DUNE: PROPHECY (Sky Atlantic)

A prequel to 2021’s Dune film, which follows the two Harkonnen sisters – one of them played by Emily Watson – as they combat forces threatening the future of mankind. There’s plenty of Irish involvement with Aoife Kinds and Faoileann Cunningham also starring as members of the fabled Bene Gesserit sect. A seriously big budget affair, it was shot in Hungary and Jordan with former Lost and Fringe producer Alison Schapker at the helm.

Dune: Prophecy.

CROSS (Prime Video)

Following in Harlan Coben and Lee Child’s televisual footsteps, James Patterson has his Alex Cross series of crime novels adapted for the small-ish screen by Ben Wallace who’s best-known for the excellent Burn Notice, which didn’t really catch on here but was a big hit Stateside. Aldis Hodge of One Night In Miami and Leverage: Redemption fame stars as the titular Washington DC detective and forensic psychologist with links to the White House. Smarter than the average cop show, it moves along at a thunderous pace with plot twists of the most outrageous variety.

Cross.

SAY NOTHING (Disney+)

Lola Petticrew, Hazel Doupe and recent Hot Press interviewee Anthony Boyle respectively play Dolours Price, Marian Price and Brendan Hughes in this decades-spanning Troubles drama, which starts with the 1972 abduction of Jean McConville. There’s also a stellar turn from Josh Finan as the youngish Gerry Adams who’s one of the limited series’ recurring characters. It speaks volumes that Petticrew and Boyle both come from West Belfast and have personal reasons for wanting this difficult story to be properly told.

Say Nothing.

LANDMAN (Paramount+)

Billy Bob Thornton stars as an an oil company crisis manager in this tale of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires who strike black gold in West Texas. Adapted from the excellent Boomtown podcast – subscribe at texasmonthly.com/podcasts/series/boomtown – there’s room in the cast as well for Resident Evil star Alison Larter, Jon Hamm, Andy Garcia and Demi Moore who also joins Dennis Quaid in new big pharma thriller, The Substance. As for Billy Bob, he’s in top acting form and in real life celebrating the tenth anniversary of his wedding to wife number six, Connie Angland.

Billy Bob Thornton in Landman.