CATTCCH H -UPUTPVN—OIWN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

The Mill

RTE Player, until March 17, season 1, episode 1 First broadcast on Channel 4 in 2013, this has just begun a run on RTE, and is well worth a watch. Four-part historical drama, based on a real story and set in 19th-Century England, when the industrial age was swallowing all before it, amidst the ‘dark Satanic mills’ of William Blake’s Jerusalem. Esther Price, played here by Kerrie Hayes (pictured left), was a young apprentice in Quarry Bank Mill, Cheshire, at a time when children regularly worked 12-hour shifts in dangerous and degrading conditions, who tried to stand up for justice and persuade her fellow workers to stand with her. Later, she teamed up with John Doherty, a political campaigner who fought successfully for better working conditions during the Industrial Revolution (played by Aidan McArdle), and challenged the mill owner, Samuel Greg (a grave and convincing Donald Sumpter). Heavy on the misery and some pretty obvious religious imagery, but solid enough.

An Klondike

TG4 Player, until March 9, season 2, episode 1 This is the second series of TG4’s popular Western, set around the gold rush of 1896-99, with Galway doubling up as the Yukon. Three Irish brothers (Owen McDonnell, Dara Devaney and Sean T O Meallaigh) set off to Canada to seek their fortune, and settle in the town of Dominion Creek, where they quickly find themselves in a feud with local hotshot, Jacob Hopkins. The first season was a remarkable success, nominated for 10 awards at the IFTAs — winning five, including the prestigious Best Drama Series — and bought by Netflix. Season two picks up a few weeks after the dramatic end to season one, with the Connolly brothers still struggling to forge an empire for themselves, with growing success, but against a backdrop of ever-increasing lawlessness in Dominion Creek as every get-rich-quick cowboy and carpetbagger rides into town.