Channel Hopping

GUNPOWDER Today, 9.10pm - BBC1

THIS three-part historical drama is based on the infamous Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when a group of English Catholics planned to kill King James I by blowing up the London parliament. It stars Game of Thrones regular Kit Harington, pictured, as chief plotter Robert Catesby, while Tom Cullen, a familiar face from Downton Abbey, turns up as Guy Fawkes. The cast also includes Liv Tyler, Mark Gatiss and Peter Mullan. Expect plenty of blood and guts.

THE ICEMAN Today, 11.35pm Channel 4

THE New Jersey-born contract killer Robert Kuklinski is reputed to have sent more than 100 people to meet their maker. He earned his nickname from the way in which he froze some victims’ remains to prevent investigators pinpointing a time of the death. This 2012 biopic stars Michael Shannon in the lead role, as well as featuring Winona Ryder, Ray Liotta and David Schwimmer. Kuklinski’s methods of murder involved chain saws, ice picks and a bomb attached to a toy car operated by remote control.

THE GOOD KARMA HOSPITAL Wednesday, 10.40pm - RTÉ1

THE central character in this sixpart medical drama is Ruby Walker (Amrita Acharia), a junior medic who moves to India and ends up working in a cottage hospital run by fellow ex-pat Dr Lydia Fonseca (Amanda Redman). The cast also features former Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrissey.

TRACEY BREAKS THE NEWS Friday - BBC1, 9.30pm

EVEN though I remember quite liking Tracey Ullman when she first emerged in the early Eighties, I’d never have marked her out for international stardom. Earlier this year she did her first TV special on this side of the Atlantic since 1993, and now it is followed by a threepart series. She’ll be ‘tackling stories and current issues in a sketch show written and filmed right up to the day of broadcast’.