Late Late Toy Show auditions: ‘The mothers are worse than the kids’Patrick Freyne meets the talented kids who try out for the annual toyfestSat Nov 25 2017 - 06:00
The TV theme songs that make you drool with pleasurePatrick Freyne: The secret to a great ever-lasting memorable show is a catchy, sing-along introSat Nov 25 2017 - 05:00
WTF review: Robert Peston’s take on Brexit and Trump? FFSThe ITV political editor’s enlightened Keynesianism comes wrapped in Alan PartridgismSat Nov 18 2017 - 06:00
What I learned about mental health from watching The A-TeamPatrick Freyne: TV regularly uses psychological problems to give a character “depth”Sat Nov 18 2017 - 05:00
Nerds, wonks and a failed finance minister: a visit to KilkenomicsDiscussions on Trump, Brexit, technology and media were some of the topics covered at this year’s economics festival in KilkennySun Nov 12 2017 - 19:08
Kilkenomics: A topsy-turvy place all about maximising weird interactionsEconomists wander in T-shirts, jeans and leather jackets; comedians wear suits and tiesSat Nov 11 2017 - 22:14
Alison Spittle: ‘If you’re friends with a mad bastard, that’s your cross to bear’The comedian on her new TV show 'Nowhere Fast', a sitcom about women, friendship, and where the men are little more than love interestsSat Nov 11 2017 - 05:00
Welcome to the first meeting of the Paradise Papers Club‘Firstly, let’s just point out that none of us have broken any laws’Sat Nov 11 2017 - 05:00
Kathy Griffin: ‘I said Trump was a Nazi in a jokingly loving way – except that he is’The comedian regrets apologising for posing with Trump’s 'severed head'Sat Nov 04 2017 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne: Move over, John Lewis. This year’s best Christmas adsAd man Freyne has something for everyone, from miming peasants to a post-Brexit SantaSat Nov 04 2017 - 05:00
I like to imagine a reunion where the Stranger Things kids are disappointed fortysomethingsPatrick Freyne: Stranger Things is gripping and fun and, thanks to the stellar young acting talent, often movingSat Oct 28 2017 - 05:00
‘Your son. He’s dead.’ Storm Ophelia’s real damageThe families of Fintan Goss, Clare O’Neill and Michael Pyke will never forget MondaySat Oct 21 2017 - 06:00
If I angle my screen, no one can see I'm watching Mamma Mia!Why have you all kept this glorious megahit - featuring Meryl Streep, Greek slaves and all three kinds of man - from meSat Oct 21 2017 - 05:00
Life on the Luas: a tale of two tracksWe travel Dublin’s Red and Green Lines to learn about the different worlds they travel throughSat Oct 14 2017 - 06:00
Getting children off their devices and making cities more playful‘Babies are terrible dancers’:a new initiative on finding room for playSat Oct 07 2017 - 00:00
Star Trek Discovery: ‘You only had one job, Burnham’, I shout at the screen in KlingonStar Trek once offered a utopian ideal. Has demagoguery breached even the final frontier?Tue Sept 26 2017 - 11:00
The ploughing: ‘Have you ever seen a flower pot?’An entertainingly eclectic experience – with biblical rain, mud and plenty of animalsWed Sept 20 2017 - 20:07
Patrick Freyne picks the best TV shows on the way for AutumnAlison Spittle’s new show; David Simon in NYC; and a doc on the most famous Irish person ever: ShergarWed Sept 20 2017 - 13:46
Our Limerick crime comic: ‘I wanted to do something Irish’The graphic novel Savage Town ‘treats Limerick the way The Wire treats Baltimore’Tue Sept 19 2017 - 05:00
Burnt out? Relax, we’ve been exhausted for centuriesBurnout isn't new – overworked Victorians called it ‘neurasthenia’. But today's version is differentSat Sept 16 2017 - 06:00
‘We marched on four dealers that night’: Dublin’s anti-drug warsHow ‘mammies, daddies, an IRA activist and a priest’ took on Dublin’s drug dealersSat Sept 16 2017 - 06:00
Bojack Horseman: Am I more man than horse or more horse than man?Patrick Freyne's favourite "cyberprogramme" is the one all the celebs want to be onFri Sept 08 2017 - 17:14
Noel Edmonds’s new show is beautifully boringAfter just three weeks Noel Edmonds’s odd new show may be facing cancellation – and not because it’s cheap cheap cheapWed Sept 06 2017 - 13:00
Electric Picnic: Who got drunk, did drugs, vomited? Many peoplePatrick Freyne: I saw bearded men wrestle. I saw nipple rings. I saw Pat KennyMon Sept 04 2017 - 06:00
Electric Picnic day two: ‘Have you done the mushrooms already?’Salvation is at hand on the second day of the Stradbally sesh amid Santa and shamansSat Sept 02 2017 - 20:23
