TV CHOICES

Maryland ITV, 9pm

As one of Britain’s most popular and successful actresses, Suranne Jones must get her pick of the TV scripts. However, she’s also coming up with her own projects - she co-created her new three-part drama Maryland, which is showing across consecutive evenings this week, with writer Anne-Marie O’Connor. It’s the story of Becca (Jones) and Rosaline (Eve Best), two very different sisters whose lives have taken them in opposite directions. They are brought back together by the news that their mother’s body has been found on the Isle of Man. The siblings are confused about what their mum was doing there, but when they land on the island, it becomes clear she was leading a secret second life..

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland BBC2, 9pm

Last month marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Now, this major five-part documentary series offers a voice to the people who lived though The Troubles. The first episode looks at how a time of relative peace in Northern Ireland gave way to widespread community conflict. Contributors include Billy, who describes how his experience of growing up in poverty and seeing few opportunities for young Catholic nationalists contributed to him becoming involved in violent street disorder. The episode also hears from James, who as a working-class Protestant teenager worried that the protests could lead to a united Ireland, and a young British soldier who admits he arrived in Northern Ireland with little understanding of the unfolding situation.