Travel

Now that the ten week Danish subtitled The Killing is over some people are talking about it as if it was some watershed or new direction in television. The whodunit that kept them all guessing on BBC4, well that is the half million or so who watched it. About 6 million watched Kenneth Branagh’s Wallander.

Mostly, I’ve had little time for James Nesbitt in most of his roles since Cold Feet, but with the arrival of Monroe on UTV. I am so impressed as Nesbitt is wonderful as neurosurgeon Monroe, an arrogant, exasperating genius, a little bit like House. But Monroe has something else as well as having Sarah Parish as the...

Here’s a new gowns and gangsters series Silk on BBC1 with gritty Maxine Peake as an up and thrusting barrister who wants to be a Queen’s Council. She is from up North and edgy in sunglasses and dodgy in her dealings as she competes with posh male barrister Rupert Penry Jones who’s a toffee – a Rupert but good looking...

Despite repeated adverts for Sky Atlantic, and at least five UPC digital channels promoting it, Boardwalk Empire only brought in 438,000 UK viewers and a week later this had dropped to 247,000. Probably indicates how few homes are connected to Sky and it is a similar problem in Ireland. Perhaps Sky hoped there would...

Now that the Paul Abbott written Shameless on C4 has almost run out of expletives to delete or situations to shock us with, RTE2 have begun to show the American version, with the excellent William H Macy as the drunken Gallagher. Star of this version is Emmy Rossum as the sexualised daughter bringing up her crazy and...

Island Parish For the last three seasons BBC2 has had a hit with its Island Parish series featuring clerics on the picturesque isles of Scilly. When the parishioners rejected a particular reverend the steam sort of went out of the series. Now, not to miss out on a good idea, the production has moved to an isolated...

The best thing you could say about the short bites or bits that is the C4 Jamie Oliver – Jamie’s Fish Supper is that they are short. But, it is getting a bit tiresome to have these TV chefs become Nanny Staters, lecturing us on what we should eat, to save the planet. Eat pounting or some such fish because it tastes...

The dubious plot of cot death and stolen child in East Enders has caused a lot more controversy than I think the BBC expected. In the last few years this soap has had arson, alcohol abuse deaths, crack addiction and a catalogue of misery, but this one where Ronnie Mitchell played well by Samantha Womack, sneaks into...

Over the holidays it was great to see local faces and local connections on the telly. Michael Joseph, a runner-up star in the series Fame The Musical, appeared in the movie Swansong – Story of Occi Byrne. The late Frank Coughlan’s grandson made a second appearance in Fair City, much to the delight of his mother,...

RTE1 paid fine tribute to Anna Manahan with the broadcasting of an original Irish language with subtitles about the late Waterford City Freeman. I always find it difficult to use Freeman and Actor when referring to females, but that is the convention these days. Using good black and white footage we got a view of...

Mincemeat We are almost in the shadow of Christmas and TV companies often take the opportunity to get rid of something that seemed a good idea once but when it was made they had second thoughts so they put it out pre-Christmas and try for a bit of publicity. Operation Mincemeat has that feel to it on BBC2. So stick...

RTE1 Prime Time Investigates hit the shock, horror button with its revelations on the international gangs and Irish criminals who flood this country with millions of cheap and counterfeit cigarettes. Amid all the statistics it is mind-boggling to think that people who get cigarettes for €4 on a street or market and...