TV guide: 12 of the best new shows to watch, beginning tonight (2024)

Titanic in Colour

Sunday, Channel 4, 8pm

They did it with the first and second World Wars, and now the story of the Titanic gets a makeover, moving from monochrome to full colourisation in this two-part series. Now, I know what you’re thinking: no one ever filmed the actual sinking of the ship (though fake videos abound on the web), but the makers of this series have done some extensive research and used all available footage from 1912 to bring the Titanic story to life as it set off on its doomed maiden voyage, and bring viewers inside the ship’s luxurious interiors. We’ll also meet many of the people involved in building the ship, and many of the survivors and relatives of those who were lost.

Vienna Blood

Sunday, BBC2, 9pm

Meet a different kind of detective: Dr Max Liebermann, schooled in a new science known as psychology, in this series set in the Austrian capital in the early 1900s. Liebermann’s insights into the human mind prove very helpful for world-weary police officer Oskar Rheinhardt, and both doc and cop return for a fourth series of the crime drama based on the books by Frank Tallis. While the duo dispatched one case per episode up to now, in this series they face a mystery that will take an entire series to solve, and which threatens to topple the Austro-Hungarian empire – and you don’t want that to happen. Matthew Beard stars as Liebermann, with Juergen Maurer as Rheinhardt.

Scannal 20 Bliain

Monday, RTÉ1, 6.30pm

For the past 20 years Scannal has been bringing us the stories that rocked and shocked the nation, and to celebrate this anniversary, we have three hour-long specials looking back on some of the most gripping events that got the whole country talking over the past 50 years. These were water-cooler moments even before we had water coolers. Each episode is loosely wrapped around a theme, and the first one, Believe in Me, covers the spoofers, chancers and downright fibbers who have tried to plámás the public only to find their over-inflated blather blowing up in their faces. The programme recalls the notorious “mature recollection” of Brian Lenihan snr during the 1990 presidential race, and the 1999 Late Late Show interview by Pee Flynn, in which he annoyed the nation by detailing his lavish lifestyle as an EU commissioner.

Yorkshire by the Sea

Monday, Channel 4, 8pm

This four-part series brings viewers along the 100-mile stretch of stunning Yorkshire coastline, from Saltburn and Scarborough in the north to Spurn Point in the south, stopping off at various interesting locations along the way, and meeting many of the warm, witty and fascinating people who live, work and play along this popular tourist route. But the Yorkshire coastline is under threat from erosion, and the series also looks at how local communities are working hard to turn back the tide of climate change through innovation and diversification.

Around My Island

Tuesday, RTÉ1, 9.35pm

You might think sailing single-handedly around the island of Ireland is a doddle, but – as Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan could tell you – it’s actually one of the most challenging sailing feats you could attempt. Nevertheless, Dolan gamely gives it the lash, and in this programme, narrated by Brian Dobson, we follow Dolan’s attempt to be the fastest sailor to circumnavigate the island – about 700 nautical miles of perilous and unpredictable coastal waters. The programme also looks at how a childhood trauma swept Dolan from a farming life in Co Meath to becoming an accomplished and driven sailor.

Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World?

Tuesday, BBC4, 10pm

With the fall of the Soviet Union, the world’s remaining superpower, the US, took on the role of the world’s top cop, intervening in international wars, brokering treaties and maintaining global stability. But the US didn’t always get it right, and this series looks at how the US has fared from the end of the Cold War up to 2016. Episode one examines how the US befriended Iraq to counterbalance the rise of Iran following the Islamic revolution, how it ignored massacres and use of chemical weapons by Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and how Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait turned his ally into his enemy. The eight-part series is narrated by Meryl Streep and will feature interviews with top US political figures including Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton.

Abba: Against the Odds

Wednesday, RTÉ1, 9.35pm

They were one of the biggest pop acts in the world, and they’re still selling records by the bucketload (not to mention tickets for their Abba: Voyage virtual reality concerts). But according to this documentary from the award-winning team behind Freddie Mercury: The Final Act, the odds were stacked against the Swedish quartet, as they had to deal with bad reviews, break-ups between the band members and the potential career killer of winning the Eurovision Song Contest. We’ll get insights into the lives of Benny, Bjorn, Anni-Frid and Agnetha via rare interviews and archive footage, and contributions from friends and colleagues and the band members themselves.

Eoin Morgan – England’s Irish Captain

Wednesday, RTÉ2, 10.30pm

Former England cricket star Eoin Morgan is the willing subject of this documentary profile detailing his amazing career as England captain, growing up in a working-class family in Rush, in north Co Dublin, and how as a youth he took the cricket world by storm, playing for Ireland in their 2007 World Cup win against Pakistan, and eventually captaining England to World Cup victory in 2019. This is an intimate portrait of the man, with contributions from friends, family and fellow cricketers. The programme also delves into Ireland’s long and colourful history with this quintessentially English sport.

Eyewitness to History: Norma Percy on Watergate

Thursday, BBC4, 8pm

Documentary maker Norma Percy is known for her ability to dig behind some of the world’s biggest news stories and come up with TV gold. One of her most acclaimed documentary series was 1994′s Watergate, which examined the botched break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in 1974, which led to one of the biggest scandals in US political history and the eventual resignation of president Richard Nixon. Percy discusses the challenges she faced making the documentary, and how she managed to gain access to the central figures in the affair.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

Thursday, Sky Max & Now, 9pm

Welcome to the latest spin-off of the ever-popular zombie apocalypse drama, and in this series, everyone goes off on a holiday to Paris. Well, not quite. Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) has found himself washed ashore on the French coast, with no idea how he got there. But the country happens to be the epicentre of the zombie virus outbreak, so Daryl needs to get out of Dodge, and along the way he encounters a paramilitary group known as Pouvoir des Vivants (Power of the Living) and an evolved zombie variant known as “burners” due to their ability to spit acid at their victims. Don’t they know it’s rude to spit?

Champions: Full Gallop

Friday, UTV, 9pm

This fast-moving series brings us into the world of horse racing, as trainers and jockeys battle to become the big winners in the world’s most prestigious race meetings. Episode four features a battle royale between trainers Paul Nicholls and Dan Skelton in a series of big-ticket events at Cheltenham. Adding spice to the rivalry is the fact that Skelton used to be Nicholls’s assistant. Also this week, Irish trainer Willie Mullins his hoping his horse Galopin Des Champs can win the Gold Cup for the fourth time in six years, but he has serious competition from the Nicholls-trained Bravemansgame.

Miriam Margolyes: A New Australian Adventure

Friday, BBC2, 9pm

The veteran actor continues her voyage of discovery through Australia with a visit to the legendary Byron Bay, a beacon of freedom and good vibes, where anything goes and negative vibes are a complete no-no. Margolyes sets out to learn if the hippy ideal still alive here, or are there other issues going on beneath the laissez-faire surface? “Everything that’s happened to me has happened because I walked towards life rather than away from it,” says Margolyes, and in this series she’s certainly going walkabout in her best life.