{"id":257375,"date":"2026-01-25T21:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T21:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/257375\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T21:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T21:03:15","slug":"the-best-new-shows-to-watch-starting-tonight-the-irish-times-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/257375\/","title":{"rendered":"the best new shows to watch, starting tonight \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pick of the weekRoom to Improve Sunday, RT\u00c9 One, 9.35pm <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the final episode in this series of Room to Improve, and the last house on Dermot Bannon<\/a>\u2019s list is a former Corpo dwelling in Dublin 5 that has been home to Eimear and Adam Fox for 18 years. This three-bedroom, midterrace house in Harmonstown suffers from a serious lack of living and storage space and, despite a rear extension, has no sense of flow. And no upstairs bathroom. Can Bannon and his team make this house work better for Eimear and Adam and their two children? He thinks he might have an ingenious solution to their conundrum: replace the extension with three \u201cpods\u201d, cleverly designed to maximise space and storage, create flow and connect with the back garden. But just when it looks like the project is home and dry, a miscalculation threatens to add to the cost, and Bannon will have to work hard to rebuild Eimear and Adam\u2019s trust and get the project back on track. <\/p>\n

HighlightsDancing with the Stars \u2013 Country WeekSunday, RT\u00c9 One, 6.30pm<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for the dancers to don their stetsons, pull on their cowboy boots and start sportin\u2019 those fringes, because it\u2019s Country Week on DWTS, which means some rootin\u2019 tootin\u2019 dance routines set to a soundtrack of country classics and country-flavoured pop hits. The show first introduced Country Week last year, and it proved a big hit with viewers, following the trail blazed by The Late Late Show Country Music Special. Once again the studios will be done up like a big ol\u2019 barn dance as the remaining 10 couples saddle up and strut their stuff in a rip-roaring western showdown. <\/p>\n

Mission to Space with Francis BourgeoisSunday, Channel 4, 6.50pm\"MissionMission to Space with Francis Bourgeois <\/p>\n

Francis Bourgeois aka Luke Nicolson is the planet\u2019s best-known trainspotter \u2013 a twentysomething TikToker, model and author whose passion for locomotives has made him a star both online and on telly. Watching his joy and excitement as he spots the 34046 \u201cBraunton\u201d passing by, it\u2019s easy to get swept up by his childlike enthusiasm. Bourgeois has been obsessed with trains since childhood, but he\u2019s also dreamed of becoming an astronaut, and in this two-part series he tries to fulfil that dream by signing up for astronaut training in the UK and US. But it\u2019s not like hopping on a train with his notebook and a cup of coffee \u2013 Bourgeois will be on an express train to hell and back as he undergoes multiple G-forces in a human centrifuge under the guidance of British astronaut Tim Peake, and is pushed to his physical and mental limits in Axiom Space\u2019s gruelling training programme. <\/p>\n

Amhr\u00e1in do mo Mh\u00e1thair Wednesday, TG4, 9.30pm \"AmhráinAmhr\u00e1in do mo Mh\u00e1thair: Pauline Scanlon and Damien Dempsey. Photograph: TG4 <\/p>\n

Pauline Scanlon explores the story of her own mother\u2019s hidden past the best way she knows how: through music and song. This documentary follows the singer as she sets out to tell her mother\u2019s story using traditional songs, including C\u00e9 a Chuirfidh T\u00fa Liom, The Well Below the Valley and Or\u00f3 S\u00e9 Do Bheatha Bhaile, as featured on her 2022 album The Unquiet … Songs for My Mother. On this very personal musical journey, Scanlon finds deeper connections between generations, and is reunited with her long-lost brother, Graham, after 50 years. Scanlon is also joined by an array of musicians for live performances of the songs, including John Reynolds, Graham Kearns, Caoimhe Hopkinson, Nicola Joyce and Damien Dempsey. <\/p>\n

