TV Weekly: From pork luncheon meat to the River Thames

Telly picks for the coming week…

“I’d been looking for something to set in the northwest of Ireland. I’d previously shot in Boyle before with Moone Boy, and I always wanted to go back, but never got around to it. I suppose I was looking for a ‘Small Town’ story but this time I wanted to make somewhere up – ‘Drumbán’.” – creator Chris O’Dowd

From the mind of Chris O’Dowd, this series is a very dramatic comedy starring Christina Hendricks and Paddy Considine in the lead roles. Set in Drumbán, a rural village on the border of Ireland, and another world, the story unfolds as a Hollywood production crew rolls into town, shining a spotlight on a secret that has been hidden since the eve of the millennium.

In the first of the six episodes – entitled The White Ridge – Hollywood TV Exec Wendy Patterson returns to Irish border town Drumbán after 20 years to choose the final filming location for her big budget TV show ‘I AM CELT’.

But Wendy shares a decades-old secret with Séamus Proctor, the respectable local doctor and family man, and he’ll do anything to keep it hidden. Wendy’s tired of being kept in the dark and won’t stop until Séamus admits what happened to them in the woods on the eve of the Millennium.

“Initially, everything is fantastic for the residents. It’s exciting; it’s a bit of a buzz. Then eventually it’s “Argh they’re blocking my driveway again”, not so fun is it! The thing I would find funny on a personal level, when I was filming Moone Boy, I found that people from the town and passersby were walking around in their best clothes with more makeup on, just in case they would get caught by the cameras. It’s great. It feels a lot more authentic filming in places with character.” – creator Chris O’Dowd

Sky Atlantic, Thursday, February 27th at 9 pm

The popular medical documentary series returns and for the first time is in Scotland, offering a compelling insight into the innovative surgeries taking place in Edinburgh and the Lothians. It’s a region which has a long and proud history in the field of medicine, with the roots of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh dating back to the 1400s.

Filmed at leading centres of medical excellence – NHS Lothian’s The Royal Infirmary, Western General, and St. Johns – the series has unprecedented access to surgeons, anaesthetists, theatre staff and patients.

Consultant Hepato-Biliary Surgeon Rajan Ravindran takes on complex procedures involving the liver, pancreas, and gallbladder. In the opening episode, he’s performing a joint case with Consultant Transplant Surgeons Andrew Sutherland and John Casey. It has only been performed in Scotland three times before. Their patient is 21-year-old Sania, whose acute recurrent pancreatitis means she has been living in pain for ten years. The inflammation of her pancreas has caused toxic substances to get into her bloodstream. Without an operation, her pancreas will eventually be destroyed.

The operation will remove her pancreas and involve extracting insulin and hormone-producing cells, called islets, and transplanting them into her liver. The cells will then continue to produce insulin and hormones. The procedure, known as an auto-transplant, is high-risk. Once the pancreas is removed, there’s a race against time. A specialist lab outside Edinburgh is one of only three in the UK that can carry out the extraction process. As the scientists work on the pancreas, Rajan must reconstruct Sania’s digestive tract.

At the Western General Hospital, Consultant Urological Surgeon Alex Laird’s patient also has a lot to lose. Sixty-one-year-old Ed, who cares for his wife full-time, has kidney cancer. The tumour has spread from the kidney through Ed’s two renal veins and into the largest vein in the body, the inferior vena cava (IVC). If a fragment of tumour were to break off, it would travel to the heart and lungs causing a fatal embolism – and without an operation, Ed may not survive more than a year.

Because of the tumour’s growth, the operation is highly complex. Alex must shut off the blood flow in the IVC, open the vessel and coax the tumour back into the renal vein. Repeating the process for the other renal vein also means closing the blood flow from Ed’s healthy kidney. Alex and Consultant Anaesthetist Rosie Baruah must also deal with a dangerous drop in Ed’s blood pressure and a haemorrhage.

BBC Two, Wednesday, February 26th at 9 pm

Kate Quilton and John Whaite go on an incredible journey to unearth the origins of the K-foods that have exploded in popularity in recent years, and encounter some extraordinary surprises on the way.

In Seoul, they uncover the crispy secrets of Korean Fried Chicken.

Heading south to Cheonan, they discover the surprising origins of the massive popularity of pork luncheon meat – aka spam – and see how it’s made. A short detour to the beach at Dacheon leads to a shocking and unforgettable seafood, with a nickname fit for the playground.

Finally, in Gwangju, they discover a world of kimchi and learn the key to its global expansion.

Channel 4, Friday, February 28th at 7.30 pm

Clare Balding heads to the famous waterways of the River Thames, which stretches over 200 miles from Gloucestershire to Essex. Clare explores the freshwater Thames, from its humble beginning and on as it meanders through beautiful countryside teeming with wildlife, grand estates and inspiring landscapes.

In this first episode, Clare discovers the ‘dreaming spires’ of Oxford, the landscapes that inspired Kenneth Graham’s Wind in the Willows, and the regal splendour of the Cliveden Estate and Windsor Castle, and on to the edge of London where the river turns tidal.

Clare meets Lock-Keeper Lee Grice and tries her hand at the art, before getting to know some of the local river folk. David Whitby is a proud owner of a beautiful canal boat, with the perfect interiors for an idyllic life on the water. Clare takes a punt at punting with punt maker Roger Forster, learning about these carefully crafted boats before taking a ride on the gentle waters.

The Thames has been a source of inspiration to writers and painters for centuries, but there is one book that really captures the countryside around the Thames in all its glory; Wind in the Willows. Clare goes in search of Toad Hall and meets Miriam Rose, the great-granddaughter of Charles Rose Day – a larger-than-life public figure who is said to have inspired the character of Mr. Toad at her home on the banks of the Thames, Hardwicke House. From the inspirational to the aspirational, Clare boards ‘The Belmont’, a 33-foot restored 1930s slipper boat to make her way to magnificent stately home, and now 5-star hotel Cliveden House.

Clare meets David Barber, who held the extraordinary role of the Queen’s Swan Marker for over 30 years, now entering his first year as the King’s Marker. Clare’s trip wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the famous Windsor Castle where she meets the King’s Bargemaster and learns about the Royal Watermen. The journey draws to a sweet ending with a taste of one of the nation’s favourite desserts: the Eton Mess.

Channel 5, Thursday, February 27th at 8 pm