TV Editor
Tonight s top TV includes the return of The Tommy Tiernan Show, more musical malarky on The Masked Singer, FA Cup action, and some cracking movies . . .
Pick of the Day
The Tommy Tiernan Show, 9.35pm, RTÉ One
The mould Tommy Tiernan turns with his uniquely improvised chat show in which neither the host nor the audience are told the identity of the guests in advance.
Obviously, the subject matter is unknown. And that is part of the attraction of this hugely entertaining show. You just never know who or what you’re going to get - but you know it’s going to be an engrossing slice of TV.
Whereâs it on? kinoklassikafoundation.org
The Colour of Pomegranates (1969)
The new year hasnât been knocking us flat with good news, but the announcement this week that the Kino Klassika Foundation is launching a new streaming service in February is something film fans will want to put their arms around. The current streaming landscape isnât hot on Russian cinema, but Klassiki promises to offer UK audiences a permanent library of 60 titles from Russia and the Caucasus, including both classics and more obscure gems. The initiative has come about because of the large audiences that have been drawn to the free weekly films being posted on the foundationâs website during lockdown. Those are still happening, so you can get a taste of the kind of thing Klassiki will be hosting by viewing this weekâs offering, which just happens to be one of the great Soviet-era films: Sergei Parajanovâs The Colour of Pomegranates. Not that this poetic and stylised ac
iPlayer is packed full of brilliant BBC dramas including thriller The Serpent
The Serpent, Bloodlands, Line of Duty, Normal People, Killing Eve, Us, Strike and A Suitable Boy are just some of the very best BBC dramas available to watch right now on BBC iPlayer
Here’s our guide to a string of great BBC dramas, how many episodes there are and what the critics said.
What are the best new BBC dramas in 2021?
The thriller tells the astonishing true story of Charles Sobhraj, a serial killer (nicknamed The Serpent) who targeted Western travellers during the 70s and became one of Interpol’s most wanted men.
‘This is an unusual place and we should expect unusual things,” said Sister Clodagh (Gemma Arterton) in Black Narcissus, briskly steeling herself to face the wild challenges of founding a convent on
The Serpent (BBC One) | iPlayer
Black Narcissus (BBC One) | iPlayer
Death to 2020 (Netflix)
Doctor Who (BBC One) | iPlayer
Spiral (BBC Four) | iPlayer
Kathmandu, Goa, Bangkok – especially the last – all serve as such perfect backdrops to
The Serpent, the BBC’s first big drama of the new year, and a slow-burn triumph. Look beyond and under the prayer wheels, the soporific beaming mysticism, the garlands and the braids, and you see fat rats and crumbling masonry, gnarled disappointment, disease. It’s a pathetic fallacy for the hippie dream of the 1970s and has seldom been achieved better.
It has been achieved by a skilful retelling of the crimes of Charles Sobhraj, the Viet-Indian Frenchman who murdered at least 12 tourists in that decade. By so many accounts, Sobhraj, in every one of his various stolen identities and forged visas, was seriously charming, winningly amoral. Until he spiked your drink, lamped you on the head, burned you alive, you wouldn’t know he was a