TV guide: 12 of the best shows to watch this week

Dancing with the Stars

Sunday, RTÉ1, 6.30pm

It’s week eight in the Montrose ballroom, and the celebrity contestants are falling like tenpins in a bowling alley. Last week newsreader Eileen Dunne became the fourth celeb to get their marching orders, following a dance-off against former Miss World Rosanna Davison. With influencer Miriam Mullins and Fair City actors Rory Cowan and Shane Quigley Murphy already out, that leaves seven stars shooting for the glitterball trophy. This week is orchestra week, so the remaining dancers will have to conduct themselves with grace and style to avoid being the fifth celeb eliminated.

Blackshore

Sunday, RTÉ1, 9.35pm

Lisa Dwan stars as DI Fia Lucey, a cop dealing with a traumatic past, who has to return to her hometown to investigate a missing-persons case. She hasn’t been back to Blackshore since her family was murdered, but now she has to prove she can still focus on doing her job – not so easy when past and present begin to merge in strange ways. As she gets closer to uncovering the town’s darkest secrets, a body is found in the lake, and when it turns out that it’s been there for 20 years, attention turns to the town’s most powerful man, Bill McGuire (Stanley Townsend).

The Jury: Murder Trial

Monday, Channel 4, 9pm

How reliable are juries in murder trials? Can they be unduly influenced by outside factors, and do they fully understand the laws upon which they are deliberating? Could they even get it wrong and convict an innocent person or acquit a killer? Only one way to find out, reckons Channel 4, and that’s to re-enact a real-life murder trial, using professional actors working from the original transcripts, in front of not one, but two separate juries of randomly selected people. Neither jury knows about the other, but both with have to come to a verdict in the trial of a man accused of murdering his wife. Will the two verdicts tally or will they vary wildly – and which jury has made the right decision?

Faithless

Monday, Virgin Media 1, 9pm

Baz Ashmawy steps out of his presenter’s persona to create and star in this new comedy series about an Irish-Egyptian single dad navigating family life in modern, multicultural Dublin. The 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy man plays Sam Amin, whose wife, Tracy, is killed by an ice-cream van, leaving Sam having to straighten up and fly right in order to look after their three young daughters. When Sam’s feckless brother, Zein, offers to stay and lend a hand, he proves more of a hindrance than a help. Can Sam get his family through their grief and loss and find some equilibrium? And can Baz carry off this comedic-dramatic role? With Stephanie Preissner, creator of Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, as one of his cowriters, we may be in for an entertaining, thought-provoking surprise.

Tuesday, RTÉ2, 9.40pm

As Israel’s war with Hamas continues to wreak death and destruction on Gaza and its citizens, many are asking: how did it come to this? In this 90-minute documentary, PBS’s Frontline team look back at the growing tensions and failures in diplomacy in the years leading up to the current conflict, and the role played by Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, over the years. The documentary also looks at how the war in Gaza is putting a huge strain on the special relationship between the US and Israel, and looks ahead to an uncertain future for the Middle East.

New Model Agency

Tuesday, Channel 4, 10pm

What is life really like behind the scenes of the fashion industry? Is it as glamorous as we like to think, or is it as sleazy and grubby as we secretly imagine it might be? In this new reality series, we’re brought through the doors of model agency Zebedee Talent as they go about the everyday business of landing big fashion gigs for the models on their books, including Shem, who’s been contacted by Fred Perry, and Jasroop, whose plans to jet off to Venice to shoot magazine covers hits a few snags. The agency is also searching for the latest face in fashion, and the winner will get to do a photoshoot with none other than Rankin.

Big Life Fix

Wednesday, RTÉ1, 9.35pm

Imagine having your own top scientific team on hand to come up with solutions to life’s little problems – well, Big Life Fix can make that dream a reality for people living with illness and disability. Between them, rocket scientist David McKeown, inventor Trevor Vaugh, engineers Niamh Stockil and Shane Phelan, robotics whiz Peter Redmond and designer Lorna Ross have enough know-how to solve the most difficult logistical issues, and in this first episode they’re tasked with finding a way for 39-year-old Cork woman Mary Ita O’Connor, who was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s, to continue her competitive running, and with helping 10-year-old Dáire Gorman from Monaghan, who has Crommelin syndrome, a condition that prevents limbs from developing normally.

Alice & Jack

Wednesday, Channel 4

This series – billed as a “love story for the ages”, and starring Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough as a couple in an on-off relationship spanning years – was probably hoping to benefit from the Normal People effect, but despite the star power of its two leads, it has so far failed to seduce viewers and critics. We’re at the end of this love story, as the penultimate episode finds Jack and Alice meeting again, but also dealing with devastating news, while the final episode sees their romance facing its greatest obstacle (not snoring). Can Domhnall and Andrea finally find that elusive on-screen chemistry? Sure might as well see it through to the end.

First Dates Ireland

Thursday, RTÉ2, 9.30pm

The First Dates restaurant doesn’t have a strict dress code, but if it did, then dapper 53-year-old Tom would have no problem getting in, as he likes to dress smartly. Will his date, Amy (55), like the cut of his jib? Meanwhile, wellness coach Colm (32) from Dún Laoghaire learns that his date, Wexford woman Maria (32), can be a bit impulsive – not always a healthy trait. Finally, Chloe (21) from Cavan is looking for a dance partner as she loves doing the jive, but will her date Craig (21) be keen to step out with her, or is he a bit of a jive talker?

Other Voices

Thursday, RTÉ1, 11.05pm

Series 22 of the live music series kicks off with a serious bang, as self-described “global teen pop sensation” CMAT leads an array of great Irish and international talent, performing on the stage of St James’s Church in Dingle, Co Kerry. Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson is enjoying huge success with her second album, Crazymad, for Me, and will be illuminating the church with sheer star power. Mick Flannery will perform songs from his new album on John Prine’s record label, and South African group The Joy will debut at the church, while Lucy McWilliams gets up close and intimate in the Imro Other Room.

My Uni Life

Friday, RTÉ1, 8pm

There’s a lot going on in this week’s episode of My Uni Life, beginning with the University of Galway, where archivist Niamh Ní Charra is curating a collection from former president Mary Robinson, chronicling her activities in politics, law and human rights campaigning. Then, at TU Dublin, the dance society are going through their smoothest moves; and DCU’s Dr Elizabeth Matthew and her team are working on new signs to help teach Stem subjects to the deaf and hearing-impaired. Finally, there’s a visit to Maynooth University, where law student Katelynn Doran has won a women’s rugby scholarship

Never Kill a Femboy on the First Date

Friday, Virgin Media 1, 11pm

This tense, erotically charged 17-minute short, written by Lee-Loi Chieng and directed by Oonagh Kearney, was screened at the Lighthouse in Smithfield on Saturday (February 24th) as part of the Dublin International Film Festival, and tells the story of a Gaelic football player having a tryst with a cross-dresser behind the local GAA club. When their hook-up is rudely interrupted by the arrival of three drunken lads, an awkward encounter suddenly turns into a potentially explosive situation.