Patrick Freyne: Why ‘Room to Improve’ makes me feel so patrioticUnderpromising, vaguely defeatist, un-triumphalist and un-specific (and that's just the title) – what could be more Irish?Thu Feb 11 2016 - 12:44
Patrick Freyne: My male friends are all feelings, my female friends are thugsThe most lasting friendships are based on shared interests and values and humour, not the possession of similarly shaped genitalsThu Feb 11 2016 - 10:00
Patrick Freyne: Why ‘Room to Improve’ makes me feel so patrioticIt’s underpromising, vaguely defeatist, un-triumphalist and un-specific – what could be more Irish?Tue Feb 09 2016 - 15:58
The end is nigh for The Good Wife – it’s still the best thing on TVIn 2014 I wrote that the legal drama was the best show around – the news of its demise, and a few dodgy seasons since, haven’t changed my mindMon Feb 08 2016 - 13:09
TV review: The Jump - Cheryl, Bryan and Rickaaay tremble before Ice Queen DavinaCelebrities dressed in multi-coloured onesies being hurtled to their potential death? Channel 4’s winter-sports reality show really should be more fun than thisWed Feb 03 2016 - 14:35
The X-Files review: Scully science-sighs while Mulder mansplainsGillian Anderson and David Duchovny reopen The X-Files, but this one seems like a conspiracy too farFri Jan 29 2016 - 12:13
The Irish actor, the Iraqi producer and the gangster film scamWhen Aoife Madden met Bashar al-Issa they ended up swindling the UK government out of millions through their aptly named movie ‘Landscape of Lies’Sat Jan 23 2016 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne: Turning Tolstoy into an action-packed teen dramaThree episodes in and Patrick Freyne is really enjoying Andrew Davies’s six-part adaptation of War and PeaceWed Jan 20 2016 - 13:07
PJ Mara on his screen persona: ‘Colin Firth should play me’Colin Teevan – screenwriter for the 2015 TV series ‘Charlie’ – recalls meeting the late Government press secretary PJ Mara while researching the scriptFri Jan 15 2016 - 13:50
Making a murderer with Derren BrownPushed to the Edge is an elaborate ruse in which unsuspecting strangers are coaxed into what they think is murder by mentalist Derren Brown. It’s an experiment. And it’s depraved.Wed Jan 13 2016 - 13:40
Broke, hungover, lambless – the new year can only get betterNew year resolutions are less altruistic than in the past, and 88 per cent of them get broken anyway, but maybe 2016 is the year to show a new resolveFri Jan 01 2016 - 11:00
Ideas for 2016: A year to write a songGreat songs tend to be about something, although you can always go with some gobbledegook and then make sense of it laterWed Dec 30 2015 - 06:00
Doom, gloom, wombs and tombs: Old Moore’s 2015After a year of analysing the predictions of Old Moore’s Almanac, there are some things we can confidently say the deathless soothsayer enjoysMon Dec 28 2015 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne’s 2015: Don’t let them spoonfeed you – dish out your own artIf 2015 has taught me anything, it’s that art is not a spectator sport – everyone can join inSat Dec 19 2015 - 13:00
Patrick Freyne: Bah humbug to Christmas - it was so much better in the olden daysSome Yuletide traditions warm the heart and bring people together, and some are abominations against all that is good in the world. Which do you prefer?Thu Dec 17 2015 - 13:32
How to write a Christmas hit and get rich (fingers crossed)Can just anyone write a Christmas hit and essentially ‘win the lottery’ by coining it on royalties every December? Patrick Freyne and Anna Carey certainly hope so. Here's the story of their entry in the Christmas FM song contestSat Dec 12 2015 - 19:00
Pet detectives: meet the new network helping to find lost dogsThere has been an online revolution in how lost dogs are tracked, writes Patrick FreyneSat Dec 12 2015 - 16:00
Patrick Freyne: the 20 television trends of 2015 that kept us watchingUTV Ireland launched, Vincent Browne went to the George, superheroes were everywhere, Netflix came of age ... yes, it was a very good year for telly addictsThu Dec 10 2015 - 22:46
How Old Moore got on with his predictions for NovemberHis declarations could be apocalyptic or amusing, but Old Moore and his almanac keep churning them outFri Dec 04 2015 - 06:00
What should we do in the event of a nuclear war?Patrick Freyne consults the apocalyptic fiction of his youthWed Dec 02 2015 - 17:34
Hunger pains: The realities of food povertyWeekend Read: When money’s tight and rent and mortgage payments still have to be made, food is where increasing numbers are cutting back, leading to a food poverty epidemicFri Nov 27 2015 - 13:00
Blindspot and Jessica Jones review: two very different takes on high-concept TVNew TV series Blindspot is high on concept but makes no allowances for your intelligence, while Netflix's Jessica Jones offers a refreshing new take on the avenging hero tropeWed Nov 25 2015 - 15:55
Nothing can hold a candle to TV ads of Christmas pastFrom helmet-haired devil children to horses with legwarmers and a young Alan Hughes, there's a lot to terrify in Yuletide adverts of oldThu Nov 19 2015 - 06:00
Neil Strauss: ‘I look at the pickup-artist world like college. I went there and learned a lot and left’Strauss made his name with ‘The Game’, his account of the art of picking up women – and of group sex. Now he’s married with a baby and has been treated for his sex addiction. So what’s his new life like?Sat Nov 14 2015 - 14:00
Richard Dawkins: ‘There are people for whom truth doesn’t matter’The geneticist best known for his book ‘The Selfish Gene’ has always been driven by ‘a love of truth, a love of clarity and an almost physical discomfort at obscurity’Sat Nov 14 2015 - 10:00
