{"id":628176,"date":"2026-08-09T06:23:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T06:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/628176\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T06:23:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T06:23:13","slug":"tv-guide-the-best-new-shows-to-watch-starting-tonight-the-irish-times-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/628176\/","title":{"rendered":"TV guide: the best new shows to watch, starting tonight \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pick of the WeekIn TimeMonday, RT\u00c9 One, 9.35pm<\/p>\n

Musician and producer D\u00f3nal Lunny<\/a> has had an incredible career. Born in Tullamore, he trained as a silversmith and goldsmith before going into music full-time. And what a life in music he\u2019s had, as this documentary \u2013 the first film account of his life, we\u2019re told \u2013 explores. For starters, Lunny was a key figure in the folk revival of the 1970s thanks to playing with the likes of Andy Irvine and in the bands Planxty, the Bothy Band and Moving Hearts (among others). After Moving Hearts broke up, he moved into producing, working with the likes of Elvis Costello<\/a>, U2<\/a>, Van Morrison<\/a>, Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor<\/a>, Paul Brady<\/a>, Baaba Maal, Kate Bush<\/a> and many more. This film looks at Lunny\u2019s long, ongoing creative career, his personal life and the changing backdrop of Irish society and culture during his time bringing folk music to new and exciting places. <\/p>\n

HighlightsVan Der Valk Sunday, ITV1, 8pm<\/p>\n

The fourth season of this Amsterdam-set series, which is loosely based on a series that ran from 1972\u20131992, is back with a new investigation. Police Commissioner Piet van der Valk (Marc Warren) and his team are called in to investigate the murder of an environmental campaigner, which occurs right before the Global Wildlife Congress is due to kick off. Of the potential suspects spotted on CCTV, one appears to be Cobie Stegenga. She\u2019s a singer who went missing and is presumed dead. But Cobie\u2019s own father, Marcus, has long believed she did not take her own life, as most assumed. So can he help Piet and the team crack the case, or will he be more of a hindrance? Meanwhile, van der Valk is dealing with his own troubles, such as insomnia.<\/p>\n

Martin and Roman\u2019s Irish Road Trip Monday, Channel 4, 8pm<\/p>\n

What is it about father and son duos taking trips abroad? The latest are actor and former Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp and his TV presenter\/podcaster son Roman, who set off on a road-trip around Ireland. Specifically, they set out to look at our country\u2019s \u201clegends, landscapes, mystery and history\u201d, of which they\u2019re sure to find plenty. While Martin is a believer, his son is more sceptical. Their journey begins in Cork, where they learn about the Queen of the Banshees, Cl\u00edodhna, visit Spike Island and (naturally) pop into a pub to do a spot of storytelling. <\/p>\n

Savage MountainTuesday, Sky Documentaries, 9pm\"NorwegianNorwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila <\/p>\n

Between 2022 and 2023, Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila broke records by speed-climbing the world\u2019s 14 highest mountains in just 92 days, sharing the achievement with her climbing partner, the Nepalese Tenjen Lama Sherpa. But the highs of her achievement came crashing down when footage from K2 showed climbers stepping over an injured Pakistani porter, Mohammad Hassan \u2013 an action which Harila denied. Understandably, such footage provoked a backlash and debates about ethics in the rush for mountaineers to break records. Savage Mountain follows Harila\u2019s journey, and looks at what happened after the K2 footage emerged. Harila herself said: \u201cWhile much has been said in the media, Savage Mountain gives space to the parts of the story that haven\u2019t been heard. I hope audiences will come away with a deeper understanding of the full picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Day in MayWednesday, RT\u00c9 One, 9.35pm\"ColinColin Murphy in A Day In May <\/p>\n

A decade on from the successful Marriage Equality Referendum, author Colin Murphy retraces the steps of the late reporter Charlie Bird<\/a>. Bird recorded a series of interviews at the time of the referendum, and Murphy sets out to discover whether the referendum delivered on its promises to the Irish people by talking to those same interviewees again. Murphy has also written a play based on Bird\u2019s interviews called A Day in May. Ten years after the momentous day, Murphy stops to look back at the roots of the referendum, what has changed in Irish society since and what we can still learn from it. <\/p>\n

A House Through Time Thursday, BBC Two, 9pm<\/p>\n

British-Nigerian historian David Olusoga began his career as a researcher and then producer before becoming a presenter in 2014. His work tends to look at the forgotten histories of people in Britain, and now his A House Through Time series returns for a sixth season, showing how much interest there is in Olusoga\u2019s take on history. This has a clever conceit because it uses one building to dive through layers of history. The current season is set at a property built in 1785 in Edinburgh\u2019s Calton Hill area. We\u2019ll meet an 18th-century church minister who helped French prisoners escape from Edinburgh Castle, a post office worker who became a spy and a world-famous sculptor.<\/p>\n

Frank Skinner: 30 Years of DirtFriday, Sky One, 9pm\"ComedianComedian Frank Skinner performing his show 30 Years of Dirt <\/p>\n

Comedian Frank Skinner has been on quite a journey over the last few years, from declaring some of his past jokes \u201coffensive\u201d to recognising he\u2019s been educated about what he calls \u201cwoke politics\u201d through becoming a parent and beginning to question his own work. That\u2019s surely positive news when some long-time comics are more entrenched in old-school opinions. Now comes his show 30 Years of Dirt, filmed as a brand-new stand-up special in front of a live audience at Soho Theatre Walthamstow. It\u2019s based on his long-running tour and sees Skinner looking back at his career, his failures at performing \u201cclean\u201d comedy and his feelings on growing older. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pick of the WeekIn TimeMonday, RT\u00c9 One, 9.35pm Musician and producer D\u00f3nal Lunny has had an incredible career.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[6016,265159,46412,18,79585,117,19,17,2770,22019,85259,253012,1181,944,4657,128,12844,3380,26706],"class_list":["post-628176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-channel-4","tag-charlie-bird","tag-donal-lunny","tag-eire","tag-elvis-costello","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-itv","tag-kate-bush","tag-martin-kemp","tag-paul-brady","tag-rte","tag-sinead-oconnor","tag-sky","tag-tv","tag-tv-guide","tag-u2","tag-van-morrison"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628176","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=628176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}