TV preview: Five shows to watch this week

A Very Murray Christmas

From Friday, Netflix

If you feel like getting into the seasonal spirit nice and early, the good news is that Bill Murray's much-anticipated Christmas special drops down our wifi this week. A Very Murray Christmas stars Murray and a host of guest stars, including George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Jason Schwartzman, Amy Poehler and Chris Rock. So, what can we expect from this motley Christmas crew? Well, Sofia Coppola, who directed Murray in the brilliant Lost In Translation, is at the helm here, so don't expect the usual song-and-dance routines – although there are plenty of those, most notably Cyrus singing Sleigh Bells.

The premise is this: Murray is due to host a Christmas special in New York, but the city is snowed in and no one can get to the theatre. So Bill's friends rally together in a let's-do-the-show-right-here kind of way. This could very easily go the way of the notorious Star Wars Christmas Special, but fingers crossed Coppola, Murray et al can deliver some real magic.

Easter Rising? Ireland’s Rising

Sunday, RTÉ One, 8.30pm

We all know what happened in Dublin on the week of April 24th, 1916, but what part did other counties play in the Easter Rising? Ireland's Rising is a four-part series that explores events outside the Pale during that turbulent week. Former RTÉ newsreader Anne Doyle, Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy, former Donegal manager Jim McGuinness and actor Fiona Shaw each visit their home counties of Wexford, Galway, Donegal and Cork to learn about their roles in the Rising and make some eye-opening discoveries along the way.

First up is Doyle, a native of Ferns, Co Wexford. She travels to Enniscorthy and hears how 300 rebel volunteers rose up in solidarity with their comrades in the GPO, after their leader Peter Paul Galligan cycled from Dublin to Enniscorthy under cover of night with orders from the GPO. Doyle also meets elderly relatives of 1916 participants and learns how young people in Wexford will mark the centenary.

What in the World?

Tuesday, RTÉ One, 11.15pm

Four of the world’s political hotspots are put under the spotlight in a new series of What in the World?. This is no cosy armchair travelogue – the four-part series explores the tough prisons of El Salvador, the upheavals in Libya following the fall of Gadafy, the urban sprawl of Caracas in Venezuela, and the relentless heat and conflict in Western Sahara.

Episode one looks at how prison authorities in El Salvador are trying to reform the system by changing the attitudes of convicts – or, as they call them, people deprived of their freedom.

Deutschland 83

RTÉ Player

In 1983, Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Wham! and Kajagoogoo were top of the pop charts. Also, the world was on the brink of nuclear war, with American missiles pointed east and Russian missiles pointed west. Deutschland 83 is a German drama set at the height of the cold war, when US president Ronald Reagan was at his most belligerent and East Germany was at its most paranoid. The East German Intelligence Service sends a young spy – played by Martin Rauch – to live undercover in West Germany, gather intelligence on Nato’s Pershing II missiles and infiltrate the peace movement. Hopefully, there’ll be a few Kraftwerk and Scorpions tracks too.

Snámh in Aghaidh Easa

TG4 Player

Next time you sit down to a nice plate of fish 'n' chips, just pause for a minute and think about the fishermen who have risked their lives at sea to bring that seafood treat to your table. Snámh in Aghaidh Easa follows four fishing boats setting out from Ros a'Mhil in Galway to the Shetland Islands in Scotland in pursuit of mackerel. As well as documenting the gruelling life at sea, the programme shows dramatic footage from the events of January 20th when one of the trawlers, the Iuda Naofa, got into difficulties and sank off the Isle of Lewis.