EP2017: Ian Bailey launches poetry collectionThe collection of poetry existed in “embryonic form” before the accusations in the 1990sSat Sept 02 2017 - 19:00
Electric Picnic day one: ‘Will we get an auld tattoo?’The young people of Ireland and their grandparents have gathered to see the acts of the momentSat Sept 02 2017 - 14:50
Eamon Dunphy: ‘I’m not part of official Ireland’Interview: The pundit and podcaster talks Celtic Tiger, family and his ‘Buddhist’ outlookSat Sept 02 2017 - 06:00
New ingredients for ‘The Great British Bake Off’, but does it taste the same?After its controversial move from the BBC to Channel 4 this year, the baking show returnsTue Aug 29 2017 - 22:00
Behold Electric Picnic and the Irish middle class at playPatrick Freyne’s immersive, experiential rundown of the festival experience for people his own age who aren’t attendingWed Aug 23 2017 - 14:07
Celebrity Big Brother: Chad is a love triangle all by himselfAnd Barry from EastEnders is here. I’m not sure why but I find that comfortingWed Aug 09 2017 - 13:00
Leo’s backyard: unequal lives in Irish suburbiaThe Taoiseach’s West Dublin constituency is one of Ireland’s most socially divided areasSat Aug 05 2017 - 06:00
The children’s cartoons that shaped us – and the dark messages that lurk withinFrom The Flintstones to He-Man and Top Cat, kids’ animation has a lot to teach usWed Aug 02 2017 - 14:25
Love Island: Farewell to the fantastical hunktopiaThe sun set on LI2017 last night. It was the pinnacle of our televisual achievementsTue Jul 25 2017 - 15:02
Stop and search: Garda harassment or crime-fighting?Inner-city teenagers say they are constantly stopped by gardaí, even when wearing their school uniformSat Jul 22 2017 - 06:00
Jessica Fletcher, Buffy, Roseanne, and other wonder womenBefore the Doctor, we had to rely on the Golden Girls for female role modelsWed Jul 19 2017 - 17:05
Meet the teens who feel and sound Irish, but live in fear of deportationSome 5,000 young people here are growing up Irish but live in fear of being forced to leave home because of their undocumented statusSat Jul 15 2017 - 06:00
Vincent Browne is retiring from TV3: we will never see his like againVincent Browne's panels became a sort of provisional government and each episode a purgeWed Jul 12 2017 - 14:15
‘Game of Thrones’: A to Z guideAhead of season seven, here’s everything you need to know about the ground-breaking fantasy dramaSat Jul 08 2017 - 06:00
Dara Ó Briain: ‘When I say ‘Irish’, I mean ‘Bosco Irish’’The ‘Mock the Week’ host on Irishness, Britishness and life as the voice of reasonSat Jul 08 2017 - 05:00
Half-time report: the must-see TV of the year so farAnd with an ennui-filled wave of my cigarette holder, I present the best television shows of 2017, so farWed Jul 05 2017 - 14:02
Satirising Donald Trump: ‘It’s a struggle just to keep up’Cartoonist Dan Perkins: It’s hard coming up with something crazier than what's actually going onTue Jul 04 2017 - 06:00
Justin Trudeau and nine other ‘hot politicians’The Canadian prime minister is visiting Ireland. Is he the most lusted-after modern leader?Mon Jul 03 2017 - 09:49
Neil Jordan should stop worrying and learn to love RivieraNeil ‘Big Deal’ Jordan has disowned the hit drama, but we’re not certain that his version would have been any betterThu Jun 29 2017 - 22:00
The appeal of Phil Collins? It's his friendly, happy facePhil Collins, who plays Dublin on Sunday, is hip again – but for Patrick Freyne he always wasFri Jun 23 2017 - 10:20
‘Please make this stop’: The terrible play you won’t want to missThe actors occasionally get into physical fights with one another or get knocked unconscious by malfunctioning propsFri Jun 23 2017 - 06:00
The Crystal Maze: the best children’s programme ever made for adultsRemember Mumsy, the strange lady in the Medieval Zone who divined the future?Thu Jun 22 2017 - 14:01
From Bosco to TK to farmer’s tan: the true touchstones of Irish cultureNever mind Beckett or Joyce or Sinéad O’Connor or Love/Hate, these are the things that truly make us IrishWed Jun 21 2017 - 13:30
How touching: The evolution of the man-hugYoung men now touch each other more than in the 1990s, and it’s intimate not sexualSat Jun 17 2017 - 06:00
Poldark: He’s so fertile, I may have got pregnant watching himThe melodramatic, gripping, entertaining series is back, writes Patrick FreyneSun Jun 11 2017 - 22:38
