Published: Wednesday, 25th November, 2009 4:52pm
What's on the box this week?
The story of Brian Murphy who died after he was attacked outside Annabel's nightclub in 2000 is featured in Scannal (RTE1, Monday).
'Scannal' (RTE 1, Monday) - 'Scannal' looks back at the death of Brian Murphy which dominated the headlines after he was attacked outside Annabel's nightclub in Dublin. During the fracas, Murphy was seen falling to the ground, surrounded by a group of young men who were hitting and kicking him.
From the beginning, there was huge media interest in the case because those involved came from a background of private rugby-playing schools. It was suggested that the fight which led to Brian Murphy's death was related to inter-school rugby rivalries. It was clear also that there was a lot of alcohol involved.
Despite the presence of hundreds of revellers outside the nightclub that night, the Garda investigation was severely hampered by a lack of clear eyewitness evidence. Some of those who kicked Brian Murphy on the ground were never identified. Of the four young men who were charged with the manslaughter of Brian Murphy, only one of them, Dermot Laide, who had voluntarily come forward to the Gardaí, was found guilty.
Two others were convicted of violent disorder and a fourth was found innocent of all charges. However, Dermot Laide's manslaughter conviction was later overturned on appeal so that, in the end, nobody went to jail for killing Brian Murphy.
'Mind Games: Depression In Sport' (BBC 1, Wednesday) - Gabby Logan looks into the stigma surrounding mental health issues in sport, as Marcus Trescothick speaks for the first time since suffering a recurrence of his stress-related illness. The programme includes behind-the-scenes footage from Trescothick's recent trip to India, while Frank Bruno, Neil Lennon and John Kirwan also talk about their battles against depression.
'Inside Sport' also examines the myths and misconceptions that still surround mental illness and asks whether people expect too much of their sporting heroes.
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'A Little Bit Showband' (RTE 1, Sunday) - Narrated by Ronan Collins, these are stories of personal triumphs, fun and excess, tragedy and success, against a backdrop of the most extraordinary explosion of dancing and music that Ireland has ever seen.
The third programme in the series tells the story of controversial front-man Derek Dean of The Freshmen, who gives a rollercoaster account of how he drank and slept his way from ballroom to church hall in a showband life with less sax and more sex. Dean's accounts of his showband days often differ from the gloss and wholesome nostalgia that surround the showband era.
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'Margot' (BBC 4, Monday) - Anne-Marie Duff stars as Margot Fonteyn in 'Margot', the final drama in BBC Four's 'Women We Loved' season.
'Margot' tells the story of the prima ballerina dancing partnership and complex relationship with Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, forged towards the end of her career. The partnership propelled them into the stratosphere of international stardom, creating a kind of celebrity that had never existed before and securing their place in the hearts of audiences and the history of ballet.
Viewers meet Fonteyn aged 40 in a dark prison cell, having been caught up in her husband, Tito's, attempt to overthrow the Panamanian government. Despite her surroundings, she remains elegantly poised but, behind this façade, is a woman painfully aware of the future.
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Movie Of The Week: 'In My COuntry' (RTE 1, Saturday) - Brendan Gleeson and Samuel L Jackson are directed by John Boorman in this story set during the period South Africa came to terms with the legacy of apartheid, and their government created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Langston Whitfield is an African-American journalist assigned to cover the hearings by The Washington Post, and who sets out to interview Col De Jager, a notorious former police officer who was famous for his violence against blacks.
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