Patrick Freyne: after the apocalypse, Teletubbies will be the apex predatorIf the BBC reboot is to believed, the future belongs to these obese, furry, hazmat-suit-wearing innocents with arcane symbols on their heads and a limited vocabularyWed Nov 11 2015 - 17:28
Edna O’Brien: ‘I was lonely, cut off from the dance of life’The controversial author’s latest novel sees a woman fall for an outsider with a dark pastSat Nov 07 2015 - 04:30
Old Moore was not telling porkies after allBacon was sizzling news this month, as were Biblical revelations, though real estate orbiting an alien star was a stretch of several light yearsFri Nov 06 2015 - 06:00
Long-banned chapters of Judge Dredd battling Ronald McDonald to be publishedBanned 2000AD chapters featuring parodies of Ronald McDonald, the Burger King, the Michelin Man and the Jolly Green Giant to see the light of day after three decadesWed Nov 04 2015 - 16:16
Patrick Freyne: Ireland’s fittest families are not like you and me - they're terrifyingAmazingly, these people are volunteers and this is a competition devised by those evil geniuses at RTÉWed Nov 04 2015 - 13:54
Patrick Freyne: Supergirl is devoid of angst, formulaic, silly... and awesomeIs it a bird? Is it a plane? Hell no, it's a plucky white female with godlike powers trying to make it in the big cityThu Oct 29 2015 - 22:00
Oliver Plunkett Street in Cork: Ireland’s best?The second city’s second street is the only one in Ireland to be shortlisted for a Great Street Award by a London-based academy. Is it a good choice?Mon Oct 26 2015 - 06:00
Irish craft beer goes mainstreamWith their ‘achingly hip’ ales, small brewers have created a mini industry. Now big players want to be part of the success storyFri Oct 23 2015 - 13:20
Patrick Freyne: Celebrity red carpet traffic jam - and the IftasNotable winners include Sharon Horgan, Baz Ashmawy and Brendan O’CarrollThu Oct 22 2015 - 22:58
Patrick Freyne: Don't fear the zombie apocalypse, it's going to be great craicThe Walking Dead, Z Nation, The Returned - there’s a lot of fun to be had with the living dead on television right nowWed Oct 21 2015 - 16:40
Rufus Wainwright: ‘I’ve enjoyed experiencing everything. Get married. Have kids. Do drugs. Not in that order’Interview: Wainwright’s desire to live stopped him from going the way of Kurt Cobain or Elliott Smith, and he has since found stability as a family man and opera composerFri Oct 16 2015 - 06:00
Rejoice, the disgustingly ambitious have gathered once more to laugh at the jokes of Lord SugarThe Apprentice is back, and features yet another 18 people who seem to have caught Thatcherism from a dirty pie-chartThu Oct 15 2015 - 21:45
Cecelia Ahern: ‘I’m not saying I’m Anne Enright’Her new novel, The Marble Collector, tells the story of a father and daughter from Drumcondra. She talks about panic attacks and her place in the literary hierarchyMon Oct 12 2015 - 06:00
Exiles on Main Street: the homeless of Grafton StreetOf the 150 people sleeping rough in the middle of Dublin, about 20 spend the night on Grafton Street – living quiet, stressed, lonely lives amid its bustling commerce. We meet Paul, Robert, Tara, James and others who have a swanky address but little elseSat Oct 10 2015 - 08:00
If Downton Abbey is going to end on a high, the revolution will need to be bloodyThree shows into season six and Downton is in a rut - it’s time for a changeWed Oct 07 2015 - 21:50
Seán Moncrieff: ‘Irish people don’t deal with failure that well’Moncrieff, whose new book is about the paradox of Irishness, talks about his own identity, the ‘village mentality’ at RTÉ and how the internet brings out ‘performance piety’ in peopleFri Oct 02 2015 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne: “Once I denounced Strictly; but it’s all that stands between us and annihilation by Emperor Cowell”While the BBC's 'Strictly Come Dancing' trots along the lighter side of light entertainment, 'The X Factor' firmly belongs to the dark sideWed Sept 30 2015 - 14:24
Ray D’Arcy: ‘We need a discussion about public service broadcasting’After 14 years with Today FM, Ray D’Arcy has returned to RTÉ for a radio show and upcoming TV chat show, and he is ‘hyper aware’ of the culture difference between the two stationsFri Sept 25 2015 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne: 'If you could travel back in time to kill, would you stop with just one enemy?'Peter Capaldi’s grumpy, universe-weary Doctor Who is back on our screens, and like many healthcare professionals, he's chosen to endlessly wander time and space rather than work for the HSE.Thu Sept 24 2015 - 14:00
Was this David Cameron’s piggest mistake?Patrick Freyne: In my opinion, being part of a club that trashed restaurants and used their wealth to buy their way out of trouble was far worseMon Sept 21 2015 - 15:50
Patrick Freyne: Despite the solid presence of The Rock, HBO’s new “comedy” Ballers stomps across very shaky groundDwayne “The Rock” Johnson looks like an Easter Island head on top of an upside down triangleThu Sept 17 2015 - 06:00
Barbara (83): ‘I light candles because they make me feel somebody is here’All the Lonely People: For Barbara, left behind by a faster and colder world, loneliness is a constant, unwelcome companionFri Sept 11 2015 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne on TV: ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ is like a less sexy version of ‘Carry On the Class System’Thu Sept 10 2015 - 12:36
Blur: Damon Albarn leaps off the stage and leads Saturday night | Electric PicnicIt was never Blur vs Oasis. It was always Blur vs BlurSun Sept 06 2015 - 15:52
Parquet Courts: a song dedicated to the people p***ing on the wall | Electric PicnicThee anti-festival, no-show-show band that can’t hide their inner glittery jacketSun Sept 06 2015 - 14:56
