REMARKABLE PLACES TO EAT
BBC2, 8pm
Fred Sirieix is rendered speechless by a single carrot in this foodie travelogue – it must have been some carrot.
He’s in Marrakech in Morocco, the first stop in this journey around the world to find hidden culinary gems with the help of some chef mates.
“I’m a seasoned professional and even for me, it’s difficult to find amazing places to eat,” he says.
The first chef to open their little black book of the best restaurants is Andi Oliver, whose love for Marrakech takes her back there time and time again.
She says: “The food is full of flavour, it’s got depth, it’s got heart and you can taste the tradition.”
They head to a restaurant just outside the North African city centre, where Andi admits the food is so good she cried the first time she went there.
This is the place where Fred’s palette is knocked sideways by a carrot salad and a slow cooked shoulder of lamb. The restaurant’s femaleonly kitchen might also just be the happiest he’s ever seen. No Gordon Ramsay-style yelling, only 15 women having a laugh.
Elsewhere, Andi takes Fred to a boutique hotel set in a former palace. Staying there costs a bomb – it’s the place where Madonna enjoyed her 60th birthday.
But you can nip in for breakfast for the equivalent of a tenner and eat some nextlevel peanut butter.
Later, the pair are at an unlikely location – a pit stop petrol station cafe where the chicken tagine is renowned for miles around...
O’CASEY IN THE ESTATE
RTE One, 10.15pm
The two-part series illuminates the experience of people living in urban Ireland and makes the arts accessible to the widest audience.
The documentary will bring The Plough and the Stars home to East Wall, a community who inspired the original characters.
O’casey gave a voice to this marginalised community 100 years ago, a community who today feel they have no voice at a national level.
Throughout their journey into this classic Irish text, they will discover that they have more in common with their fellow East Wall resident Sean O’casey’s characters than they ever imagined.
But this will be a different production.
For the next eight weeks, the people and residents in East Wall will audition, rehearse and produce a one off performance of the play, on Ireland’s national stage, the Abbey Theatre.
Guiding them through all this is one of Ireland’s leading theatre directors, Caitriona Mclaughlin.
Caitriona Mclaughlin