A harvest for the (third) world
THE HARDEST HARVEST RTÉ ONE, TONIGHT, 9.35
THERE are few things TV producers love more than a good fish-out-of-water story.
Whether it’s Our Wildest Dreams, currently running on Channel 4, or The Toughest Place To Be, or any of a whole host of shows in this genre, they’re seen as consistent ratings grabbers.
After all, if you remove most of us from our cosseted, comfortable surroundings, we tend to react badly.
But there is something vaguely terrifying, and exhilarating, about the prospect of being dumped in a place where they have never even had running water, let alone the kind of mod-cons we all take for granted – let’s put it this way, the wi-fi went down on the train recently and I thought the whole carriage was going to lose it.
Cork dairy farmer Paula Hynes, however, is made from sterner stuff.
In the first episode of The Hardest Harvest (RTÉ One, tonight, 9.35pm), a new three-part series which takes Irish agri-workers out of their home comfort zone and transplants them to Africa, Hynes leaves her farm and family behind as she jets off for two-and-ahalf weeks to a Maasai tribe in Kenya.
A lot of these programmes often seem like an excuse for a holiday with a bit of legwork thrown in for some added drama, but here Hynes must even build her own mud hit before she can find a place to sleep.
While there, she drinks cow’s blood drained from the still-breathing animal and treks for days through the arid bush to sell one of the tribe’s dangerously dehydrated animals.
Well, it beats a fortnight in Santa Ponza, I suppose...
All footballing eyes will be on Rome tonight when Liverpool visit the Italian capital to seal the deal after their 5-2 spanking of Roma in the first leg.
Even non-footballing Irish eyes will be tuning in for this one, however.
Following the attack on Meath fan Sean Cox outside Anfield last week, a war of words has broken out between both clubs, and even the respective police forces, over where blame for the violence should lie.
With the Italian media making up claims about threats of retribution from 1,000 Liverpool travelling ‘hooligans’, and not so veiled threats from the Roma Ultras about the welcome they’re preparing for the visiting fans, tensions will be high for the Champions League (RTÉ 2, tonight, 7pm).
Here’s hoping the only part of tonight’s news to feature the match will be the sports bulletin, but the prospects aren’t great.
Will Little Rocket Man cause World War III or be the last North Korean despot? The answer to both is ‘probably neither’. Kim Jong-un – The Unauthorised Biography (National Geographic, 9pm) looks at the world’s weirdest leader.