{"id":389331,"date":"2026-03-17T08:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/389331\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T08:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:55:15","slug":"the-best-and-worst-irish-tv-shows-ever-made-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/389331\/","title":{"rendered":"The best and worst Irish TV shows ever made \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland excels at a lot of things. Literature. Preachy rock stars. Potato-based snacks. But in television<\/a> we have long punched below our weight: compare and contrast our history of underachievement on the small screen with the ambitious, cutting-edge TV produced by nations of a similar size, from Borgen<\/a> (Denmark) to Wellington Paranormal (New Zealand). Still, gold has occasionally twinkled amid the dross \u2013 with the unfortunate caveat that much of the best \u201cIrish\u201d programming has been funded with international (often British) money. So rest your shillelagh, put your feet up and read on as we bring you the 10 best Irish TV shows of all time \u2013 and then take a deep breath as we run through the five worst.<\/p>\n

The 10 best Irish TV shows of all time10. Normal People (2020)\"NormalNormal People: Paul Mescal as Connell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne. Photograph: Enda Bowe\/Element Pictures <\/p>\n

Fuelled by the raw star power of a then-unknown Paul Mescal<\/a> and Daisy Edgar-Jones<\/a>, Lenny Abrahamson<\/a>\u2019s Sally Rooney<\/a> adaptation became a lockdown sensation<\/a> \u2013 a surreal turn of events for a show that features Mescal playing a star corner forward on the school football team and where a character not being asked to the debs is a major plot point.<\/p>\n

9. Strumpet City (1980)\"StrumpetStrumpet City: David Kelly as Rashers Tierney and Brendan Cauldwell as \u2018Toucher\u2019 Hennessy. Photograph: Mary Lee\/RT\u00c9 <\/p>\n

RT\u00c9<\/a> could do costume drama as well as anyone else back in the day, as illustrated by this 1980 adaptation of James Plunkett\u2019s 1969 novel set during the Dublin<\/a> lockout and starring a top-tier cast headed by Peter O\u2019Toole<\/a>, Peter Ustinov and David Kelly. Decades before Julian Fellowes, it was Dublin doing Downton Abbey<\/a>, with hearty spoonfuls of Ken Loach<\/a> social commentary sprinkled through.<\/p>\n

8. Bosco (1979-87)\"Bosco:Bosco: The puppet\u2019s cultural clout has carried on into the 21st century <\/p>\n

Perhaps the most influential Irish children\u2019s series of all time, Bosco<\/a> and regular segments such as the Magic Door, not to mention the melancholic hedgehog Gregory Gr\u00e1inneog, are seared into the imagination of everyone who grew up in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

But Bosco\u2019s cultural clout has carried on into the 21st century: show any Irish person a red-headed puppet sitting in a box and they\u2019ll immediately recognise the Australian artist Jan Mitchell\u2019s design. Which is why Bosco makes the list ahead of (the arguably equally influential) Zig and Zag<\/a> on The Den<\/a>, or the Beckettian brilliance of Podge and Rodge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

7. The Late Late Show (1962-)\"TheThe Late Late Show: Gay Byrne and Sinead O’Connor on May 21st, 1999. Photograph: David Conachy\/Independent News and Media\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Drama generally ages better than factual television, hence the emphasis on scripted TV in this countdown. But in terms of cultural impact it\u2019s impossible to overestimate The Late Late Show<\/a>. In the Gay Byrne<\/a> decades it dragged Ireland kicking and screaming into the modern era (even if Byrne\u2019s condescending interviewing style has not aged well, particularly with women guests). That was followed by the Pat Kenny<\/a> \u201cRobopat\u201d years, then Ryan Tubridy<\/a>, who helped turn the annual Christmas Toy Show into a national phenomenon \u2013 only to spoil it all by swearing at a bottle of Fanta<\/a> on live TV.<\/p>\n

6. When Reason Sleeps (1987)<\/p>\n

There was something a bit weird and creepy about mid-1980s Ireland \u2013 all those moving statues and bottles of Cidona that looked like they\u2019d been liberated from a crypt before being pressed into your confused 10-year-old hands. That uncanniness was wonderfully tapped by this obscure and unjustly forgotten anthology produced by RT\u00c9 and Channel 4<\/a>, which captured an Ireland at the peak of its \u201ceerie \u00c9ire\u201d phase \u2013 a sort of Grand Guignol snapshot of this forlorn Gubu purgatory.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The days of families huddling around The Late Late Show or Glenroe are gone \u2013 and that\u2019s no bad thingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

