Season to be cheerful or not worth weight?
RTE REVEALS ITS AUTUMN & WINTER SCHEDULE
THE seasons are changing and that means only one thing – a fanfare of trumpets and the launch of a raft of new (and nearly new) TV shows.
RTE unveiled its autumn/ winter schedule on Thursday promising more than 60 new series across factual, entertainment, arts, comedy, lifestyle and drama platforms.
It looks as if we’ll be hitting the record button a lot if the blurb is anything to go by.
Dancing With The Stars is back with presenters Nicky Byrne and Amanda Byram and a line-up of contenders who, for now, remain top secret.
Blathnaid Tracey will also return to host its spin-off Can’t Stop Dancing.
Kathryn Thomas will head up Celebrity Operation Transformation, and everybody’s favourite wedding planner Franc gets in on the frock action with an Irish franchise of Say Yes to the Dress.
Angeline Ball stars in Acceptable Risk with Elaine Cassidy (No Offence) in a new drama set in Dublin and Vancouver about a woman “who discovers all is not what it seems when her husband is murdered”.
The broadcaster is commissioning the Brendan Gleeson thriller Mr Mercedes, based on the Stephen King novel.
Also in the pipeline is the latest run of Vikings, and a new Scandi thriller noir from Borgen creator Adam Price, Ride Upon the Storm.
Amy Huberman and Neil Morrissey will return to our screens, joined this time by Maria Doyle Kennedy, for a second season of legal drama Striking Out, as is Stefanie Preissner’s comedy Can’t Cope Won’t Cope.
And sticking on the theme of humour Young Offenders sounds promising. The six-parter is based on Peter Foott’s hit movie and was filmed on location in Cork. If documentaries are your thing, Dr Eva Orsmond examine if your place of birth dictates your life expectancy in Ireland’s Health Divide. We Won the Lotto meets some of the country’s newest millionaires and Fab Vinnie looks back on the life of cutting-edge MT USA host Vincent Hanley.
Add to this the first-ever female Dr Who in Jodie Whittaker, the return of The League of Gentlemen for three special episodes on the BBC, and a resurrected Doc Martin on ITV.
If you’ve any spare time left have a look at what’s coming across the water.
Netflix unleashes the third series of Narcos early next month in which Pedro Pascal’s Javier Pena is going after the Cali Cartel. The Deuce on HBO (also due in September) sees James Franco play twin brothers in David Simon and George Pelecanos’ retelling of New York’s porn heyday.
Young Sheldon (CBS) sees Iain Armitage (the weird kid in Big Little Lies) as the younger version of Jim Parsons’ quirky central character in The Big Bang Theory.
And last but not least Curb Your Enthusiasm returns for a surprise ninth season after a sixyear hiatus.
Larry David is bound to have plenty of pretty, pretty good stories saved up to share with us...