What"s on the box this week?

'Off The Rails" (RTE 1, Wednesday) - 'Off the Rails" is back to herald the new season of fashion and beauty with new presenters Brendan Courtney and Sonya Lennon giving the rundown on the autumn/winter trends with clips from what"s hot from the catwalk and taking a look at what the high street has to offer this season. Geochemist make-over candidate Bernadette Azzie spent a lot of her career underground working in mines. She is the first to admit she has zero fashion sense and is stuck in an '80s-style rut. With a firm grip, Sonya drags her though to the noughties and the results are startling for all concerned. Catwalk make-up is often best left on the catwalk but Brendan challenges three Riverdancers to try a more 'high street friendly" version of the season"s key make-up trends. 'Oilean" (RTE 1, Monday) - For generations, many have 'done" Lough Derg and undergoing the three-day ritual in bare feet to ask God for special intentions. Now, in an era of affluence where people have plenty, Lough Derg is a sanctuary offering a detox for the soul. It"s a kind of spiritual spa, giving the gift of hope and extending its welcome to all. Contact with the outside world is stopped for three days - no mobile phones, no television, no radio, and a diet of black tea and dry toast. Why then do people still 'do" Lough Derg? The programme follows journalist Berni Ní Fhlatharta, a self-confessed 'à la carte" Catholic, for the three days as she undergoes the austerity, sleep deprivation and fasting, to find out for herself why Lough Derg continues to attract thousands every summer from all walks of life. After a rocky three-day journey, during which she threatens to leave the island, Berni is seduced by the magic of Lough Derg and, together with her new best friends, leaves the island renewed with hope and courage. 'A Little Bit Showband" (RTE 1, Tuesday) - Following the success of the hugely popular 'A Little Bit Country" series, RTÉ"s Archive Production Unit has turned its sights this time on Ireland"s showband era, producing six half-hour programmes celebrating the lives and careers of some of the country"s best known showband stars, a number of whom are marking 50 years in showbiz this year. Ireland"s showband era of the 1950s, '60s and early '70s was a phenomenon that will never be seen in this country again. At the height of its popularity there were over 800 individual bands playing to packed ballrooms throughout the country. It was an era of beehive hair styles, sharp suits, Brylcreem and, of course, 'boy meets girl". It was when the 'Ballroom of Romance" was played out for real and where 'Dancing at the Crossroads" was an actuality. Narrated by Ronan Collins, 'A Little Bit Showband" takes a nostalgic trip back to this golden period in Irish life and discovers how six of the leading showband stars were catapulted from their ordinary lives into a world of jiving, electric guitars, adoring fans and life on the road. Each star has their own story to tell and the series reveals how their lives were changed for better or worse by being part of this unique time in the country"s history. The series also uncovers exactly what happened to each of them once the mirror ball stopped spinning and the public turned its back on the ballrooms. Each week a different showband star is interviewed and, along with some previously unseen footage, the programme uses archive film from the 1940s, '50s, '60s and '70s to illustrate the highs and lows of this special group of men and women who kept Ireland entertained for so long. Movie Of The Week: 'True Lies" (RTE 2, Thursday) - Arnie Schwarzenegger plays a CIA man keen to keep his identity secret from wife, Jamie Lee Curtis. In a story packed with terrorists, battles on the Key West bridge and hover-jets zooming around skyscrapers, this is joy throttle all the way. Mindless action, but great fun.