5. Glenroe (1983-2001)<\/p>\n

Was Glenroe a quality drama? Lost to the mists of history, it is impossible to have a measured opinion on the Wicklow<\/a>-set soap, a pillar of 1980s popular culture. But it is nonetheless important to acknowledge its significance, both for the programme\u2019s steamy shenanigans \u2013 Hugh Hefner had nothing on Dick Moran of the ever-wandering gaze \u2013 and for its impact on a generation who genuinely felt an existential crush each Sunday as the theme tune spelt the end of the weekend and the onset of the dreaded Monday morning, back-to-school blues. All these decades on, swathes of Irish society will still be triggered by those opening notes: the fun is over and it\u2019s time for an early night and who knows what the following morning.<\/p>\n

4. Bad Sisters (2022-24)\"BadBad Sisters: Sarah Greene, Eva Birthistle, Sharon Horgan, Anne-Marie Duff and Eve Hewson. Photograph: Apple TV <\/p>\n

Scenic coastal Dublin was the perfect backdrop for a tale of sisterly love, middle-class skulduggery and a toxic English brother-in-law \u2013 with this dark comedy<\/a> elevated further by Sharon Horgan<\/a>\u2019s brilliantly zinging script. Debuting on Apple TV<\/a>, it is that rare streaming show set in Ireland that did not dive headfirst into caricature. If only Netflix<\/a>\u2019s dire Bodkin<\/a> and hellish House of Guinness<\/a> had demonstrated the same care and respect.<\/p>\n

3. Derry Girls (2018-22)\"DerryDerry Girls: Dylan Llewellyn, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Louisa Harland and Nicola Coughlan. Photograph: Jack Barnes\/Channel 4 <\/p>\n

Lisa McGee<\/a>\u2019s Troubles-set comedy was both a love letter to 1990s Ireland \u2013 the first thing we hear are the opening notes of The Cranberries\u2019 Dreams \u2013 and a reminder of how bleak humour helped ordinary people in the North<\/a> get through the decades-long conflict. <\/p>\n

The cast was a comedy tour de force, with Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Nicola Coughlan and Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney among those who have gone on to bigger things. <\/p>\n

But, whatever they achieve in the future, they will forever be synonymous with Derry Girls, a portrait of teen angst and yearning that also quietly reminded viewers of the horrors of the Troubles and the promise of a new tomorrow represented by the Belfast Agreement of 1998, as featured prominently in the finale.<\/p>\n

2. Father Ted (1995-98)\"FatherFather Ted: Dermot Morgan as the eponymous main character. Photograph: Channel 4 <\/p>\n

If Father Ted<\/a> seems whimsical and absurd today, in mid-1990s Ireland, Graham Linehan<\/a> and Arthur Mathews<\/a>\u2019s sitcom was essentially a documentary with a laughter track. Pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland really was that surreal, silly and priest-ridden \u2013 and Father Ted achieved television immortality by capturing the mad reality of living in a nation fuelled largely by magic realism, superstition and reinforcing cups of tea. <\/p>\n

It held a mirror up to a country living in a parallel dimension, decoupled from the rest of the world \u2013 a sort of Craggy Island of the soul \u2013 and suggested that, instead of giving in to despair, it was better to laugh at ourselves.<\/p>\n

1. Love\/Hate (2010-14)\"Love\/Hate:Love\/Hate: Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Nigel \u2018Nidge\u2019 Delaney <\/p>\n

Ireland had become Nidge Country by the time Tom Vaughan-Lawlor<\/a>\u2019s charismatic gangster was bumped off in the final season of Stuart Carolan\u2019s slick gangland thriller<\/a>. Stylish, glossy and with the best ever cast for an RT\u00c9 drama \u2013 Vaughan-Lawlor was joined by Barry Keoghan<\/a>, Charlie Murphy, Ruth Negga, Aidan Gillen and Caoilfhionn Dunne<\/a>, among others \u2013 Love\/Hate brought Hollywood dazzle to Sunday nights on RT\u00c9. <\/p>\n

Carolan would go on to become showrunner of The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, Netflix\u2019s Gilded Age murder mystery, where he worked with Daniel Br\u00fchl, Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning. Keoghan would quickly graduate to Oscar-nominated stardom. But still the question has lingered: might Love\/Hate return?<\/p>\n

