Pick of the Week
The Late Late Toy Show
Friday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
To festivity – and beyond! Patrick Kielty launches his third mission as Toy Show commander, and RTÉ are promising this year’s show is going to be out of this world – literally. This year Kielty is going where no Toy Show host has gone before as the annual telly extravaganza blasts off with an outer space theme. Well, that’s what we believe, having seen the Toy Show spaceship with our own two eyes on the official trailer.
But do aliens even know it’s Christmas? They’ll know soon enough when Commander Kielty and his crew of super-talented kids set course for a starry, starry night of extraplanetary song and dance – and, of course, toys galore. The festive force will be strong with this lot on Friday night as they try out the latest high-tech gizmos from the future, along with some old-fashioned toys from way back in the 21st century.
Families from Tallaght to Tatooine will be tuning in on Friday night, and there’s sure to be a galaxy of celebrity guests beaming down to join in the fun and games. And there’s a first in store this year as live audio description will make the show more accessible to kids across the solar system, with Irish Sign Language (ISL) available on the RTÉ News Channel and on the RTÉ Player.
Last year’s Toy Show was watched by more than 1.6 million earthlings across the weekend, and almost €5 million was raised through the Toy Show Appeal. This year, Commander Kielty and his crew will be on a mission to take that total even higher.
READ MORE
Highlights
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal
Sunday, RTÉ One, 7.30pm
The countdown is on for this year’s space-themed Late Late Toy Show, and while we wait for lift-off on Friday, here’s a reminder that the year’s biggest telly event doesn’t happen in a void. Unwrapped celebrates the children and families who have felt the very positive impact of the annual Toy Show Appeal, which has raised more than €26 million since its launch in 2020. This is money donated by viewers of The Late Late Toy show, and it goes to charities that support children and families who need it most. During this hour-long programme, we’ll see how the Crann Centre has helped wheelchair user Lucy Kelly from Cork to live a fuller life despite disability, and how Barretstown Bereavement Camp is helping families grieving the loss of a parent.
New Wave: Ireland’s Young Surfers
Monday, RTÉ2, 5pm
Are you a grom? As any major surfing dude will tell you, groms are young, novice surfers, inexperienced at riding the waves but eager to learn and become a true “ripper”. This series follows a group of Irish groms as they catch the Atlantic waves and chase national titles – and a coveted place on Team Ireland to compete in the European Championships in Portugal. Ireland may not have a Waikiki Beach or a Bondi Beach, but that won’t stop Josh, Ruby, Tom, Evelyn, Isabella and Georgi from giving it their best shot. However, as the first episode begins, the surfers are stopped in their tracks by an unusually calm ocean, forcing competitions to be postponed. But while the groms wait onshore for the waves to whip up again, tensions and rivalries within the group start to surface.
Say Nothing
Monday, Channel 4, 9pm
There are several threads to this controversial series, first aired on Disney+ last year, which is set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s. Based on the bestseller by the investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, of The New Yorker magazine, it tells the story of the Price sisters, Dolours and Marian, who became key figures in the IRA, taking part in a bombing campaign in London that included the bombing of the Old Bailey in 1973. Dolours also claimed to have been involved in the abduction and murder of mother of 10 Jean McConville, an event that provides the harrowing opening for a series exploring the huge human cost of a code of silence, and how the violence of the past casts a long shadow on the present. Lola Petticrew and Hazel Doupe play Dolours and Marian, with Maxine Peake as an older Dolours, Anthony Boyle as the IRA commander Brendan Hughes, and Josh Finan as Gerry Adams.
Born in Belfast: A Hip Hop Story
Monday, BBC One, 10.40pm
This half-hour documentary from Lindsay Entertainment and Yolk Films tells the story of how Belfast became a hip-hop hub, as young people took a global genre and reshaped it to tell their own stories of life in a northern Irish town. It’s no surprise to learn that hip hop has thrived in Belfast – after all, it was also a hotbed of pioneering punk almost 50 years ago. The programme features performances and interviews with key acts on the Belfast hip-hop scene, including early pioneer Jun Tzu and the current superstars of the scene, Irish-language rap trio Kneecap.
