From the sensational Say Nothing to the joy of the Cork comedy of The Young Offenders and the smart documentary on the man who wants to run the Middle East, it’s been an excellent year for the small screen.
Here’s the top picks of the Irish News and they’re all still available to stream.
1. Andrew Trimble: For Ulster and Ireland, RTE Player
Irish rugby exposes the lie that unionist are unbending. The IRFU deserves praise for the way it has managed the challenges of partition with quiet conversations and agreements around an alternative anthem, the choice of flags and a spirit of inclusion. With his 70 Ireland caps, Andrew Trimble guides us through the minefield in this important programme.
2. Say Nothing, Disney +
The story of the IRA’s ‘Disappeared,’ Say Nothing is a sensational and devastating account of the brutal and chaotic early years of the Troubles. It’s a brilliant but also troublesome representation of the inner workings of the Provos in the 1970s when its day-to-day operations were run by people in their late teens. Outstanding performances from Lola Pettigrew as Dolours Price and Anthony Boyle as Brendan Hughes.
3. Masters of the Air, Apple TV
Masters of drama, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks brought us the final part of the trilogy that began with Band of Brothers. This time we’re following the 100th Bomb Group (’the Bloody Hundred’) of the US air force as they seek to bring destruction to Nazi Germany from 20,000 ft in 1943. West Belfast’s Anthony Boyle appears again, this time as flier Harry Crosby.
4. The Young Offenders, BBC iPlayer
There’s a tradition that Ireland’s greatest comedies are made by British television companies, and it continued with season four of Young Offenders. Jock and Connor think they’re getting a ‘free holiday’ from a guy they met on the internet but they’ve been duped into being drug mules. RTE are due to broadcast the series in January but it’s already available on the iPlayer.
5. Beatles 64, Disney +
Another documentary on the Beatles, but it’s more fantastic television. Produced by Martin Scorsese, it takes us behind the scenes at another defining moment in the short but brilliant lifetime of perhaps the greatest band of all time.
6. Rivals, Disney +
Jilly Cooper’s ‘bonkbuster’ is gloriously good fun and manages to stay just the right side of silliness to make perfect escapist television. The cast is great and the characters reside in Rutshire, a toffs’ paradise of sex, politics, adultery, hunting, shooting, champagne and big houses. There’s helicopters, croquet and naked tennis.
7. The Kingdom, BBC iPlayer
This is the story of Mohammed bin Salam, the crowd price of Saudi Arabia who is trying to cement his leadership before his father King Salman dies. It explores the often sudden and dramatic modernisations MBS has brought to Saudi, but also the repression, restriction and death.
8. Dirty Pop, Netflix
A captivating story of celebrity, greed and fraud, Dirty Pop tells the story of Lou Pearlman, the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC creator, who defrauded his friends and banks of at least $500 million. They should have known when he insisted on being called ‘Big Poppa’.
9. Corridors of Power, BBC iPlayer
A monumental eight-part series, Corridors of Power is an excoriating critique of US foreign policy but also a reasonable and understanding one. Film maker Dror Moreh accepts that complexity, self-interest, error and human failure means wrong decisions are often taken.
10. D Day: The Unheard Tapes, BBC iPlayer
Sixty million people died in the Second World War. Fought across six continents, it ended with Japan as the only nation to have suffered a nuclear attack. Everything we now take for granted is predicated on the Allies winning and The Unheard Tapes brings us closer to the humanity of the young soldiers who fought and died for the victory.
