{"id":239564,"date":"2026-01-18T11:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/239564\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T11:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:49:09","slug":"the-best-new-shows-to-watch-starting-tonight-the-irish-times-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/239564\/","title":{"rendered":"the best new shows to watch, starting tonight \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pick of the weekA Knight of the Seven KingdomsMonday, Sky Atlantic & Now, 9pm<\/p>\n

Admit it: you binged out so much Game of Thrones, the entire decade from the arrival of the troika to the onset of Covid is just a blur. That didn\u2019t stop you from clearing your diary and extending lockdown for the 2022 prequel series House of the Dragon. The good news is there\u2019s no need to leave the world of Westeros and go back to boring old reality just yet, with the arrival of another spin-off from the classic sex-and-swordplay epic based on the books by George RR Martin. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is described as an endearing tale about a naive young hedge knight and his eager squire, both out to prove themselves in a land where danger lurks at every castle, tavern and crossroads. Nothing about eviscerations, beheadings or royal rumpy-pumpy, alas, so don\u2019t expect GoT levels of graphic violence and gratuitous nudity \u2013 this is more a \u201ccharacter piece\u201d, says the author, who is also the executive producer of the show. There will be \u201cno dragons, no huge battles, no white walkers\u201d and the focus of each half-hour episode is on \u201cduty and honour, on chivalry and all it means\u201d. Oh, well. Still, should be enough of a Westeros fix to keep you going until the third series of House of the Dragon drops later this year. Peter Claffey stars as Ser Duncan the Tall, known as \u201cDunk\u201d, with Dexter Sol Ansell as his squire Egg aka Aegon V Targaryen. The six-part series is set a century before events in Game of Thrones, when House Targaryen held the Iron Throne at King\u2019s Landing, and Westeros was riven by conflict (when was it ever not?), and is based on Martin\u2019s Dunk and Egg novellas. The cast includes Bertie Carvel as Baelor Targaryen, Sam Spruell as Maekar Targaryen, Daniel Ings as Ser Lyonel Baratheon, Tanzyn Crawford as Tanselle, and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor<\/a> as Plummer. <\/p>\n

HighlightsAfter the FloodSunday, UTV, 9pm\"AfterAfter the Flood: Sophie Rundle. Photograph: ITV <\/p>\n

Just as the floodwaters have finally receded in the town of Waterside, detective Jo Marshall (Sophie Rundle) is faced with another murder case that threatens to engulf the entire community. After the Flood is a crime series with an environmental thread running through it, and series one saw Jo investigate a murder in the aftermath of a devastating flood. In the second series the town faces a double threat from fires on the moorland and the ever-present danger of more flooding, while Jo tries to tackle decades-old corruption within the police force. When a body is found in bizarre circumstances, Jo\u2019s investigation pits her against some powerful people in the town, and she\u2019s going to have to work under the radar if she wants to keep her head above water. <\/p>\n

Room to ImproveSunday, RT\u00c9 One, 9.30pm\"RoomRoom to Improve: Dermot Bannon. Photograph: Evan Doherty <\/p>\n

Our news feeds are filled with dire warnings about the dangers of social media, and this week\u2019s episode of Room to Improve illustrates the perils of scrolling through too many home improvement blogs and developing unrealistic expectations for your own renovation project. Newly-weds Sarah Clarke and Liam Callan are doing up their 1970s bungalow in Kells, Co Meath, and they have a firm idea of what they want because they\u2019ve seen it on social media. Unfortunately, their budget won\u2019t allow for half the things they want, and it\u2019s up to Dermot Bannon<\/a> and his team to rein in the couple\u2019s ambitions and keep the project on track. Bannon knows exactly what he wants to do to blitz this bungalow, but can he convince Sarah and Liam to trust his vision? And can he get them to visualise a design concept without needing to see it on Instagram?<\/p>\n

Four KingsSunday, Channel 4, 10pm<\/p>\n

Think you can go four rounds with this hard-hitting boxing documentary series that lays bare the realities of playing this brutal sport at the highest level? Four Kings tells the story of four iconic black British boxers, Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis, Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn, who rose to fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The four-part series looks at the struggles they faced in a sport that doesn\u2019t pull its punches, and celebrates their achievements, but it also details the lasting physical and mental toll of pursuing success in the ring. You may flinch at some of the tales of dislocated retinas, smashed wisdom teeth and brain damage; after watching the series, the Guardian reviewer concluded that boxing should simply be banned. But whether you find boxing entertaining or barbaric, the interviews with this quartet of key figures in sport \u2013 and popular culture \u2013 will be eye-opening. <\/p>\n