Mammoth
Monday, BBC Two, 11pm
Tony Mammoth is back and still stuck in a 1970s time warp, in this second series of the BBC sitcom starring Mike Bubbins as the mustachioed dinosaur reeking of Old Spice and old-fashioned values that went out with the dodo. You know the story: having disappeared in an avalanche in 1979, Tony is found nearly 50 years later, encased in a block of ice. After he thaws out, he finds himself in an unfamiliar world of woke politics, gender equality and diversity, but decides to carry on wearing Old Spice and driving a Ford Capri, and generally being an unreconstructed, woolly-headed chauvinist. Series two promises more culture clashes and bad dad jokes as Tony deals with more modern family issues. Sian Gibson returns as Tony’s daughter, Mel, with Al Roberts joining the cast as Mel’s new love interest, Matthew.
Roddy Doyle: Fighting Words
Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
Back in 2009, author Roddy Doyle and former Amnesty International chief Sean Love started a new initiative to spark creativity among Irish schoolchildren and let their imaginations run riot on the page. Fighting Words began life as a small creative-writing centre under Croke Park stadium, and has grown into a powerful platform for kids to make their voices heard. This observational documentary, directed by Ross Whitaker, follows Fighting Words as it embarks on an ambitious programme, The Book Project, in which transition-year students from inner-city and Deis schools take on the challenge of writing and publishing a book of short stories over the school year. This year’s class is from Coláiste Eoin in Finglas, and they’ll learn a lot about themselves and the art of writing as they try to complete their book before school’s out.
Neven’s Christmas in Limerick
Thursday, RTÉ One, 8pm
Celebrity chef Neven Maguire is not one for staying in during the holiday season, preferring to get out and about, exploring a city and meeting some of its top chefs, foodies and artisan producers. And amid the busy flurry up to Christmas 2025, Maguire will be hanging out in lovely Limerick for this two-part special with a focus on festive food and drink. Maguire says he was “delighted” to get to know the city and all the good folk creating culinary joy to the world. “I was inspired by the people I met. They were so welcoming and proud of what they do, and where they come from.”
In this first episode, Maguire meets Antón Togher of century-old craft butchers O’Connell’s, famous for its Limerick Christmas Ham. Then it’s off to the Milk Market, which has been trading since 1852, followed by a visit to the historic St Mary’s Cathedral, where he meets the dean, the Very Rev Niall Sloane, and is treated to a special carol performance in the cathedral by An Cór Chamber Choir.
Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas
Thursday, Channel 4, 8pm
Every December, Kirstie Allsopp shows us how to make wonderful handcrafted decorations and displays to enhance our homes and create a Christmassy vibe and I ask myself, where would I find the time in this busy season to make all these fab festive adornments? But now that AI has taken over all the journalism jobs, I’ll have lots of time on my hands this Christmas, so I’ll be getting out the scissors and fabric and getting stuck in to some serious crafting, with help from Allsopp and her team of talented experts. Let’s see AI try to make a wooden gingerbread man wreath without getting its fingers all in a knot.
Streaming
The Abandons
From Thursday, December 4th, Netflix
Get ready for the mother of all showdowns as Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson face off in a deadly duel over land, family and the American dream. Headey and Anderson play widowed rival matriarchs in the lawless frontier Washington Territory in 1854. Anderson plays Constance, head of the wealthy, privileged and ruthless Van Ness dynasty, who have become rich from their silver-mining industry; Headey is Fiona Nolan, who is fiercely protective of her found family of orphans and outcasts, and is looking to put down roots in the region. As Constance’s empire expands, she sets her sights on Jasper Hollow, the cattle ranch Fiona has built on silver-rich land, but Fiona is determined not to be driven away from her new home, sparking off a battle for control and, ultimately, survival.
The New Yorker at 100
From Friday, December 5th, Netflix
The New Yorker magazine has been renowned for a century as a beacon of uncompromising journalism, literary fiction and cultural discourse. So you can be sure Donald Trump is not a reader. As the eminent publication approaches its 100th birthday, journalism is under attack from the Trump administration, and this documentary, directed and produced by Academy award-winner Marshall Curry, follows the magazine’s editor David Remnick and his staff as they prepare to publish their 100th anniversary issue. We’ll meet the editors, writers, photographers and artists, and also their crack squad of fact-checkers, as they race to meet the deadline in time for this significant milestone. The documentary will feature contributions from the likes of Jesse Eisenberg, Ronny Chieng and Molly Ringwald, and the programme is narrated by Julianne Moore.
