TV PICKS OF THE WEEK By Lisa Jewell

Make a date or set your DVR for our top telly choices this week

Film – 500 Days of Summer

Tuesday 25 July, 9pm, Comedy Central

One of the best rom coms in recent years, 500 Days of Summer begins with a romance developing between greeting cards writer Tom and new assistant at the firm, Summer. What marks it out from your usual rom com is that it doesn’t neatly fall for happy endings and shows what happens next when the path of romance doesn’t run smoothly.

Interestingly, it is Tom (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is the hopeless romantic and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) who is the cynical one who doesn’t believe in true love…or does she? Listen out for the film’s soundtrack, with some great songs.

Film – Captain Phillips

Wednesday 26 July, 9.30pm, RTE1

Tom Hanks stars as Captain Richard Phillips in this true story about the hijacking of the MV Maersk Alabama cargo ship off the coast of Africa. The film is mostly set on board the ship and focuses on the ordeal that the crew undergo but also gives an insight into what prompts the young Somali men to become modern day pirates.

It’s a gripping film and it’s mostly Hanks’ performance that keeps you watching. The cast also includes Catherine Keener and Barkhad Abdi who says that now famous phrase, ‘I’m the captain now’.

Drama – Top of the Lake: China Girl

Thursday 27 July, 9pm, BBC2

Following on from the successful first series of Top of the Lake comes this follow up, with the subtitle ‘China Girl’. Elisabeth Moss returns as Detective Robin Griffin who seems to have no leads in the case of an unknown Asian girl who washes up onto Bondi beach. But her investigation leads to the fact that she did not die alone.

Director Jane Campion is at the helm again and it’s another bow in Elisabeth Moss’ acting repertoire after the recent success of The Handmaid’s Tale. Holly Hunter is not involved with the second series but she has been replaced with Nicole Kidman, who plays Mary’s adoptive mother.