Project Children: Defusing the Troubles, BBC 1, Monday at 9pm
When this film has its premiere at a Dublin festival in September it had the more arresting title: ‘How To Defuse A Bomb: The Project Children Story.’
Someone must have deemed that a bit risky for its first BBC showing, but it more accurately summed up the purpose and objective of the US charity which tried to remove children from the destructive influence of the Troubles.
More than 20,000 Catholic and Protestant children were taken from the north for six-week trips to the US where they experienced life with Irish-American families.
The noble idea was that if the children were removed from an environment of hate and shown the possibility of life with comfortable American families, then they might not get involved in the killing themselves.
Not every case was a success – Shankill bomber Thomas Begley made a trip to the US with the charity but was nonetheless later recruited by the IRA to plant a bomb – but many lives were changed for the better.
It was launched in 1975 by Irish immigrant Denis Mulcahy who was working, ironically, with New York police bomb squad.
He’s a man I’m ashamed to admit I’ve never heard of, but it appears he’s one of the unsung heroes of the Troubles.
And while his good works, including his connection with Bill Clinton, were well documented in this film it brought to mind a largely unexplored area of the Troubles.
Little attention has been given to the role Northern Ireland’s paramilitary groups had in grooming child soldiers.
Organisations on both sides had youth wings where the innocent were indoctrinated and radicalised.
In fact, some reports claim that 19 children aged between 12 and 16 were killed as republican combatants alone.
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The Martin Lewis Show, ITV, Monday at 8pm
Can you believe that Martin Lewis has been making money on television while teaching us how to save money for more than four years?
The financial adviser has become an extremely wealthy man through television work and from the sale of his website – moneysavingexpert.com
But while there’s always merit in encouraging the public to be financial literate, I think his TV show has come to the end of the line after a four year run.
Monday’s programme was as old and tired as Lewis’s overexcited routine.
Here’s a bit of advice for ITV - There are easy savings to be made by getting rid of the Martin Lewis Show.
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FA Cup Draw, BBC 2, Monday at 7pm
The BBC is also strapped for cash – at least that’s what they keep telling us anyway.
So instead of showing us any live sport other than Wimbledon, they’ve gone for 30 minutes of the unadulterated excitement of Steven Gerrard conducting the FA Cup third round draw.
In case you missed it, among the exciting developments, Barrow drew Rochdale and Wigan got Nottingham Forest.
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Hero World Challenge, Sky Sports 4, Sunday 4pm
Over on subscription channel Sky Sports, there was real live sport on offer.
The return of Tiger Woods to competition is the biggest story in golf since … well … since Tiger started his 18 month break.
And the 14-time major champion remains an enormous television attraction.
The viewing figures for the Hero World Challenge were up 190 percent on last year, with the Golf Channel reporting that the audience for the closing holes of his opening round on Thursday was the highest in the channel’s history.
If he remains fit he’ll be in Liverpool for The Open in July and possibly in Portstewart two weeks earlier, but none of that will be live on the £145.50 a year BBC either.
