New ingredients for ‘The Great British Bake Off’, but does it taste the same?After its controversial move from the BBC to Channel 4 this year, the baking show returnsTue Aug 29 2017 - 22:00
Behold Electric Picnic and the Irish middle class at playPatrick Freyne’s immersive, experiential rundown of the festival experience for people his own age who aren’t attendingWed Aug 23 2017 - 14:07
Celebrity Big Brother: Chad is a love triangle all by himselfAnd Barry from EastEnders is here. I’m not sure why but I find that comfortingWed Aug 09 2017 - 13:00
Leo’s backyard: unequal lives in Irish suburbiaThe Taoiseach’s West Dublin constituency is one of Ireland’s most socially divided areasSat Aug 05 2017 - 06:00
The children’s cartoons that shaped us – and the dark messages that lurk withinFrom The Flintstones to He-Man and Top Cat, kids’ animation has a lot to teach usWed Aug 02 2017 - 14:25
Love Island: Farewell to the fantastical hunktopiaThe sun set on LI2017 last night. It was the pinnacle of our televisual achievementsTue Jul 25 2017 - 15:02
Stop and search: Garda harassment or crime-fighting?Inner-city teenagers say they are constantly stopped by gardaí, even when wearing their school uniformSat Jul 22 2017 - 06:00
Jessica Fletcher, Buffy, Roseanne, and other wonder womenBefore the Doctor, we had to rely on the Golden Girls for female role modelsWed Jul 19 2017 - 17:05
Meet the teens who feel and sound Irish, but live in fear of deportationSome 5,000 young people here are growing up Irish but live in fear of being forced to leave home because of their undocumented statusSat Jul 15 2017 - 06:00
Vincent Browne is retiring from TV3: we will never see his like againVincent Browne's panels became a sort of provisional government and each episode a purgeWed Jul 12 2017 - 14:15
‘Game of Thrones’: A to Z guideAhead of season seven, here’s everything you need to know about the ground-breaking fantasy dramaSat Jul 08 2017 - 06:00
Dara Ó Briain: ‘When I say ‘Irish’, I mean ‘Bosco Irish’’The ‘Mock the Week’ host on Irishness, Britishness and life as the voice of reasonSat Jul 08 2017 - 05:00
Half-time report: the must-see TV of the year so farAnd with an ennui-filled wave of my cigarette holder, I present the best television shows of 2017, so farWed Jul 05 2017 - 14:02
Satirising Donald Trump: ‘It’s a struggle just to keep up’Cartoonist Dan Perkins: It’s hard coming up with something crazier than what's actually going onTue Jul 04 2017 - 06:00
Justin Trudeau and nine other ‘hot politicians’The Canadian prime minister is visiting Ireland. Is he the most lusted-after modern leader?Mon Jul 03 2017 - 09:49
Neil Jordan should stop worrying and learn to love RivieraNeil ‘Big Deal’ Jordan has disowned the hit drama, but we’re not certain that his version would have been any betterThu Jun 29 2017 - 22:00
The appeal of Phil Collins? It's his friendly, happy facePhil Collins, who plays Dublin on Sunday, is hip again – but for Patrick Freyne he always wasFri Jun 23 2017 - 10:20
‘Please make this stop’: The terrible play you won’t want to missThe actors occasionally get into physical fights with one another or get knocked unconscious by malfunctioning propsFri Jun 23 2017 - 06:00
The Crystal Maze: the best children’s programme ever made for adultsRemember Mumsy, the strange lady in the Medieval Zone who divined the future?Thu Jun 22 2017 - 14:01
From Bosco to TK to farmer’s tan: the true touchstones of Irish cultureNever mind Beckett or Joyce or Sinéad O’Connor or Love/Hate, these are the things that truly make us IrishWed Jun 21 2017 - 13:30
How touching: The evolution of the man-hugYoung men now touch each other more than in the 1990s, and it’s intimate not sexualSat Jun 17 2017 - 06:00
Poldark: He’s so fertile, I may have got pregnant watching himThe melodramatic, gripping, entertaining series is back, writes Patrick FreyneSun Jun 11 2017 - 22:38
‘Wire’ creator David Simon: ‘Our systems are under siege’TV writer on decline of journalism, rise of Trump and bringing the Pogues to the stageSat Jun 10 2017 - 05:00
Matthew Perry as Ted Kennedy: the fake nose and ears are not a good lookMeanwhile, Katie Holmes dons an enchanted Jackie Kennedy wig that gives the bearer notionsWed Jun 07 2017 - 13:25
‘Kill All Normies’: the alt-right’s new turnThe movement that began as a collective of trolls and anti-feminists is changing againSat Jun 03 2017 - 06:00
