What’s on – TV and streaming highlights for Wednesday

A documentary celebrating the life and work of Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh and two films showcasing the best of Irish acting talent are our recommendations for Wednesday.

Mícheál: The Sound of Sunday
RTÉ One, 10:25pm
As a tribute to the late Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, who died last week aged 93, another chance to see this profile of the broadcasting great, which was first shown on Christmas Day 2006. At the time, it was billed as “a story that extends over a half century of momentous change in Irish life”, showing how “one man and one voice timelessly articulated the values of successive generations of Irish people”.

Streaming

Maze
RTÉ Player

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This acclaimed true story thriller, which stars Tom Vaughan-Lawlor and Barry Ward, is based on the mass escape of 38 IRA prisoners from HMP Maze near Belfast in September 1983. One prison officer died from a heart attack after being stabbed and another was seriously injured in the breakout. Love/Hate‘s Vaughan-Lawlor portrays one of the masterminds of the escape, the late IRA member Larry Marley, in the film, which also stars Jimmy’s Hall actor Ward as fictional prison officer Gordon Close. Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment at the time of Maze‘s release in September 2017, Vaughan-Lawlor said he felt “huge pressure” in his portrayal of a Republican prisoner. “I found pressure in terms of being from Dublin, not from Belfast,” he explained. “Pressure to be as informed as I could be about the subject and be able to talk about the film and be as educated about the conflict [as possible]. Also, on a basic level, on a technical level, things like accents, things like physicality – making sure you could get as close as you could to those.” No need to worry – excellent work from Vaughan-Lawlor and Ward.

Streaming

The Nightingale
4OD

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This rampage of revenge marked another reckoning in Australian cinema as The Fall‘s Aisling Franciosi delivered a stunning performance as Clare, an Irish convict on the hunt for Hawkins (Sam Claflin), the British officer who has destroyed her life. Helping Clare is Billy (Baykali Ganambarr), an Aboriginal tracker who shows her a way to reconnect with her own humanity as they pick their steps through Tasmania in 1825. Writer-director Jennifer Kent convinced many to leave the lights on with her child-in-peril debut The Babadook, but The Nightingale is scarier because it is so grounded in reality and the evil that men do. The violence and racism are truly shocking, but there are also moments of astounding natural beauty and unexpected tenderness. Your own understanding of strength and fragility is questioned throughout. There’s as much chance of forgetting this film as there is of wanting to watch it again.

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