Chance to reflect on weekend win
AGAINST THE HEAD RTÉ2, TONIGHT, 8PM
WHILE traditionalists may have looked askance at rugby’s migration from RTÉ to TV3, it should be said that the Ballymount broadcaster seems to have got the balance right on its coverage.
Joe Molloy has been a solid host and the guests are all informative. Ronan O’Gara, in particular, has the potential to become a refreshingly blunt and honest pundit who, fortunately for the rest of us, is able to bring his vast experience and knowledge of the game without retreating behind the wall of clichés so beloved of many of his former playing colleagues who have turned their hand to broadcasting.
But RTÉ is still in the rugby-coverage game, to an extent.
Tonight’s episode of Against The Head (RTÉ2, 8pm), won’t be covering the same levels of high-octane drama as the previous week, which is good news for any fan with a dodgy ticker.
Saturday’s victory over Italy was – those easily conceded tries apart – a far more straightforward affair than the French test and host, the always excellent Daire O’Brien, is joined by Donal Lenihan, Bernard Jackman and Brent Pope to discuss the matters of the weekend.
It will be interesting to see if they dip their toes into the murky water surrounding Joe Schmidt’s increasingly strained relationship with some in the Irish media...
It has been hailed as ITV’s biggest hope since Doctor Foster and it’s easy to see why – well, the fact that it was written by the same team behind the much-discussed Suranne Jones drama may have something to do with it.
Trauma (UTV, tonight, 9pm) features a top cast in the shape of the John Simm and Adrian Lester.
Lester plays trauma surgeon John Allerton, who is unable to save a young man who has been stabbed, and Simm plays Dan Bowker, the victim’s father and a man who is already looking at his life falling apart.
Bowker is convinced that Allerton could have done more to save his son and focuses his grief and anger on the doctor who, it transpires, may not be as noble as he likes people to think...
Simm is a busy boy tonight, because as well as double-handing Trauma ,he also appears in the Beeb’s new conspiracy thriller, Collateral (BBC Two, 9pm). When a young pizza delivery guy is shot while making a delivery, it initially looks like another bad day for an innocent person in a big city.
But as the layers begin to peel back, it emerges that the seemingly random victim was a Syrian refugee and may have been deliberately sent to his death.
Carey Mulligan toplines as the detective sent to sort it out.