LAST UPDATE | 8 Oct

THE WEEKEND IS kicking off – but what should you watch?

We’ve taken a look through what’s on offer and picked out series and movies to check out over the next three days on streaming and the telly. 

DIY SOS: The Big Build Ireland

The Connolly family on DIY SOS Serhiy Pylypaka Serhiy Pylypaka

Grab the tissues, because this show is always guaranteed to make you weepy. The new series of DIY SOS: The Big Build kicks off tonight. For the uninitiated, host Baz Ashmawy gathers together a team of volunteers to help transform people’s homes, gardens and lives. In this first episode we meet Ramona Connolly and her son Oran (5) in Kildare. Ramona’s husband Daragh died suddenly in December 2025, while the family were in the process of building their forever home. They were left without a mortgage, life insurance or the financial means to complete the house – but thankfully Baz and team are here to help.

Airing Sunday on RTÉ One at 6.30pm and also on the RTÉ Player.

Below

Josh Hartnett as Calvin and Mackenzie Davis as Fonda Courtesy of Netflix Courtesy of Netflix

This new series sees Josh Hartnett play Calvin Penney, a fisherman living in a small Newfoundland town. His dad died mysteriously decades ago, which still haunts Calvin. And then an unidentified sea creature begins terrorising his hometown, so Calvin teams up with a visiting marine researcher (Mackenzie Davis) to confront the creature and reveal the island’s buried secrets. This has a hint of Widow’s Bay about it, though less of the weird humour.

Streaming on Netflix.

Get Jiro

Fan of animated series and delicious food? Then give this a try. It’s based on the graphic novel by Anthony Bourdain (yes, that Anthony Bourdain, famous food writer and chef) and Joel Rose and is set in a post-apocalyptic, near-future Los Angeles. Jiro is a mysterious sushi chef living in a society where chefs are ultra-powerful figures, and violence reigns supreme. This series doesn’t shy away from violence – the AV Club calls it “impressively gnarly stuff”.

Streaming weekly on HBO Max. 

Cold Storage

Cold Storage Studio Canal Studio Canal

Missing Joe Keery from Stranger Things? Well, he’s in this new film that is now streaming. He plays a character called Teacake, while Georgina Campbell is Naomi, and they both work for a self-storage company built on an old US military base. Things get weird, however, when a parasitic fungus escapes from the base, and Teacake and Naomi have to call on a retired bioterror operative (Liam Neeson) to help save humankind.

Streaming on Sky Cinema Premiere and NOW.

The Reluctant Vampire 

Lenny Rush as Val Boffola Pictures Boffola Pictures

This new series is getting great reviews – and the second episode drops this weekend. It’s a comedy based on Eric Morecambe’s children’s books and sees the always delightful Lenny Rush (Slow Horses, Am I Being Unreasonable?) play Val, who is part of a vampire family but doesn’t like blood and doesn’t have fangs. In the first episode, he discovered that’s because he’s not a vampire at all: his mum rescued him from a fire when he was a baby. But can they keep the secret from everyone else? There’s a great cast here, so look out for comedians Bill Bailey and Ross Noble, who play gargoyles.

Airing Sunday, BBC One at 9.40pm