{"id":175921,"date":"2025-09-28T20:08:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T20:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/175921\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T20:08:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T20:08:18","slug":"the-best-new-shows-to-watch-starting-tonight-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/175921\/","title":{"rendered":"the best new shows to watch, starting tonight \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pick of the WeekThe Walsh SistersSunday, RT\u00c9 One, 9.30pm<\/p>\n

Fans of Marian Keyes<\/a> will already know the Walsh sisters \u2013 Anna, Rachel, Helen, Claire and Maggie \u2013 and will have followed all their family, career and relationship mishaps, missteps and miscalculations over seven bestselling novels and a short-story collection. Now their messy lives are up on the screen in this new series that promises to deftly blend a uniquely Irish humour with darker themes of addiction, marital breakdown and long-buried family secrets. The series is adapted by Stefanie Preissner<\/a> \u2013 creator of Can\u2019t Cope, Won\u2019t Cope \u2013 and screenwriter Kefi Chadwick, and stars Preissner as Maggie, with Louisa Harland from Derry Girls as Anna, M\u00e1ir\u00e9ad Tyers from Extraordinary as Helen, Caroline Menton as Rachel and Danielle Galligan as Claire. The cast also features Carrie Crowley as Mammy Walsh and US actor Aidan Quinn<\/a> as Jack \u201cDaddy\u201d Walsh. Episode one brings us to Dublin, where Anna and Rachel are sharing a flat and partying hard \u2013 although it soon becomes apparent that Rachel is partying a lot harder than most, and when she is hospitalised after a particularly heavy bender, the girls have to face some hard truths. Will this series fill the Normal People-shaped hole in the TV universe? We\u2019ll be watching. <\/p>\n

HighlightsBig Brother Live Launch Sunday, UTV, 10.15pm<\/p>\n

Big Brother has been like an unloved child of late, farmed around from network to network in increasingly desperate efforts to restore its original ratings glory. ITV took in the poor wee bairn in 2023, and we\u2019re assured that the programme is settled nicely in its latest home. Now comes its third outing on the channel, and hosts AJ Odudu and Will Best will once again oversee all the shenanigans in the Big Brother house, which has been given a big makeover to make it a bit less gaudy and headache-inducing. The producers are so confident that this series will be a hit they\u2019ve added an extra week of BB house action, and are promising \u201cnew twists and turns, elaborate tasks, intense nominations and live evictions\u201d. We\u2019re also promised a celebrity version some time next year, but ITV boss Kevin Lygo has admitted that because it\u2019s getting harder to book A-list names, they\u2019ll be going a bit further down the alphabet to find \u201cinteresting and niche\u201d participants. <\/p>\n

I Fought the Law: The Ann Ming StorySunday, Virgin Media One, 10.30pm\"SheridanSheridan Smith in I Fought the Law: The Ann Ming Story. Photograph: ITV <\/p>\n

When Ann Ming\u2019s 22-year-old daughter, Julie Hogg, disappeared from her home in Durham in November 1989, she suspected the worst. But when police finally agreed to send a forensics team to examine Julie\u2019s house, they found no evidence of foul play. Three months later, however, Ann discovered her daughter\u2019s decomposing body hidden behind a panel in the bathroom. She had been strangled by local man Billy Dunlop, but despite the overwhelming evidence against him, the jury couldn\u2019t reach a verdict. A second trial was also inconclusive, and Dunlop was freed. Under Britain\u2019s 800-year-old double jeopardy law, he couldn\u2019t be tried again for the crime, but after Ming heard about Dunlop bragging in pubs that he\u2019d got away with murder, she set out on a 13-year-long quest to get the double jeopardy law changed and bring her daughter\u2019s killer to justice. Sheridan Smith stars in this four-part drama based on Ming\u2019s memoir, For the Love of Julie. <\/p>\n

Blue LightsMonday, BBC One, 9pm\"BlueBlue Lights: Katherine Devlin <\/p>\n

Si\u00e2n Brooke, Katherine Devlin and Nathan Braniff return as new PSNI recruits Grace, Annie and Tommy in the third series of the hit police procedural set in Belfast. After two years in the pressure-cooker environment of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the trio are not such rookies any more \u2013 in fact, they\u2019re settling nicely into their jobs. But there\u2019s no room for complacency as the team find themselves in uncharted territory: dealing with a global organised crime gang now running the city, and the phalanx of \u201crespectable\u201d accountants and lawyers helping the gang members hide their criminal assets and evade justice. <\/p>\n

Secrets of the BrainMonday, BBC Two, 9pm\"SecretsSecrets of the Brain: Jim Al-Khalili <\/p>\n

Human minds are grappling with the implications of AI, and dreading the inevitable day when the technology becomes self-aware and decides we\u2019re surplus to requirements. There\u2019s reassurance on offer in this two-part series presented by theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili, in which he charts the evolution of the human brain over 600 million years and unravels its vast complexity. ChatGPT is only three years old, so that gives us \u2013 let me check with Google \u2013 a 599,999,997-year head start. Apparently, the human brain has about 100 billion neurons and more than 100 trillion connections, so AI will probably need a data centre the size of Jupiter to come anywhere near our level of brainpower. Mind you, that won\u2019t save us from the inevitable AI takeover, but as we line up to be thrown into the wetware disposal unit, we can at least go to our doom with a knowing grin. <\/p>\n

