Culchiecore, bonkbusters, murder, more murder and Nationwide: What I’ve seen on TV in 2024
Patrick Freyne on the 2 Johnnies, Rivals, Say Nothing, Baby Reindeer and television trends of the past 12 months
Patrick Freyne: I am becoming a demotivational speaker – let’s all have an averagely productive December
I keep meeting people who are extremely burned out. I meet them so often that I’m beginning to think burnout is something that exists by design
‘Watch your step’: Steve Coogan takes Patrick Freyne backstage at Dr Strangelove
The comic actor is playing four parts in the new stage version of Stanley Kubrick’s film, which comes to Ireland in 2025
Wake up, people: Here’s what the mainstream media don’t want you to know about Christmas
From Santy and selection boxes to Christmas pudding and Mariah Carey, these are some of the truths you won’t hear elsewhere
Actor Edward Norton on environmental activism: ‘If you find it inconvenient, I think that’s precisely the f**king point’
Norton might be best known for his blockbuster Hollywood roles, but the actor is also a committed environmentalist and successful entrepreneur
Joan Baez: Do I ever hear from Bob Dylan? ‘Not a word’
Looking young and powerful at 83, Baez is still engaged in politics, but has recently revealed a dark secret
What do women want? A hunky idiot without a past, that’s what
Hot Frosty, Netflix’s latest reboot of The Snowman, at last brings some ‘hubba-hubba, vroom-vroom, arooooga!’ to Raymond Briggs’s family favourite
Read this before you vote: Patrick Freyne’s vibes-based guide to Election 2024
From HR Pufnstuf to Battlestar Galactica, what can we learn from political television shows through the ages before we go to the ballot box?
Patrick Freyne: My favourite corporate psy-ops of the season – or Christmas ads, as they’re called in the suburbs
Patrick Freyne: here are my favourite corporate psy-ops of the season – or Christmas TV ads, as I believe you call them in the suburbs
Dublin’s crack cocaine epidemic: ‘You get a rush. You come down. And then you have to go again’
Crack cocaine is the new heroin, say addicts and frontline support workers, its use and widespread availability an epidemic that is getting worse
‘We’re in uncharted territory’: Why the forgotten threat of nuclear war presents real and present danger
With the Doomsday Clock set at 90 seconds to midnight, the US and Russia’s Cold War stand-off seems quaint in retrospect
No Magic Pill: ‘If you cast disabled actors, they bring with their performance the lived experience of disability’
It’s time for professional productions to use disabled actors for both disabled and nondisabled characters, say playwright Christian O’Reilly and his colleagues
Doctor Odyssey’s core message: just imagine Pacey from Dawson’s Creek holding you tight and saying, ‘Shhh, it’s okay’
Patrick Freyne: Cruising takes on an alternative meaning in this medical melodrama, with Joshua Jackson visiting multiple ports of call
John Creedon: ‘I was always being sent away, not because they didn’t love me, but because they couldn’t cope’
Broadcaster and author reflects on an unusual childhood in Cork, constant low-level anxiety and presenting Winning Streak without understanding the rules
Rivals: The thrusting bum is intercut with spurting soap and overflowing champagne. We are in safe, if filthy, hands
Patrick Freyne: If I was in Disney+’s Jilly Cooper adaptation, someone would surely compliment my ‘magnificent column’