TV PICKS OF THE WEEK By Lisa Jewell

Whether you’re staying in or setting the DVR, we’ve your top cultural TV picks for the week ahead.

Film – Shutter Island

Monday 27 November, 9.30pm, BBC2

Inception was from the same year and received a lot more critical attention than this psychological thriller but Shutter Island is still a good film. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the film is based on Dennis Lehane’s 2003 novel of the same name.

DiCaprio stars as a US Marshal who is investigating the disappearance of a patient from a psychiatric unit on Shutter Island. Mark Ruffalo plays his US Marshal colleague and Ben Kingsley stars as the psychiatric unit’s lead psychiatrist. It’s a riveting enough film but with a head scratching inducing ending, just like Inception.

Film – Weekend at Bernie’s

Saturday 2 December, 11.15pm, 3

A cult classic from the 80s that is perfect easy viewing on a Saturday night. Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman play two accountants who are invited to their boss’ beach house for the weekend (that boss being Bernie). When they turn up, they discover he’s dead and fear being framed for his murder.

A couple of days pretending that Bernie is still alive ensue. On paper it sounds like an awful film but it’s so outlandish, it just works somehow as slapstick farce.

Documentary – Blue Planet II

Sunday 3 December, 8pm, BBC One

Blue Planet II has become the most watched TV programme of 2017 in the UK with lots of Irish fans also tuning in every Sunday night. There are two more episodes left, including tonight’s ‘Coasts’ which focuses on earth’s coastlines, where land meets sea.

Animals that live on the coast have to find ingenious ways to cope with two very different worlds – some of the creatures in this episode include fish that live on dry land, puffins that have to travel 60 miles or more for a single meal and life-and-death struggles in a technicolour rock pool. This show also features footage from the rich aquatic world that is the Galapagos islands.