The degree to which the series continues to overshadow Irish drama was confirmed when Vaughan-Lawlor was promoting RT\u00c9\u2019s recent social satire These Sacred Vows<\/a> and found himself batting again and again the question of whether Love\/Hate and the gunned-down Nidge might rise from the grave. His tantalising answer was that you can never say never.<\/p>\n

The five worst Irish TV shows of all time5. Rebellion (2016)<\/p>\n

The anniversary of the Easter Rising<\/a> was the perfect opportunity for RT\u00c9 to show it could do serious historical drama with all the trimmings. Instead it botched the assignment with this confused take<\/a> on the struggle for Irish independence, which managed to turn the fight against Britain into a feature-length snooze and then went and spoiled it all over again by reducing \u00c9amon de Valera<\/a> to a cartoon villain, simplifying a complex and contradictory politician to a mere punching bag.<\/p>\n

4. The Big Bow Wow (2004)<\/p>\n

Irish people are great at comedy \u2013 until RT\u00c9 becomes involved, at which point all trace of wit or creativity is drained. For proof see … any Montrose sitcom ever made, but especially this disastrous attempt at drawing a yoof audience from the darkest days of the pre-crash, late-period Celtic Tiger.<\/p>\n

3. Fade Street (2010-11)<\/p>\n

You could write an entire article about Irish television\u2019s plunge into an abyss of terrible reality TV in the 2000s \u2013 other examples include F\u00e1ilte Towers<\/a> (appalling), Celebrity Farm<\/a> (atrocious) and Tallafornia<\/a> (there is no life in the void). But the broadcasting biscuit is snatched by this sorry RT\u00c9 stab at capturing the lives of fashion-obsessed millennials (including a young Vogue Williams<\/a>).<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The 2 Johnnies \u2013 what you get if you feed Ant and Dec a Tayto sandwich after midnightOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

2. The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In (2023-)<\/p>\n

Do you enjoy \u201cthe craic\u201d? Might you describe a talented GAA athlete as \u201cplaying county\u201d rather than simply saying they line out for Cork or Kerry or whoever? Will you be the first to join in whenever two or more strangers launch into a chorus of \u201cOl\u00e9, ol\u00e9, ol\u00e9\u201d at a public gathering? Then you are the target audience for this sanity-scalding bungee jump<\/a> into performative \u201cboggerdom\u201d.<\/p>\n

1. Mrs Brown\u2019s Boys (2011-)\"MrsMrs Brown\u2019s Boys: Susie Blake as Hilary Nicholson and Brendan O\u2019Carroll as Agnes Brown. Photograph: BBC <\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t that Brendan O\u2019Carroll<\/a>\u2019s knockabout Irish-mammy routine is inherently awful, though many would argue that it is. It\u2019s just that the gulf between its lowest-denominator, fnarr-fnarr humour and its blockbuster popularity<\/a> is hard to come to terms with. This is our great contribution to 21st-century light entertainment? We might as well all throw in the towel and contemplate the futility of existence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland excels at a lot of things. Literature. Preachy rock stars. Potato-based snacks. But in television we have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[137426,593,141020,177802,69378,130650,153185,177803,25366,18,117,177804,93158,29684,19,17,51032,37687,134621,24320,23432,177805,1181,45954,26666,7406,2956,58035,36477,85396,39938,145108,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-389331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-aidan-gillen","9":"tag-apple-tv","10":"tag-ardal-o-hanlon","11":"tag-arthur-mathews","12":"tag-barry-keoghan","13":"tag-brendan-o-carroll","14":"tag-caoilfhionn-dunne","15":"tag-dermot-morgan","16":"tag-eamon-de-valera","17":"tag-eire","18":"tag-entertainment","19":"tag-frank-kelly","20":"tag-gay-byrne","21":"tag-graham-linehan","22":"tag-ie","23":"tag-ireland","24":"tag-lisa-mcgee","25":"tag-listicles","26":"tag-nicola-coughlan","27":"tag-pat-kenny","28":"tag-paul-mescal","29":"tag-pauline-mclynn","30":"tag-rte","31":"tag-ruth-negga","32":"tag-ryan-tubridy","33":"tag-sally-rooney","34":"tag-saoirse-monica-jackson","35":"tag-sharon-horgan","36":"tag-siobhan-mcsweeney","37":"tag-st-patricks-day","38":"tag-the-2-johnnies","39":"tag-tom-vaughan-lawlor","40":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}