CATCH - UP TV — IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

Spies Channel4 OnDemand, until March 1, episode 1 Finally, a reality TV show designed entirely for me, and showing the new norms of the spy system. Alas, it seems it no longer comes about via a discreet tap on the shoulder at Cambridge, but is a self-selecting profession like any other. Spies on Channel4, made by the people who brought us SAS: Who Dares Wins brings together 16 wannabe spooks — well, make that 15, and one mole who they may or may not spot — who are put through their paces to see if they have what it takes to lie, dissemble, cheat and keep secrets, all in the name of sociopathy and the good of their country.

In this first episode, they have to follow a man through a crowded market without being spotted, and come up with a convincing cover story; both tests based on real intelligence-officer training. They also have to prove their credentials in terms of confidence and charisma, because apparently all that James Bond-seduction stuff actually is important. The question is, do they get a job at the end of it, aka The Apprentice, and if so isn’t there a flaw in the system...? Wrecking The Rising TV4 Player, until January 31, episodes 1-3 A three-part Quantum Leap-style timetravel comedy, with all three parts now available to watch on TG4 Player. Three latter-day Dublin lads (played by Peter Coonan, Sean T O Meallaigh and Owen McDonnell far left), with a love of 1916 re-enactments, who believe their own lives to be unexciting and unimportant, get a chance to swoop back in time and see how they might actually have fared in the days of guts and glory.

Made on a shoestring, with a script by James Phelan, this is funny and charming. It gently mocks some of the more bombastic Centenary celebrations — there is a pretty good, long-running Joe Duffy gag — while raising interesting questions around masculinity and a sense of life purpose, as well as the place of women before and after 1916.