Tu-be or not tu-be
By Dave Riley
It's official: you can now turn your television set back on. The squalid drought is over and a succession of ratings periods await your delight.
This is the year of the news — the new news — format and time changes, all the news that fits. You won't be staying up late without a network dose of news and current affairs. There will be Jana and Derryn, Richard and Jennifer on hand to masticate it for you.
SBS has some new and interesting material this week. It is concentrating on documentary series, and two new ones are starting. Bring It All Back Home (Monday 7.30) is a five-part series on Irish music. Weighted toward the known and notable, like U2 and Sinead O'Connor, it tracks back to take in the great 17th century harpist Turlogh O'Carolan and moves on to chart Irish musical influences on distant shores.
If you often move with cog and cotter pins, Bicycle (Tuesday 7.30) is for you. Filmed in 10 countries this is a homage to the greenness of peddle power.
SBS is also showing The War We Left Behind (Monday, Feb 24, 8.30). This special edition of Cutting Edge focusses on Iraq one year later, revealing that Desert Storm was less about the liberation of Kuwait and more about the destruction of Iraq as a nation.
The gay and lesbian program OUT returns for its third season (Wednesdays, 9.30). This week's episode delves into the legal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships. Subsequent episodes look at the destruction of gay squats in Berlin, the gay rights movement in India and the acclaimed documentary Tongues Untied, an account of black gay life.