part of BBC Two's Mixed Race Season, explores the life experiences of five sets of black and white twins, from babies and teenagers through to brothers nearing 30, who are similar in so many other ways but lead very different lives because of the colour of their skin. The programme hears from teenagers James and Daniel, who grew up in South East London, where it was the whiter-looking twin Daniel who suffered racial abuse; 11-year-old Glaswegian twins Ebony and Moesha who are very different in character; and new mum Shirley who has just given birth to twins Hope and Leo.

Property Crash - Where To Now? 10th October. 9.35pm. RTE1.
Almost 5 years on from his landmark documentary Futureshock: Property Crash, Richard Curran looks to the future to ask what happens next to Ireland's residential property market. Where will the property market will be in five years' time: will it ever recover and to what extent will any future recovery be location specific rather than national? He travels to Finland and Japan to see what lessons we can learn from their property crash and he examines the conditions needed at home for recovery to happen. Contributors include: Peter Nyberg (Finnish Central Bank and author of the Nyberg report into Ireland's banking crisis), Sauli Niinisto (Finnish Deputy Prime Minister), Governor Patrick Honohan, Pat Farrell (Irish banking Federation), Dr Alan Ahearne (Economist and Special Advisor to Brian Lenihan).

Masterchef Ireland - The Final. 13th October. 9.30pm. RTE2.
MasterChef Ireland reaches its exciting climax (well, food is involved) tonight when one of the remaining contestants will be crowned the first ever MasterChef Ireland. Given, at the time of writing, the final five consist of one bloke, we can assume the winner will be female. And from Cork. And a bit of a pocket rocket... Tonight these three exceptional cooks must cook a three-course meal using everything they have learned so far in the competition to persuade judges Nick (AKA Lee Evans's very dashing distant cousin) and Dylan that they have what it takes to win the coveted title.



Comic Strip Presents: The Hunt for Tony Blair. 14th October. 9.00pm. Channel 4.
The Comic Strip team return for a special 50s-style 'fugitive' film noir spoof. Why not. Prime Minister Tony Blair (Stephen Mangan), is wanted for murder and on the run. Escaping from Number 10 and leaving behind his adoring wife Cherie (Catherine Shepherd), Tony vows to clear his name no matter what the consequences. With front pages demanding his capture, Blair has no choice but to go on the run, with Inspector Hutton (Robbie Coltrane) and his sidekick (James Buckley) hot on his trail. The chase unfolds thanks to evidence gleaned from his 'allies' Mandelson (Nigel Planer) and Brown (Ford Kiernan), as well as an unlikely encounter with Margaret Thatcher (Jennifer Saunders, channelling Bette Davies in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?). Surely Tony's an innocent man, pursued for a crime he didn't commit?! The cast also includes Harry Enfield as Alastair Campbell, Rik Mayall as Professor Predictor, Morgana Robinson as Carole Caplin, John Sessions as Thatcher's butler and Ross Noble as an 'old Labour' tramp.

Ricky Gervais: Science. 14th October. 10.35pm. Channel 4.
Filmed at London's Hammersmith HMV Apollo (not sure when the HMV was added, but sure such is life) following yet another sell-out tour, this is the fourth live smash-hit stand-up show from Gervais. Never afraid to challenge comedy boundaries, Ricky is renowned for his acerbic observational humour and cutting delivery (not just thanks to his teeth, fnarr, fnaar). The stage set is Frankenstein's laboratory, and Ricky is quite at home delivering thought-provoking rants and tongue-in-cheek political incorrectness about subjects as diverse as religion, racism and obesity.

BEST OF THE REST

Models, Misfits and Mayhem. 11th October. 10.00pm. ITV2.
This brand new five part series (being broadcast on the same station that entertained Katie Price for far too long) will follow the teaching staff at The London School of Modelling as each week they open their doors to a host of would-be models all hoping to learn the "necessary skills" needed to break into the industry.

Random Acts. 15th October. 11.50pm. Channel 4.
Random Acts is a brand new short-form arts strand airing five nights a week on Channel 4. Over the course of a year it will showcase 260 specially commissioned three-minute films chosen for their bold and original expressions of creativity.

Hidden. 13th October. 9.00pm. BBC1.
Ronan Bennett's taut four-part conspiracy thriller Hidden, starring Philip Glenister, continues on BBC One with this second episode, directed by Niall MacCormick.

The Big Interview With Mike Murphy. 13th October. 10.15pm. RTE1.
Over the course of the series Mike will interview Tommy Tiernan, Bertie Ahern, Moya Doherty, Barry McGuigan, David McWilliams and tonight's guest, Marian Finucane

Up For Hire. TBC. BBC3.
Richard Bacon and Tina Daheley host this live show which tackles the problem of unemployment in the UK today (if RTE or TV3 devised such a show, I'd mention that instead) in a series of programmes across the week.

 

 

Back to Other Exclusives