High Road Low RoadTuesday, RT\u00c9 One, 7pm<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve missed Daniel and Majella\u2019s B&B Road Trip since it made its last trip round the guesthouses of Ireland in 2018. But there\u2019s good news this week, as the beloved telly travel duo embark on a new adventure on Croatia\u2019s Dalmatian coast \u2013 only this time one of them will be doing it on the cheap while the other will be enjoying five-star luxury. In this episode of HRLR, country \u2018n\u2019 Irish superstar Daniel O\u2019Donnell and his better half head to the vibrant Croatian city of Zadar, and among the activities on the agenda are white-water rafting, tearing around on a speedboat, relaxing in a mudbath and learning the art of lacemaking. Can\u2019t wait to see Daniel having to rough it for a change \u2013 or will it be Majella having to stick to a minuscule budget? <\/p>\n

Neven\u2019s English Food TourWednesday, RT\u00c9 One, 8.30pm\"Neven'sNeven’s English Food Tour. Photograph: RT\u00c9 <\/p>\n

Chef Neven Maguire<\/a> is on a culinary journey to the north of England, and this week he continues his exploration of Northumberland, beginning with a walk across the water to the holy island of Lindisfarne. The island is reached via a causeway that is completely submerged by the sea when the tide is in, and it\u2019s where Irish monk and missionary St Aidan founded a monastery in the seventh century. Maguire also visits the slightly more accessible Tempus Hotel in the historic Charlton Hall Estate, where Orangery Restaurant head chef Cheryl Radwell cooks pan haggerty, a traditional Northumberland dish of potatoes, onions and cheese. Then he visits the Ad Gefrin distillery, where distiller Fran Jones is reviving the Northumbrian whisky-making craft which vanished two centuries ago, and goes hillwalking with chef and mountaineer Chris Reay, who takes clients on foodie hiking tours, carrying all his cooking equipment on his back to rustle up restaurant-quality food in the great outdoors. <\/p>\n

Palestine Action: The Truth Behind the Ban: DispatchesThursday, Channel 4, 10pm<\/p>\n

In July 2025, the British government officially declared Palestine Action a terrorist group, prompting huge protests on the streets, which have seen more than 2,000 people arrested, and several activists going on hunger strike, with grave concerns for their lives. Since the Hamas atrocities of October 7th, 2023, which claimed more than 1,200 lives, and Israel\u2019s subsequent bombardment of Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 people, Palestine Action has taken direct action to prevent the supply of arms to Israel, and this Dispatches documentary sees reporter Matt Shea investigate exactly what Palestine Action is all about and why the British government believed it necessary to proscribe the organisation. <\/p>\n

StreamingStealFrom Wednesday, January 21st, Prime Video\"Steal:Steal: Archie Madekwe and Sophie Turner. Photograph: Ludovic Robert\/Amazon Content Services LLC <\/p>\n

Sophie Turner<\/a>, from Game of Thrones, heads the cast of this high-stakes heist thriller, but we\u2019re not in a bank or a Las Vegas casino vault. Turner plays Zara, who works in the office of a pension-fund investment company \u2013 not the sort of place that would keep bundles of cash in the stationery cupboard. But when an armed gang bursts into the office, it becomes clear that their target is the billions of pounds sitting in the pension accounts of the company\u2019s customers. The gang force Zara and her colleague and best friend Luke (Archie Madekwe) to help them access the funds. DCI Rhys (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) tries to uncover who\u2019s behind the heist while battling his own gambling addiction.<\/p>\n

The BeautyFrom January 22nd, Disney+\"TheThe Beauty: Ashton Kutcher. Photograph: Eric Liebowitz\/FX <\/p>\n

Imagine you had unprotected casual sex, but instead of breaking out in a nasty rash, you are transformed into a vision of beauty and desirability. And anyone you have sex with subsequently is also turned into a total hottie. Sounds like a virus to die for \u2013 and of course that\u2019s exactly what happens in this new series, a cocktail of sci-fi, horror and high fashion, what you might get if David Cronenberg directed The Devil Wears Prada. When drop-dead gorgeous supermodels start dying in gruesome circumstances, FBI agents Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall) are sent out to Paris to find out what\u2019s going on. Their investigations lead them to a mysterious tech billionaire known as The Corporation (Ashton Kutcher), inventor of a miracle drug, The Beauty, that does what it says on the tin \u2013 and a lot more besides. As the virus runs rampant through the catwalks and fashion houses, Madsen and Bennett will have to move even faster if they\u2019re going to save the entire human race from leaving a beautiful corpse. The starry cast includes Antony Ramos, Jeremy Pope, Amelia Gray Hamlin, Bella Hadid, Isabella Rosselini, Meghan Trainor, Peter Gallagher and Vincent D\u2019Onofrio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pick of the weekA Knight of the Seven KingdomsMonday, Sky Atlantic & Now, 9pm Admit it: you binged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[135985,156,141104,111,139,69,141103,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-239564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-dermot-bannon","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-neven-maguire","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-tom-vaughan-lawlor","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}