Build Your Own HomeWednesday, RT\u00c9 One, 9.30pm\"BuildBuild Your Own Home: Harrison Gardner <\/p>\n

For cash-strapped homeowners, the idea of getting in the builders to do a refurb or put in an extension can be daunting, but what if you could cut out the construction firm and just do the job yourself? In this series, master builder Harrison Gardner takes homeowners under his wing and shows them how to renovate their rundown old gaff \u2013 or build themselves an entirely new home \u2013 at a fraction of the cost of hiring professionals. The Australian is firmly of the belief that anyone can learn to build \u2013 definitely not music to the ears of millionaire developers \u2013 and in this second series he shares his considerable expertise with members of the Clare Island community and helps them create a spanking new tourist attraction out of a local facility that has fallen into neglect. In the first episode Gardner helps young couple Aoife and Louis add a huge modern extension to their tiny 200-year-old cottage in Tuam, Co Galway.<\/p>\n

BorderlineFriday, UTV, 9pm <\/p>\n

Cross-Border co-operation is the theme of this crime drama series set in Northern Ireland and the Republic, and starring Eoin Macken and Amy De Bhr\u00fan as a mismatched pair of cops investigating a murder on the Irish Border. Detective inspector Philip Boyd is the reserved, slightly repressed northerner; Aoife Regan is the sweary southerner who shoots from the hip. Both have to put aside their differences if they\u2019re going to solve the case. Imagine, two people from opposite sides of the Border working together \u2013 what next, cats and dogs joining forces to fight crime? <\/p>\n

How Are You? It\u2019s Alan (Partridge)Friday, BBC One, 9.30pm\"HowHow Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge): Steve Coogan. Photograph: Ben Blackall\/Baby Cow\/BBC <\/p>\n

The revered broadcaster is back on British telly after a year working in Saudi Arabia, and he\u2019s leaving behind a lucrative career making commercials for Saudi radio to help his fellow Britons sort out their mental health problems. In this new series, he\u2019ll take a personal journey through the world of mental health, adopting a caring, concerned expression and asking \u201cimportant questions\u201d about the state of Britain\u2019s collective noggin. As you know, Partridge likes to fly by the seat of his chinos, and this series began as a diary of his homecoming to Blighty, but when he realised that neither making lots of moolah in the Middle East nor being back home in his beloved Norwich was making him happy, he decided instead to address the state of the nation\u2019s health and see if he could provide some televisual therapy. But he can\u2019t do this alone, so he\u2019s set up a crowdfunder appeal<\/a> offering personalised birthday voicemails and even dinner at a restaurant of your choosing (it\u2019s cheaper if he gets to choose the restaurant). Steve Coogan stars as the not-at-all-narcissistic presenter, with Felicity Montague returning as long-suffering PA Lynn, and Tim Key back again as Sidekick Simon.<\/p>\n

StreamingChad PowersFrom Tuesday, September 30th, Disney+\"ChadChad Powers: Glen Powell. Photograph: Disney+ <\/p>\n

Meet Russ Holliday, star college quarterback with good looks, a talent for touchdowns and an ego the size of Texas. Now say goodbye to Russ, as he\u2019s just blown his budding football career with a display of showboating that ends in disaster for his team. He\u2019s become America\u2019s most hated QB, but Russ is determined to get back on the gridiron, so he decides to \u201cdo a Mrs Doubtfire\u201d and don a disguise, becoming the dorky but affable Chad Powers, and joining struggling football team the South Georgia Catfish. Needless to say, Chad\u2019s prodigious talents make the Catfish contenders in the big league, but can Russ keep up his oddball alter-ego under the glare of the spotlight? And can he ever escape the shame of his infamous fumble? As he says himself: \u201cRuss was an asshole; Chad doesn\u2019t have to be.\u201d Glen Powell plays Russ and Chad in this new comedy series based on a sketch by Eli Manning for sports channel ESPN. <\/p>\n

Monster: The Ed Gein StoryFrom Friday, October 3rd, Netflix<\/p>\n

Your grandparents were terrified by Hitchcock\u2019s Psycho; your parents were creeped out by Silence of the Lambs. But both films were inspired by one monster who ruled them all: Ed Gein, America\u2019s most notorious serial killer. A psychotic loner with a twisted Oedipus complex, Gein perpetrated his gruesome deeds in a lonely house in the snowy wastes of Wisconsin in the 1950s, abducting and killing his victims, and using their corpses to make human masks and suits. Gein\u2019s horrific crimes have long fascinated Hollywood, and his influence is visible in an entire genre of slasher movies including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Charlie Hunnam immerses himself in the role of Gein, with Laurie Metcalf as his mother, Augusta, the object of his deadly obsession, and Addison Rae as Evelyn, believed to have been one of his many victims. This is the third instalment in the Monster anthology series created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, following The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pick of the WeekThe Walsh SistersSunday, RT\u00c9 One, 9.30pm Fans of Marian Keyes will already know the Walsh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[114138,64,63,1576,20360,134,45276,435,24091,114139,114137,85040,427,12775],"class_list":{"0":"post-175921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-aidan-quinn","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-bbc","12":"tag-disney-plus","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-marian-keyes","15":"tag-netflix","16":"tag-rte","17":"tag-siobhan-mcsweeney","18":"tag-stefanie-preissner","19":"tag-steve-coogan","20":"tag-tv","21":"tag-virgin-media"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}