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Broadchurch

TV3 Player, until March 27, Season 3, episode 1 Back for a third and final season, the big question here was, can Broadchurch recapture the highs of season one, when it emerged unexpectedly as the best police drama on TV? Season two was something of a let-down, so it’s all to play for this time out. Set in a small town on the Jurassic coast of England, and under the watchful eyes of DS Ellie Miller and DI Alec Hardy (played by Olivia Colman and David Tennant, with a convincing dynamic that is both fond and tetchy), this time out, the story kicks off with a traumatised woman arriving at the local police station at night, to say she’s been raped. Characters from the first two seasons turn up — Beth and Mark Latimer, parents of Danny, who’s murder sustained the first season — but in a way that feels convincingly like small-town life, rather than a soap opera. So far, it’s a return to form.

1864

RTE Player, until March 16, Season 1, episode 1 Made by the Danish company behind Borgen and The Killing, 1864 was first shown nearly two years ago on BBC Four, after a controversial run in Denmark. Partly it was the cost — around €17m, of which €10m came from public funds — but more divisive again was the subject-matter, the war with Prussia that saw Denmark go from world power to humiliating defeat. The war began in a dispute that, according to the British prime minister of the time, Lord Palmerston, only three people understood: “The Prince Consort, who is dead; a German professor, who has gone mad; and I, who have forgotten all about it”. Lavish, well-scripted and acted, 1864 is a sweeping historical drama with a hard historical edge, centred around the story of two brothers who fall in love with the same girl, their childhood playmate Inge, and go to war for their country. This then is intercut with a contemporary storyline about the family of a serviceman killed in Afghanistan. Watch it now, 1864 won’t stick around for long.