Preview

Monday True Lives (RTE 1, 8 p.m.) This week's offering in RTE's documentary strand follows the writer and broadcaster Bill Long as he prepares for a heart transplant. 98241803 Undercover Britain (Channel 4, 8 p.m.) London taxi touts who rip off unsuspecting tourists are the subject of tonight's programme in the series which uses hidden cameras to unearth the truth. 6990 Short Stories: Life Savers (Channel 4, 8.30 p.m.)

In the deprived Liverpool area of Toxteth, residents have founded their own bank to help local people with loans. This programme, the last in the current Short Stories series, looks at how the new facility helps some local people. 5025 Eqiunox: Fighting The G-Force (Channel 4, 9 p.m.)

The US Air Force is exploring new techniques to help its pilots cope with the increasing levels of G-forces they are exposed to in modern aircraft. But this programme asks if new technologies are making jet-fighters unflyable by humans, and whether in the future pilots will control their planes from the ground. 1919 Crimeline (RTE 1, 9.30 p.m.)

Marian Finucane and David Harvey return for a new series of the crime reconstruction programme. 12171880

Tuesday

Leargas (RTE 1, 7.30 p.m.)

The excellent current affairs series returns with a report from Mountjoy Prison, where reporter Mairead de Buitleir talks to prisoners and to Sister Caoimhin Ni Uallachain, who works with criminals and their families, about different solutions to the problem of crime. 64865149 Soldier, Soldier (ITV, 9 p.m.)

The squaddies are back for another series - the seventh, in fact - and they still haven't done a tour of duty in Northern Ireland. 2052 Cutting Edge (Channel 4, 9 p.m.)

David Walsh, Alan Birkin and Barry Ritchie are "The Complainers" - three consumers who believe in getting value for money - Birkin always counts the chips in his bag from Burger King. Dominic Savage's documentary follows them as they wreak havoc on the retailing world. 5174 Provos: The IRA And Sinn Fein (BBC 1, 10 p.m.)

First in a major four-part series tracing the rise of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein. Tonight's programme follows events from 1969 to the introduction of internment in 1971. Two years in the making, this is bound to be controversial, no matter what position it adopts. 4651217

Wednesday

Animal People (BBC 1, 7.00 p.m.)

In Wellington, New Zealand, residents have an unusual sort of pest to cope with - blue penguins, which break into people's homes, causing unpleasant smells. Well, they were there first. 2182 The Nazis - A Warning From History: The Wrong War (BBC 2, 9 p.m.)

Hitler greatly admired the British Empire (Lives Of A Bengal Lancer was his favourite film), and regarded the United Kingdom as a natural ally for the Third Reich. This programme in the excellent series charts how those ambitions came to nothing. 532637 The Ebb-Tide (ITV, 9 p.m.)

Robbie Coltrane stars in this featurelength adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, as a drunken and disreputable captain who sails from the Caribbean to Australia with a dubious cargo. Part Two is after News at Ten. 8231 The Blackbird And The Bell (RTE 1, 10.25 p.m.)

A surprising return for this very twee New Age-ish discussion series, recorded in the bowels of Drimnagh Castle. The blurb for tonight's programme promises "Druids, Dreams, the Little People and Music", which sounds like someone's been at the mushrooms. 65535724

Thursday

Dad (BBC 1, 8.30 p.m.) Yet another new sitcom (they've all been terrible so far this year, but we live in hope), starring Kevin McNally as a father, and George Cole as his father - hence the title. 9212 The Uninvited (ITV, 9 p.m.) First of a four-part sci-fi thriller, with Douglas Hodge as a photographer who witnesses a fatal car accident, but finds the driver alive and well the next day. 7564 The Locksmith (BBC 1, 9.30 p.m.) Warren Clarke stars in this new series, described as a comedy drama with a dark touch, about a locksmith who decides to do something about the burglaries in his Midlands town. 304598 Saints And Sinners (RTE 1, 10.10 p.m.) RTE is one of the co-producers, with S4C and the French channel La Cinquieme, of this six-part history of the Papacy from the shores of Galilee 2,000 years ago to the present day (see panel above). 65583361 QED: Challenging Children (BBC 1, 10.20 p.m.) Chantelle Coleman's parents have had difficulty in providing for her special needs as a gifted child. Tonight's programme looks at how they cope. 713309

Friday

Our House (RTE 1, 8 p.m.) Duncan Stewart keeps an eye on the continuing work in Wicklow and Dublin, and travels to Kenmare, Co Kerry to look at an extension to a traditional cottage, while designer Orla Kelly shows how to transform a home by using strong colours. 99820626 Great Mysteries And Myths (Network 2, 8.30 p.m.) In May, 1941, with Nazi Germany at the peak of its power, Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland on a mysterios mission. This programme investigates what his motives were, and what went wrong. 99807775 Ground Force (BBC 2, 8.30 p.m.) The trend these days is for "leisure-based task" programmes such as Ready, Steady Cook and Changing Rooms, and this series attempts to apply the same principles to gardening. Tonight, the team travels to Sanderstead to transform a couple's garden in 48 hours. Surely the whole point of gardening is that it can't be done in 48 hours? 1161 Shooting Stars (BBC 2, 9.30 p.m.) Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer return for a new eight-part series of the kitschy game show, with team captains Mark Lamarr and Ulrika Johnson joined by Mariella Frostrup and "rising pop singer" Leo Sayer. 15317

Films

Tuesday: Bleak Moments (Channel 4, 12.30 a.m.) Early and aptly-titled film from Mike Leigh, which anticipates most of the preoccupations which the director has shown in later films. As usual with Leigh's work, the cold, perceptive brilliance is undercut by simplistic caricature. 96502 Wednesday: Broadcast News (Channel 4, 9 p.m.) Bland but passable romantic comedy set against the backdrop of a television news team, with Albert Brooks, John Hurt and Holly Hunter forming the points of the emotional triangle. Writer/director James L Brooks makes some perceptive points about the news industry, but the best thing by a mile is Hunter's performance. 40392279 Thursday: The Westerner (Network 2, 12.15 p.m.) Solid William Wyler western, evocatively photographed by Gregg Toland, based on the life of Judge Roy Bean, with Walter Brennan stealing most of the kudos (he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor) over Gary Cooper's typically moody hero. 84695767 Friday: Farewell, My Lovely (Network 2, 11.35 p.m.) Worth watching mostly for Robert Mitchum's iconic performance as Marlowe, this is a rather strange hybrid, not quite a remake, but not at all like the revisionist approach of other 1970s Chandler adaptations. 24897423