Patrick Freyne: Fish-out-of-water TV is back and it’s great fun altogetherLiteral fish-out-of-water dramas are short and sadly predictable but here are my figurative favouritesThu Jul 11 2024 - 05:00
These Criminal Minds folks look and sound as if they work for AccentureThe behavioural-analysis unit all feel like the sort of people who can do accounts. That might be why I default to the A-Team when I try to think about themThu Jun 27 2024 - 05:00
Gabor Maté: I began to notice that the people who got chronically ill had trouble saying ‘no’One of the most influential thinkers of the 21st century, Maté believes our dysfunctional societies are making us illThu Jun 20 2024 - 06:00
Joey Essex was raised by television, his mother a camera, his father a boom microphoneI’m pretty sure even Joey Essex doesn’t know he’s on Love Island. He probably thinks he’s just on holiday with his family, the camera equipmentThu Jun 20 2024 - 05:12
Irish composer Jennifer Walshe on AI music: ‘If you came up with the idea for I Glued My Balls to My Butthole Again, is that art?’The Oxford professor of composition’s long use of artificial intelligence in her work makes her a good judge of its merits and its dangersSat Jun 15 2024 - 05:30
‘They have very few opportunities to be happy’: Syrian child refugees face bleak future in LebanonAfter the Syrian war began in 2011, 1½ million Syrian refugees entered Lebanon. Initially the nation was welcoming, but since the economy collapsed in 2019, anti-refugee sentiment has grownFri Jun 14 2024 - 11:00
Jedis were once a seasoning, like salt. We liked the salt, and now Disney is serving us big bowls of saltThe Acolyte, Disney’s emotionally and visually flat new Star Wars spin-off, needs to stop with all the confusing lightsabre fightsThu Jun 13 2024 - 05:00
Burj al Barajneh refugee camp: ‘It is a continuous tragedy’Site in Beirut originally established for 500 families but is now home to 18,000 Palestinians and 40,000 SyriansSat Jun 08 2024 - 06:00
‘Our mental health is completely destroyed. We are living in constant sadness’More than 90,000 people, including 30,000 children, have been displaced from their homes since October; 250 of them are living in the Tyre Technical SchoolSat Jun 08 2024 - 06:00
Oliver Callan: ‘I should have got the same as Ryan Tubridy was being offered’The broadcaster and satirist on political pressure, suffering ‘five years of horrific coercive control’, and replacing TubridySat Jun 08 2024 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne’s Irish festivalgoer guide: 11 kinds of people and things to avoidIf you’re heading for Electric Picnic, All Together Now or Beyond the Pale this summer, bewareSun May 26 2024 - 05:15
From Nicola Coughlan’s hunks in landscaped gardens to Cillian Murphy’s gripping gangster romp: Patrick Freyne’s costume drama guideWith the return of Bridgerton, here’s a guide to costume dramaThu May 23 2024 - 05:15
Patrick Freyne: Doctor Who’s Space Babies definitely went to an Educate Together schoolPatrick Freyne: Doctor Who allows adults to enjoy swashbuckling adventures without feeling patronised and allows children to access something dark and weird while feeling safeThu May 16 2024 - 05:00
Steve Albini taught thousands of musicians that ethics and politics are embedded in business and art Producer provided a counterpoint to those stars who preach while avoiding tax or the consequences of their own work practicesMon May 13 2024 - 06:00
Bodkin star Siobhán Cullen: ‘I think I have always seen it as a game. How much can I bend the rules?’Dubliner talks about growing up in theatre, a fear of comedy scripts and her latest Netflix offeringSun May 12 2024 - 05:15
‘TikTok keeps me up all night’: Ireland’s teenagers on their relationship with the social media appTikTok is a growing part of young people’s lives but there are concerns about sleep deprivation, mental health and attention spanSat May 11 2024 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne: On Selling the OC, Alex has the recipe for a good relationship. It’s a nice, alliterative list – all the C-wordsThe Netflix reality show involves glamorous ladies and hunky gentlemen quaffing champagne and talking about their problems at lengthThu May 09 2024 - 05:00
