Kerry Katona, the estranged wife of singer Brian McFadden, is to star as a pub cleaner who dreams of becoming a showband singer in the drama highlight of RTÉ's New Year schedule.
Katona, a former member of the girl-band Atomic kitten, will play the lead role in Showbands, a two-part television period drama set in the midlands in 1965, which will air early next month.
Showbands is one of a number of new dramas the station plans to broadcast next year, including Whiskey Echo, a four part Irish-Canadian co-production, which follows a group of medical aid workers in a community torn apart by civil war and famine in sub-Saharan Africa.
RTÉ has also bought two new American shows, Joey, the spin-off comedy series from Friends, which ended last year, and Desperate Housewives, the successful adult drama.
Gay Byrne is also to return to television screens with Class Reunion, a This is Your Life-style show which reunites personalities with their old school friends and teachers.
Other programmes include a new dating game; the Ex-Files is planned for February; and Desperately Seeking Surgery, a fly-on-the wall series following 10 people who undergo cosmetic surgery.
Documentaries include a biopic on writer Sean O'Casey, while RTÉ political correspondent David McCullagh is to present Behind Closed Doors, a programme on the secret British and Irish government papers on the major incidents during the Troubles in 1974, based on official papers declassified under the 30-year rule.