House of Cards: He’s much better than the actual US presidentFrank and Claire Underwood’s return is a reminder of a time before the TrumpocalyseTue May 30 2017 - 11:01
‘I was born to rule.’ Daenerys Targaryan as Simon CoveneyThe new ‘Game of Thrones’ trailer features dragons, sexy bits and millennial entitlementThu May 25 2017 - 06:45
Andrew Neil’s interview with Theresa May proves the universe is godlessBritain is just a pawn in the British PM’s hellmouth game, but at least David McWilliams can laugh in the face of the apocalypseWed May 24 2017 - 17:31
'I'd never met anyone from Blackrock before'Inner-city Dublin teenagers and boys from Blackrock College meet every week to make music and gain a greater understanding of each other’s livesFri May 19 2017 - 06:00
The shows that changed television foreverThe imminent reboot of Twin Peaks makes this a damn fine time to look at some other groundbreaking TV showsThu May 18 2017 - 05:00
Eurovision: Portugal's sibling act wins over the cynics‘Yes, Eurovision is silly but if you dislike it you’re basically a monster’Sun May 14 2017 - 00:19
‘Have you noticed that Eurovision is very popular with gay people?’For once, music and fun takes pride of place ahead of politics in UkraineFri May 12 2017 - 18:07
Irish Eurovision hopes go up, up and away as Murray fails to make finalVocalist, managed by Louis Walsh, says Kiev experience the ‘best 3 minutes of my life’Thu May 11 2017 - 19:37
Eurovision 2017: Bookies say our national disgrace will continue in tonight's semi-finalPatrick Freyne: The odds are not looking good that 'sweet-voiced infant balloonist' Brendan Murray will make it to the finalThu May 11 2017 - 12:35
Brendan Murray: Boy in a balloon chasing the Eurovision bubbleThe 20-year-old hopes to rise above the competition in the second semi-final in KievWed May 10 2017 - 18:55
Patrick Freyne on Eurovision 2017: Kiev locals on ‘cleaning the past’‘Eurovision is just entertainment, but it is important. It shows life is almost as usual’Tue May 09 2017 - 21:13
Eurovision 2017: more than Pride at stake for KievAs a gay activist, Zoryan Kis knows how dangerous life can be in UkraineMon May 08 2017 - 13:34
Daniel O’Donnell: ‘I’m cleverer than people think’Patrick Freyne meets the singer and the fans who would ‘smother their mother’ for himSat Apr 22 2017 - 06:00
I’m sick of stupid TV shows - the ad breaks are so much more meaningfulYou can learn a lot reading between the lines during the telly ad breaksThu Apr 20 2017 - 16:39
Dr Who is back in our dimension, and he’s hiring. Quick, somebody call HRThe Doctor encounters a cosmic puddle in need of help – and then the Daleks roll upSun Apr 16 2017 - 20:47
Serving Ronnie Drew fake G&Ts on Good FridayFormer owner of O’Donoghue’s pub Dessie Hynes recalls other Good FridaysFri Apr 14 2017 - 01:00
Eurovision’s political scandals – From Franco to Syrian flagsRussia and Ukraine are not the only countries with form when it comes to Eurovision controveryWed Apr 05 2017 - 14:35
Dragon’s Den is not the fire-breathing, wad-waving wealthfest it used to beNowadays, it has all the pizzazz of a business studies course and could be plausibly renamed Rich People Doing SumsWed Apr 05 2017 - 13:37
‘When I was cold I’d go into churches and betting shops for hours to stay warm’Homeless musician Danny Bracken to join stars for Rock Against HomelessnessFri Mar 31 2017 - 06:00
Why Rock Against Homelessness mattersOf Ireland’s more than 7,000 homeless people about one-third are childrenFri Mar 31 2017 - 06:00
'I laughed out loud at Mrs Brown's chat show. In The Irish Times. Near where Fintan sits'All Round to Mrs Brown's is the kind of programme it's possible to love and hate at the same timeWed Mar 29 2017 - 22:37
Piers Morgan meets Nigel Farage? ‘Oh God, it’s too much’Patrick Freyne: Zippy flaps his muppety head in rage when George brings up UKIP’s racist and homophobic viewsTue Mar 21 2017 - 22:22
‘Julia does things differently’: Sesame Street’s muppet with autismThrough new character, children will learn not to be frightened by certain behaviourMon Mar 20 2017 - 13:20
Who wants to live forever? Transhumanism’s promise of eternal lifeMark O’Connell has spent several years talking to people who want to live through robots and technology, and he admits it stems from his own obsession with deathSat Mar 18 2017 - 05:00
Wounds do not always heal easily, Casey mourners toldFormer bishop’s good works remembered before burial in Galway cathedral cryptThu Mar 16 2017 - 20:12