Olivia Laing: ‘People find it hard to grasp things like racism, or misogyny, because they genuinely can’t see they exist’Author has always felt like something of an outsider and it has been a spur for their writingSat May 04 2024 - 05:00
Claudia Winkleman could be in your midst right now. Security forces live in fear of the day she goes roguePatrick Freyne: On The Piano, she shows why she’s the best light-entertainment presenter. Jon Bon Jovi, on the other hand, is both cheesy and hammyThu May 02 2024 - 05:30
Belfast actor Anthony Boyle: ‘My dad had to go to Gaelic training, and the same British soldier would throw his kit in a puddle every day’The Belfast actor is on a roll, with parts in Masters of the Air and Manhunt about to be followed by starring roles in Shardlake and Say NothingSun Apr 28 2024 - 05:15
‘I have lived so long. Why am I still here?’ Simon Cowell’s beady little eyes seem to sayPatrick Freyne: Britain’s Got Talent is back, its name now less a triumphalist boast than a pleading sales pitch from a waning superpowerThu Apr 25 2024 - 06:33
The Full Irish Hidden Camera Show understands the craic must be baited, captured and solemnly clubbed to deathPatrick Freyne: Frequently it seems as if those ‘duped’ by Doireann Garrihy, Carl Mullan and Donncha O’Callaghan are playing along, much as you would indulge the tomfoolery of a childThu Apr 18 2024 - 05:00
Hilary Fannin: ‘You’re faced with something so mad – maybe you’re going to die’Last year the former Irish Times columnist’s work on her new play, for Rough Magic and the Abbey, was interrupted by a double cancer diagnosisSat Apr 13 2024 - 05:30
Is it cake? Do not show your worst child this programme! They already suspect everything is cakePatrick Freyne: I’m taking the existence of this Netflix gameshow as a sign that the jig is up for the human raceThu Apr 11 2024 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne’s favourite TV shows of 2024: An Irish national treasure, bickering hitfolk and the best actor of her generationAndrew Scott in Ripley and Donald Glover and Maya Erskine in Mr & Mrs Smith are among the highlights thus farThu Apr 04 2024 - 05:00
The English now have both our fourth green field and Lindsay LohanWe meet Lindsay Lohan’s character Maddie on the way to a book launch as her scarf gets shut in the door of a taxi that then zooms off with itThu Mar 21 2024 - 05:00
Michael D Higgins’s dogs, Cillian Murphy’s blue eyes and Enya’s voice: Patrick Freyne’s 30 real Irish iconsForget national heroes, martyrs and rank celebs. These are the certifiable emblems of our small but great nationSat Mar 16 2024 - 05:00
Patrick Freyne: 12 reasons why it hasn’t always been cool to be Irish - including Murder, She Wrote and BatmanYoung Irish people are growing up with an unreasonable sense of confidence. St Patrick’s weekend is an ideal chance to correct the recordThu Mar 14 2024 - 05:00
Cillian Murphy: ‘Moving home from London was the best thing we did’The Oscars 2024 front-runner values his family’s ‘normal, lovely life’ in Ireland – especially as the glare of awards season has been ‘such a baptism of fire’Sat Mar 09 2024 - 05:45
Patrick Freyne: I suspect some of the Celebrity Big Brother participants booked beds on Airbnb - the producers thought, good enoughLouis Walsh and Sharon Osborne both seem grumpy. They have either been conscripted against their will under new legislation or they’re each here so they can pay an unexpected billThu Mar 07 2024 - 05:00
‘Racism is so recyclable. It’s toxic. The far-right stuff is on my doorstep’Playwright and activist Rosaleen McDonagh says: ‘The far-right stuff is on my doorstep...I didn’t think people would be burning buildings and blocking libraries. That scares the living daylights out of me’Sat Mar 02 2024 - 06:00
Formula 1 drivers are the dullest stars that have ever bothered reality-televisionPatrick Freyne: Why do Formula 1 drivers bother with expensive, uncomfortable cars? I have a cost-effective Nissan Micra that smells of Haribo SupermixThu Feb 29 2024 - 05:00
Bernie Sanders: ‘We are taking on very powerful people who will fight us tooth and nail’The US senator and left-wing firebrand on the war in Gaza, the rise of oligarchy and why, despite his support for Israel, Joe Biden is by far the preferable presidential candidateSat Feb 24 2024 - 06:00