The ApprenticeThursday, BBC One, 9pm<\/p>\n

Alan Sugar is back in the boardroom for another series of The Apprentice, but in this first episode the boardroom has been moved to Hong Kong. It\u2019s the 20th series of the show in which wannabe chief executives are set tasks to see if they can swim with the sharks or just bask with the bottom-feeders. To celebrate 20 years in the hiring and firing business, the show will feature 20 candidates, all hoping to keep Lord Sugar sweet and avoid hearing those dreaded two little words: \u201cYou\u2019re fired.\u201d Once again, Baroness Brady and Tim Campbell are Sugar\u2019s reliable sidekicks, and the candidates will battle it out for the chance to win a cool quarter of a million quid and a priceless opportunity to work with Lord Sugar. After each episode, Angela Scanlon<\/a> will host The Apprentice: Unfinished Business (Thursday, BBC Two, 10.05pm), sifting through the events of the episode and chatting with the unfortunate candidates who have just been given their P45s. <\/p>\n

First Dates IrelandThursday, RT\u00c92, 9.35pm\"FirstFirst Dates Ireland: Neil Kenna, Alice Marr, Mateo Saina, Pete Ungless <\/p>\n

The First Dates restaurant is reopening for frisky business, with a new intake of clients hoping that true love is on the menu. This is the 11th series of FDI and once again your hosts are maitre d\u2019 Mateo Saina, barman Neil Kenna and waiters Alice Marr and Pete Ungless, who will be providing service with a knowing smile as the diners get to know each other over dinner and find out if they\u2019ve got the right recipe for romance. (Okay, stop with the cheesy foodie references \u2013 ed). In this first episode, 32-year-old single mum Boo sits down to dinner with 36-year-old tattoo artist Lisa. Both are from Kildare, both are super-confident, but will they cancel each other out or make a perfect empower couple? Meanwhile, marine biologist \u00c1ine from Clare is sick of dating cold fish and hoping to find a rare species \u2013 a man who is not afraid to commit. Could Dublin junior doctor Keith be that man? And when events organiser Margaret (67) from Malahide meets film-maker Robin (60) from Melbourne, there\u2019s bound to be some entertainment in store. <\/p>\n

SisterSThursday, RT\u00c9 One, 10.15pm\"SisterS\"SisterS <\/p>\n

Suze and Sare are two women from opposite sides of the Atlantic \u2013 Ireland and Canada \u2013 who discover they share a deadbeat dad, and set out on a road trip to find their errant parent, in this sitcom written by and starring real-life best friends Susan Stanley and Sarah Goldberg. The first series didn\u2019t quite live up to its billing as an Irish Fleabag, but hopefully on this second outing, the pair will remember to pack some laughs along with the cruelty and calamity. It\u2019s 18 months since the half-sisters parted company, with Sare back in Toronto and getting ready for her wedding to Steve. Meanwhile, in Dublin, Suze gets bad news from the fertility clinic, and the last thing she wants to do is go to Sare\u2019s wedding and put a smiley face on it. But an unexpected ice-cream van related death presents a tempting opportunity for Suze to make it to the wedding after all. <\/p>\n

Death in ParadiseFriday, BBC One, 9pm\"DeathDeath in Paradise: Shaquille Ali-Yebuah, Catherine Garton, Shantol Jackson, Don Gilet, Don Warrington, Elizabeth Bourgigne. Photograph: Lou Denim\/Red Planet Pictures\/BBC <\/p>\n

Welcome back to the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie, where its people have a unique talent for dying in ever-more unusual and puzzling ways. Series 15 finds Detective Inspector Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) and his team investigating another batch of baffling locked-door mysteries, with added help from Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington). Following December\u2019s Christmas special, in which a man is found shot dead after an office Christmas party but the murder weapon is found thousands of miles away, Mervin and the team investigate the death of a man who has fallen from the roof of Government House. But he was alone on the roof, and the door to the roof was locked, so did he jump or was he pushed? And how did the killer get on the roof? There\u2019s an obvious suspect \u2013 just look for sleigh tracks on the roof tiles. <\/p>\n

