Channel Hopping

STRIKING OUT Tomorrow - RTÉ1, 9.30pm MY feeling is that the first series of Striking Out had its moments, but just not enough of them to merit a second outing. Still, Tara Rafferty (Amy Huberman, pictured) is returning as the Dublin solicitor and onewoman dynamo. KIRI Wednesday - BBC4, 9pm THIS four-part drama is written by Jack Thorne, whose credits include the excellent National Treasure and West End play Harry Potter and The Cursed Child. It centres around an experienced social worker (Sarah Lancashire) and a nine-year-old girl – due to be adopted by a foster family – who goes missing after an unsupervised visit to her grandparents. THE TOMMY TIERNAN SHOW Wednesday RTÉ1, 9.35pm THE RTÉ website describes this is an ‘improvised chat show in which neither the host nor the studio audience are told the identity of the guests in advance’. I didn’t expect to see a second run but last week’s opener, with appearances by Fionnula Flanagan, Foster & Allen and imam Shaykh Dr. Umar AlQadri, was a marked improvement. Pity that the three-way comedy interlude, involving Tiernan himself, was excruciating. DAVID BOWIE AND THE STORY OF ZIGGY STARDUST Friday - BBC4, 10.30pm LOVE it or loathe it, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust (pictured) and the Spiders from Mars is one of the most influential albums ever. Its central character was, according to Bowie, intended as ‘a cross between Nijinsky and Woolworths’. This hour-long special, narrated by Jarvis Cocker, features Elton John, Steve Harley and Marc Almond.