TV Highlights

'The Mentalist' (RTE 1, Thursday, 10.15pm) - At the start of this new season, an imprisoned Patrick Jane has to prove that the man he shot really was Red John. Meanwhile, Lisbon is trying to persuade Van Pelt to seek counselling in the aftermath of her fiancé's death. Golden Globe Award nominee Simon Baker stars as an independent consultant with the California Bureau of Investigation who has a remarkable track record for solving serious crimes by using his razor sharp skills of observation. Within the bureau, Jane is notorious for his blatant lack of protocol and his semi-celebrity past as a psychic medium, whose paranormal abilities he now admits he feigned. However, Jane's role in cracking a series of tough high-profile cases is greatly valued by his fellow agents. __________________________________________________________ 'Melvyn Bragg On Class And Culture' (BBC 2, Friday, 9pm) - Melvyn Bragg explores how class and culture - the two great forces which shape us as individuals and as a society - have impacted on one another over the last century. Writers, artists and historians such as Irving Welsh, Peter Hennessy, Pete Townshend and Pat Barker help Bragg piece together the complexities of British society, its snobberies and hatreds but also its capacity for immense creative change. In the first of the series, he explores how a rigidly class-based society responded to wars and economic hardship. Changes were brought about, but they meant cultural losses as well as gains. Classes merged for the sake of the nation in the Great War but divisions were quickly re-established. With the rise of popular culture, particularly public dancing and movies, class lines again started to blur. __________________________________________________________ 'The Late Late Eurosong Special' (RTE 1, Friday, 9.35pm) - Joining host Ryan Tubridy for this 'Late Late Show Eurosong Special' will be five acts competing to win a place in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. The five acts are acts are Celtic Whisper with Maria McCool, Donna McCaul, Andrew Mann, duo Una Gibney and David Shannon and Jedward. Last November, RTE nominated five mentors with proven experience in the Irish music industry and asked them each to select an act and a song which they believe has the potential to be a Eurovision winner. The winning act will be selected on tonight's 'Late Late Show'. As was the case last year, Ireland's Eurovision entry will be selected by a combination of public and regional jury vote. This year's Eurovision will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, in May, with Ireland competing in the first semi-final on Tuesday 22nd May. __________________________________________________________ 'The Dales' (ITV, Monday, 8pm) - This popular series is back for a new run in 2012 with Ade Edmondson returning home to bring viewers the stories behind another summer in the life of the Yorkshire Dales. Spectacularly beautiful it may be, but the Dales are also a challenging environment for the people who live and work in some of its remote communities. Edmondson spent many of his childhood summers in the Dales with his family, and in this series he returns to meet old friends and make new ones. He revisits Dales farmers Clive and Amanda Owen and their five children as they face another eventful summer on their remote farm in Swaledale, and pops in on mother and son farmers Carol and Phil Mellin who have set up a sheepdog training enterprise on their farm near Keighley. _________________________________________________________ 'Empire' (BBC 1, Monday, 9pm) - In a new five-part series, Jeremy Paxman traces the story of the British Empire. In the first programme, 'A Taste For Power', he asks how such a small country got such a big head and how come a tiny island in the north Atlantic ended up ruling over a quarter of the world's population. He travels to India where local soldiers and maharajahs helped a handful of British traders to take over vast areas of land. Spectacular displays of imperial power dazzled subject peoples and helped create a cult of Queen Victoria as Empress, mother and virtual god. __________________________________________________________ Movie Of The Week: 'Julie & Julia' (RTE 1, Wednesday, 9.35pm) - Meryl Streep and Amy Adams co-star in this comedy drama directed by Nora Ephron. Julia Child's story of her start in the cooking profession is intertwined with blogger Julie Powell's 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child's first book - a challenge that sees her inhabit the world of the famous cook. Streep is first class as Child, right down to the famous laugh.