JLo seems not so much to mix metaphors as to cut them with cokePatrick Freyne: As the singer clambers into her own heart in her musical fantasia, an uncharitable critic might suggest she is climbing up a different body partThu Feb 22 2024 - 05:00
I feel a swell of national pride when I see a big Irish hunk do well on the tellyPatrick Freyne: On Love Island – All Stars, Adam spends much of his time wearing a hat and tiny pants and little else. It’s a classic Irish lookThu Feb 15 2024 - 05:15
Learning from our peasant past: ‘We might have to live on the edge. We may have to learn to be survivors’At the end of 1,000 years of European peasantry, author and historian Patrick Joyce warns us that we might have to relearn their innate survivalismSat Feb 10 2024 - 06:00
How Pat Sheedy used fraud to fund his gambling addiction: ‘I was convincing. I could make you feel sorry for me’Sheedy was 12 when he placed his first bet. His memoir details his spiral into compulsive gambling that ruined his relationships and saw him face years in prisonSat Feb 10 2024 - 05:00
Put the Dancing with the Stars judges in charge of RTÉ. They’d give Mattie McGrath a run for his moneyPatrick Freyne: ‘Have all the money that you want and spend it on what you like,’ the TD would have told the majesterial Lorraine BarryThu Feb 08 2024 - 05:30
Everyone loves Ireland! Why is Irish culture so hot right now? From cinema and theatre to television, folk music and literature, Ireland is enjoying unprecedented creative boomSat Feb 03 2024 - 05:30
Patrick Freyne: In a housing crisis, Room to Improve feels like a barometer of our national derangement There are three people in every Room to Improve marriage if you include Dermot BannonThu Feb 01 2024 - 05:00
A charismatic perpetual child star performing lots of grisly operations? What more could you ask for? Patrick Freyne: Disney+ having the beloved Artful Dodger carry out surgery is a wonderfully deranged, and actually pretty Dickensian, choiceThu Jan 25 2024 - 05:00
Cillian Murphy on hearing about his Oscar nomination: ‘We were just having a cup of tea, and then my mum brought out the cake’The Irish star earned his first Academy Award nomination today, for his leading role in Christopher Nolan’s film OppenheimerTue Jan 23 2024 - 17:03
Colin Barrett: ‘My biggest fear was who’s going to want to read stories about lads in chip shops in small towns?’The author’s writing, including his excellent debut novel, is firmly rooted in Mayo where he grew upSun Jan 21 2024 - 06:00
Dublin’s heroin epidemic: ‘A man died and his partner died a few weeks later. Grandparents were looking after kids’A former social worker who saw the ravages of addiction up close says policymakers should be ‘open to listening to what’s on the ground, go out and see it themselves, don’t rely on gatekeepers like myself’Sat Jan 20 2024 - 06:00
If I was on Gladiators my name would be Lump or Wheeze, and my ‘little dance’ would be falling over with a gruntPatrick Freyne: Oddly, none of the rebooted show’s contestants says, ‘Well, Bradley, on my days off I like to binge-watch YouTube videos while eating an obscene amount of cheese’Thu Jan 18 2024 - 05:00
Say what you like about Hannibal Lecter, but he had joie de vivre. Unlike Jack ReacherPatrick Freyne: The show, which stars the widest Alan in existence, is the United States’ id as expressed by a malfunctioning AIThu Jan 11 2024 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne’s 10 favourite Christmas films – and what they really meanIncluding the communist message of It’s a Wonderful Life, the nihilistic thuggery of Home Alone and the alternative nativity of Batman ReturnsFri Dec 22 2023 - 05:00
Christmas, rated! Patrick Freyne’s grumpy guide to the festive seasonOld St Nick. The child judger. The Elf on the Shelf’s boss. Should we trust someone who laughs so much for no reason?Wed Dec 20 2023 - 06:00
Lisa McGee: ‘Derry Girls took on such a life of its own. It’s a wee bit everyone’s now’Comic writer says ‘surreal’ win of an Emmy for landmark TV show has afforded her amazing opportunities and that show now has a life of its own, particularly in her home citySat Dec 16 2023 - 06:00
Patrick Freyne’s favourite – and worst – TV moments of 2023An obsessive viewer surveys a year of ups and downs and finds there was an awful lot that was worth watchingFri Dec 15 2023 - 05:00