Under Salt MarshFriday, Sky Atlantic & Now, 9pm\"UnderUnder Salt Marsh: Kelly Reilly. Photograph: Little Door\/Sky <\/p>\n

The fictional Welsh town of Morfa Halen faces an all-too-real environmental threat \u2013 and a killer in its midst \u2013 in this crime series starring Kelly Reilly and Rafe Spall. Reilly plays former detective Jackie Ellis, who is now a teacher in the local school in Morfa Halen, a town living under the shadow of the mountains and under constant threat from an encroaching sea. Three years ago, Jackie\u2019s niece, Nessa, disappeared in mysterious circumstances, and Jackie was unable to solve the case, forcing her into a change of career. When she discovers the body of one of her pupils, eight-year-old Cefin, Jackie knows she must reopen the cold case of her missing niece, which she believes is connected to her pupil\u2019s death. Spall stars as Jackie\u2019s former partner Detective Eric Bull, who returns to Morfa Halen to investigate Cefin\u2019s death. Both have a chance to put right the mistakes of three years ago, but a huge storm is brewing off the coast, and it\u2019s expected to make landfall soon, leaving little time for Jackie and Eric to unravel this mystery before all the clues are swept away by the storm. <\/p>\n

StreamingMarvel\u2019s Wonder ManFrom January 28th, Disney+\"Marvel'sMarvel’s Wonder Man: Yahya Adbul-Mateen II as Simon Williams\/Wonder Man. Photograph: Marvel\/Suzanne Tenner <\/p>\n

Simon Williams is a young actor with big Hollywood dreams \u2013 just like most everyone else in Los Angeles \u2013 but can\u2019t seem to land any plum roles. Then he bumps in to a fading actor, Trevor Slattery, who reveals that he\u2019s auditioning for a new movie by the legendary auteur Von Kovak, a remake of the classic superhero film Wonder Man. Simon decides he\u2019s going to land the lead and see his career really take off. But he\u2019s going to be up against stiff competition. Incredibly, he gets a callback, and soon he and Trevor are summoned to Kovak\u2019s mansion to discuss the director\u2019s radical plan to \u201cblur the lines between fact and fiction\u201d. As we\u2019re in the Marvel Cinematic Universe<\/a>, you can be sure that this series, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon and Ben Kingsley as Trevor, will smash the lines between screen and real superheroes.<\/p>\n

BridgertonFrom Thursday, January 29th, and Thursday, February 26th, Netflix\"Bridgerton:Bridgerton: Michelle Mao, Katie Leung, Isabella Wei. Photograph: Liam Daniel\/Netflix <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the new year, and Lady Whistledown invites you for another social whirl around the Ton in the fourth series of the drama set in an alternative regency London in the early 19th century, where diversity and equality reign and no one bats an eyelid at obvious anachronisms. Each series focuses on one member of the aristocratic Bridgerton family; this time it\u2019s the turn of the dashing Benedict (Luke Thompson), who\u2019s determined to discover the identity of the beautiful and mysterious Lady in Silver (Yerin Ha) at his mother\u2019s masquerade ball. What he doesn\u2019t know is that she\u2019s right under his nose: a maid named Sophie, who works for Lady Araminta Gun (Katie Leung). Benedict is torn between his attraction to Sophie and his fascination with the Lady in Silver, not realising they\u2019re the same person. But Lady Araminta plans to marry off one of her daughters to a Bridgerton, and she\u2019s not going to let a lowly maid sabotage her plans. Nicola Coughlan<\/a> returns as Penelope, whose alter-ego as the gossip columnist Lady Whistledown is now public knowledge. Clearly, using Julie Andrews\u2019s voiceover as camouflage didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pick of the weekRoom to Improve Sunday, RT\u00c9 One, 9.35pm It\u2019s the final episode in this series of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[136151,136152,126252,146,85,46,136153,411],"class_list":["post-257375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-alan-sugar","tag-angela-scanlon","tag-dermot-bannon","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-nicola-coughlan","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}