TV Highlights

'The Daily Show' (RTE 1, Mon-Fri, 4.50pm) - Claire Byrne teams up with Dáithí O Sé to host this daily digest of news and entertainment stories hitting the headlines - from human interest to celebrity gossip, political intrigue to sporting success, international events to national preoccupations. This week, one of America's leading climate experts reveals what really happened to our summer, plus another great weekend of movies is in store - Michael Doherty shares his favourites. And 'Room to Improve' presenter Dermot Bannon joins Claire and Daithi with his secret for a stress-free home. And prior to Ireland's clash against Italy in the Rugby World Cup, Ireland's leading sports psychologist gives us the thinking behind winning. Bernard Dunne, too, is going for gold with his verdicts on Ireland's sporting hopefuls for the 2012 Olympics. ___________________________________________________________ 'Room To Improve' (RTE 1, Wednesday, 8pm) - Aideen and Steffen Klauer and their two young sons live in a 100 year-old ex-corporation granite cottage on two acres set in an area of outstanding beauty on the upper slope of the Wicklow Gap. No close neighbours, beautiful views of the Wicklow Mountains, a large vegetable patch, 10 hens, four ducks, two geese, four beehives, two dogs and three cats. It allsounds idyllic, right? Wrong. The house is cramped, dark and beset by mould. The roof leaks and the wiring is in a hazardous state. Sharing a bedroom-and-a-half with their two kids, and with their third child on the way, Aideen and Steffen are desperate. Presenter and architect Dermot Bannon says: "If this was a nursing home, I'd have it closed down." He's not joking. ___________________________________________________________ 'Shirley' (BBC 2, Thursday, 9pm) - Ruth Negga leads an all-star cast in an intimate and revealing drama that looks at the life of Dame Shirley Bassey, one of the world's most enduring and successful divas. The film charts Bassey's early career, from her humble roots in Wales in the 1930s to the start of her rise to international stardom in the '60s. But this is no ordinary rags-to-riches story. Born in Tiger Bay in Cardiff, she was one of eight children from a poor mixed-race family. An audition with struggling London agent Mike Sullivan puts Shirley firmly on the path to success, as he grooms her into a solo performer fit to take on the world. But Bassey is hiding a secret - she's an unmarried teenage mother. Persuaded to give her daughter, Sharon, to her elder sister to look after, she works day and night to perfect her routine and complete the transformation from the poverty-stricken girl to the star she so desperately wants to become. The supporting cast includes Lesley Sharp as Eliza Bassey, Shirley's tenacious mother; Charlie Creed-Miles as Mike Sullivan, her domineering manager, and Henry Lloyd-Hughes as Kenneth Hume, her personal manager and husband. ___________________________________________________________ 'Love Your Garden' (ITV, Friday, 8pm) - Alan Titchmarsh shows viewers how the smallest garden can be turned into a private sanctuary. He also transforms a tiny hot tub area into an intimate tropical garden. Matt James shows how to make the very best out of a humble basement and, as autumn arrives, Laetitia Maklouf uses dried petals to keep summer alive. Plus Titchmarsh reveals the 'ultimate secret garden' status symbols, from deluxe hanging baskets to five star hot tubs. ___________________________________________________________ 'Terra Nova' (Sky One, Saturday, 9pm) - This much-anticipated new series from director Steven Spielberg follows an ordinary family on an incredible journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a small part of a daring experiment to save the human race. In the year 2149, the world is dying. The planet is overdeveloped and overcrowded, with the majority of plant and animal life extinct. The future of mankind is in doubt, and its only hope for survival is in the distant past. When scientists unexpectedly discovered a fracture in time that make it possible to construct a portal into primeval history, the bold notion is born to resettle humanity in the past - a second chance to rebuild civilisation and get it right this time. The story centres on the Shannon family as they join the Tenth Pilgrimage of settlers to 'Terra Nova', the first colony established in this beautiful yet forbidding land of limitless beauty, mystery and terror. ___________________________________________________________ Movie Of The Week: 'Days Of Glory' (RTE 1, Wednesday, 11.30pm) - French film starring Samy Naceri and Roschdy Zem set during WWII, when four North African men enlist in the French army to liberate their country from Nazi oppression, and to fight French discrimination. An atmospheric tale of honour and courage as the quartet fights to prove themselves not just as brave soldiers, but as men the equal of their so-called betters.