With a screech of tyres and a hailstorm of bullets, Kin (BBC1, Tuesday) announced its return. The Irish gangster drama was one of the sleeper hits of last year, so after a quick break for the season of goodwill it was green for go again in the drugs and murdering business.

If you haven’t yet had the pleasure, The Kinsellas of Dublin are a family at war with themselves and others, but mostly themselves. Riven by hatred and hoaching with secrets, it’s a toss up whether they will kill each other or let outsiders do the work. For now, though, everyone’s having too much fun to care.

Part of the reason why Kin works so well is that it doesn’t shun the cliches that inevitably go with the territory, it revels in them. Allied to that is a superb cast, some of whom will be familiar (Aiden Gillen, Ciaran Hinds) and others that were new to me but I’ll be watching out for in future (Claire Dunne, excellent as lady boss Amanda).

As series two opens the women of the family are coming into their own. Amanda remains the smartest person in the room, intellectually and sartorially (her coat game is as good as anything in Big Little Lies), while her job-sharing co-matriarch Birdy (Maria Doyle Kennedy) continues to play peacekeeper with the chest-beating males.

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The worst of the latter is Bren (Francis Magee), a long streak of pure poison and testosterone just out of prison. Amanda’s rage as she ripped the sheets off her son’s bed that Bren had taken as his own was magnificent to behold.

Alice & Jack (Channel 4, Wednesday-Thursday) arrived just in time for Valentine’s Day. It’s almost like these TV schedulers know what they are doing.

The titular couple (played by Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough) meet via a dating app. He’s a research scientist and a quiet, sensitive soul. She’s something in the City, talks a blue streak, is outwardly confident but inside is a hot mess. Following the law of opposites attracting they hit it off. Emotional turbulence ensues.

Alice & Jack looks and plays like an indie film romance, him trailing after her like a puppy, her being dramatic and complicated. Betty Blue for Gen Z perhaps. They would be a tiresome pair if not for Gleeson and Riseborough’s performances. Between them they draw the audience in, making us care what happens next.

With four episodes to go, I’ll be disappointed if there’s not more to the story than has already been revealed. For now I’ll keep the faith.

Another portrait of love, miles away in every sense from Alice & Jack, was on offer in The Eternal Memory (BBC4). A documentary directed by Maite Alberdi, it’s in the running for an Oscar next month so you knew it was no slouch. Even so, it packed a punch that knocked you off your feet.

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Alberdi follows Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia, two well- kent figures on the Santiago scene. He was a TV reporter who fought to expose Pinocet’s atrocities; she was, and remains, an actor. Her main job is caring for Augusto, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014.

Every day begins with an introduction. Who are you, who am I, how do we know each other? At some point in the day he will recognise her, but it is taking longer to reach that marker as Alzheimer’s tightens its grip.

Every flashback to their well-documented previous lives is a heartbreaker, and as time goes on the picture becomes bleaker still. But what shines through is love, and laughter. Lots and lots of laughter.

It’s a tough gig being an actor. All that rejection and self-doubt for a start. So why not make it even harder by turning it into a televised competition? And so we have Bring the Drama (BBC2, Wednesday), another addition to Bill Bailey’s cv.

Some 2000 applied to go on the show, and of the eight amateur actors who got through, three will get the chance “to be part of a major industry showcase” and be signed by an agent. So in short, there are no guarantees of anything. Was this entirely fair?

Casting director Kelly Valentine Hendry, a Scot, put the hopefuls through their paces and off they went to the EastEnders set to do a scene. Just to add to the surreality, Natalie Cassidy, who plays Sonia in EastEnders, was the director.

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I would say it was pure Acorn Antiques stuff, but everyone was in on Victoria Wood’s joke. Bring the Drama was unintentionally funny. If someone thinks he’s De Niro but he’s really De Nono is it right to snicker, even if he did deserve cutting down to size?

Everybody had a backstory, yawn, and there were the usual long pauses to give a false sense of jeopardy. Frankly my dears, I think viewers have had enough “real people” for now. Bring back the experts. That said, while most of the contestants were hopeless a few did have a certain something. It’s the hope that kills you right enough.