Telly picks for the coming week…
The Great Pottery Throw Down’s master potter Keith Brymer Jones and his partner Marj Hogarth are back with a new series, as they continue their quest of turning their 163-year-old chapel in Pwllheli into their dream home, complete with a pottery studio and a community hub.
With planning permission approved for their audacious plan, Keith and Marj set out to transform the downstairs of the Sunday School into their living accommodation. With their hearts set on a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and snug, first they must rip out the fungus and try to control the dreaded dry rot that has infected the chapel.
The rot’s biggest victim is the original staircase, but Keith and Marj are determined to see the loss as an opportunity, and set out to instil some original character back into their now blank lobby, by rescuing the hall’s century-old pendant lighting.
The plan is to cluster them together as a feature fitting to go into the space where the old staircase once stood.
Local builder Hew Owens is the man helping to bring Keith and Marj’s living accommodation vision to life, starting by transforming one of the Sunday School offices into a kitchen. Keen to re-use and recycle, Keith and Marj source an 80-year-old English Rose kitchen, heralded as a British design classic. And to celebrate British craft, Keith and Marj are planning to install a sink with a difference.
It’s then a race to get the kitchen into shape so that they can finally enjoy a home-made cup of tea in the heart of their new home.
Channel 4, Tuesday, April 2nd at 9 pm
World’s Most Dangerous Roads
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Three brand new episodes of World’s Most Dangerous Roads featuring Jack Dee and Jake Lambert in Kyrgyzstan, Alex Brooker and Ellie Taylor in Java, and a new compilation episode of Rhod Gilbert’s Extra Mile.
It’s the show where pairs of brave comedy stars and celebrities tackle perilous terrain as they embark on extraordinary road trips through some of the most breathtakingly beautiful and remote parts of the world.
Series seven opens with Kyrgyzstan: Comedians Jack Dee and Jake Lambert team up for a thrilling ride through the wilds of Kyrgyzstan, battling terrifying mountain roads, and a mystery illness that threatens their entire trip. Starting from the capital, Bishkek, Jack and Jake face multiple obstacles, from horrifyingly narrow roads with only a sheer drop for company, to muddy tracks rendered almost undriveable by rainstorms.
But for Jake in particular, the driving is only half the challenge. For a man who lives life to a strict routine, being starved of home comforts (including the morning shower he hasn’t missed for 20 years) is a real ordeal. And things hit rock bottom when he’s struck down by a mystery illness that threatens to cut short their entire trip.
U&Dave, Sunday, March 30th at 8pm
Box Set – Stream S1-7 on U
The Palace: What the Royal servants saw
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A shocking new documentary gives an inside look at the secret lives of the royal family, from the point of view of those who worked closest to them, the royal servants.
Through intimate interviews with former royal staff and insiders, we offer a no-holds-barred portrayal of what it’s really like behind palace walls, revealing the daily challenges, tantrums, and personal dramas that unfold out of the public eye.
Royal commentators offer rare insights into the monarchy’s dynamics, and the tensions that have defined recent years. This programme tells the stories of those who were there on the royal front line, providing a fresh perspective on the firm’s most tumultuous and tantalising chapters.
With a mix of behind-the-scenes anecdotes and archive footage, the programme reveals the unseen side of royal life — it’s the monarchy, as you’ve never seen them before.
Channel 5, Saturday, March 29th at 9.15 pm
Bradley Walsh: Egypt’s Cosmic Code
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The three-part documentary series continues as award-winning actor, presenter, and comedian Bradley Walsh fulfils a lifetime’s ambition to visit the monuments of Ancient Egypt and try to understand how it could have been possible to produce such “wonders of the ancient world” 4,500 years ago.
Across the episodes, viewers will see Bradley as never before as he reveals his engineering passion and expertise and has many questions and theories that challenge Egyptological orthodoxy, getting close and personal with the monuments and history with which he has been fascinated throughout his life.
With his Indiana Jones hat, his unique brand of entertainment and his unusual camel-riding technique, it’s fair to say that Bradley is unlike anyone the Egyptians (ancient or modern) have ever encountered before.
Sky History, Tuesday, April 2nd at 9 pm
Broadcaster Paul Colgan wants to figure out what Donald Trump’s brand of politics and economic vision for America means for businesses and the economic future of Northern Ireland. As President Trump talks trade tariffs and ‘America first’, what are the ramifications for the EU and the UK and, in turn, for Belfast and Dublin?
In a new BBC Northern Ireland film, Trump, Tariffs and Us, journalist Paul Colgan gets the views of leading figures on both sides of the Atlantic. With insights from a key cast of contributors including veteran diplomat and former envoy to Northern Ireland, Richard Haass, former Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and DUP MP, Sammy Wilson, Paul wants to find out what are the potential implications of Trump’s second presidency.
How might Northern Ireland and the so-called Irish Sea border, map its way around Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on the EU, and retaliation from the bloc? And what could potential tariffs on US goods by the EU mean for businesses in Northern Ireland?
The film also asks if Irish America, traditionally Democrat-aligned, has switched allegiances and whether the concept of ‘Irish America’ really matters any more to the White House or to Trump when rolling out his policies. Paul gets the views of some straight-talking Irish Americans, from a former law-enforcement officer embedded in the Irish community to the frontman of punk band, the Dropkick Murphys.
There are also insights from those who know President Trump, including a businessman, Belfast-born New York resident Michael George, who is a friend of the Trump family.
Paul, an award-winning journalist who has covered Ireland, UK and European economics and politics for decades, explores whether there has been a societal shift and if Trump’s ‘America First’ approach is here to stay beyond a Trump presidency.
BBC One Northern Ireland, Sunday, March 30th at 10.30 pm and across the UK on the iPlayer
