The Great Escape

The Great Escape 2007

10.00

The Great Escape is an Irish television series broadcast on RTÉ One each Tuesday night at 22:15. It follows Irish families who leave Ireland to travel across the world in search of a better life. Two series have thus far been produced, with each series documenting four families who leave Ireland in search of a better life. The series details how they cope in their new surroundings, without any support from friends or family as they set up businesses, develop new careers, meet new friends and overcome cultural differences. Produced by Coco Television, it has thus far featured Irish families who have relocated to such countries as France, South Africa, Spain, Australia, Austria and Italy. The second series in 2009 was part of a group of programmes dealing with the topic of emigration. Others included J1 - Summer in the Sun, Death or Canada, Blood of the Irish and Who Do You Think You Are?.

2007

North Atlantic: The Dark Ocean

North Atlantic: The Dark Ocean 2023

7.00

Inspired by the spirit of adventure of early explorers like St Brendan the Navigator, Irish underwater cameraman Ken O'Sullivan voyages out into the open North Atlantic in search of the great sea monsters described in the explorers' early texts which may well have been large whales. Over the course of the film, such encounters reveal how enlightenment and awareness dispel the myths and damage of the darkness of our historic perceptions.

2023

Know Your Sport

Know Your Sport 1970

7.00

Know Your Sport is an Irish sports quiz show produced by RTÉ between 8 October 1987 and 1 April 1998. The show was presented by George Hamilton and featured Jimmy Magee and Mary Hogan as scorekeeper. Rounds of questions included the "specialist subject", "great moment in sport", "mystery guest" and "buzzer" rounds. In 2009 an appeal to re-introduce the show to RTÉ's schedule gathered support on networking website, Facebook.

1970

Futureville Ireland

Futureville Ireland 2024

1

An ambitious new 3-part series that offers a vision of a new Irish City for 2050. Presented by Carla O’Brien and Dr. Lorraine Mancey.

2024

Michael Lynn - The Fugitive

Michael Lynn - The Fugitive 2025

1

The true story of an epic hunt to bring one of Ireland’s most notorious fugitives to justice.

2025

Any Given Day: Cork University Hospital

Any Given Day: Cork University Hospital 2026

1

From the pressurised emergency department to the precision of complex life changing surgeries, this six-part series reveals the high stakes and life changing stories unfolding everyday inside Cork University Hospital. Each episode follows staff shifts and patient journeys across the hospital, with every story captured over the course of a single day. Together, these moments combine to tell a larger, compelling story of Cork University Hospital on any given day.

2026

The Shelbourne

The Shelbourne 2014

1

Follow the staff of Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel as they uphold exacting 5-star standards of service during the hotel's busiest season.

2014

Manchán's Europe By Train

Manchán's Europe By Train 2024

1

Manchán Magan embraces the ethos of slow travel, taking the time to get to know people and places, and experiencing local customs and traditions.

2024

Ballymagash

Ballymagash 1970

1

Ballymagash is a satirical Irish television programme that aired on RTÉ One for one series in 1983. Presented by Frank Hall and featuring many of the cast members from the earlier Hall's Pictorial Weekly, the show was set in the fictional town of Ballymagash and cast a satirical eye on some of the "local" stories and personalities.

1970

On The Beat

On The Beat 2024

5.50

On the Beat provides an inside look at the daily lives of serving Gardaí in Ireland, following officers on duty and highlighting challenges and issues in the policing of districts in Waterford, Longford and Dundalk.

2024

The Restaurant

The Restaurant 1970

1

The Restaurant is a successful Irish reality television programme broadcast on RTÉ One. The seventh series began on 16 November 2008, running on Sundays at 20:30. In each episode a celebrity head chef takes on the culinary challenge of producing a top class, three-course meal with two value-for-money wines. This is then served to the restaurant's customers and the resident critics, Tom Doorley and Paolo Tullio, who are joined each week by a guest critic. The chef's identity remains a secret to those being served their food until the end of the show when all has been eaten. The critics give the meal a star rating of between one and five, which is then pulled from an envelope after the head chef joins the critics' table. The Restaurant is voiced over by Seán Moncrieff and the restaurant is manned by John Healy, Maitre'D; the kitchen staff, chefs David Workowich, Stephen McAllister and Louise Lennox and food researcher, Stephen Quin, and waiting staff, waitress, Elaine Normile and waiters, Lee Bradshaw and Vivian Reynolds. Following on from the success of the television show, RTÉ published The Restaurant - The Magazine, which includes images and recipes from the series. The format is sold internationally by Vision Independent Productions under the title The Secret Chef. It has had 3 seasons in Italy.

1970

Sex & Sensibility

Sex & Sensibility 1970

1

Sex & Sensibility is an RTÉ television series which reflects on changing attitudes to sex in Ireland. The four-part series was presented by Simon Delaney. Directed by Imogen Murphy, it was filmed in April and May 2008 on location in Dublin. It was broadcast in June and July 2008. Features included some commentary from Bill O'Herlihy, Mary O'Rourke, Michael McNiff, Claire Tully, John Kelleher and night club owners Valeria Roe and Maurice Boland. The series reflected on the changes that had taken place in Ireland since the 1960s, an era when the sexual revolution had not yet reached the shores of the island. It showed how television had played a major part in "loosening everyone up" and altered Irish society "from a gloomy 'Irish Taliban'-style theocracy to the nation of fun-loving sex maniacs we are today". Terry Prone demonstrated her view that soaps, rather than "dusty old current affairs programmes", had been central to social change. The Riordans caused scandal when one of the characters, named Maggie, went on the pill. The "contraceptive train" to Belfast was also focused on, evoking memories of an era when the devices were illegal in the Republic of Ireland, prompting people to travel to Northern Ireland to stock up on their contraceptive needs. Also featured was The Late Late Show and the uproar it caused when it gave airtime to a group of lesbian nuns, Bill Hughes, who spoke about the underground gay scene in Ireland, Senator David Norris having his sexuality called into question when he was asked if he was "sick" by a TV presenter, the Leeson Street clubbing scene in its early years and Toni the Exotic Dancer, a housewife from Tallaght, Dublin who flashed her ample bosom for the crowds who thronged the urban pubs after mass. Video of protesters with portable Virgin Mary statues at work outside the RTÉ studios were also shown.

1970

Sports Stadium

Sports Stadium 1970

1

Sports Stadium was an Irish television sport programme on Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Broadcast between 1973 and 1997, it was RTÉ's flagship sports programme and one of its longest-running shows. It ran in a variety of slots, but in its final years aired on RTÉ Two on Saturdays between 1:00pm–6:00pm. Its first presenter was Brendan O'Reilly who lasted for fourteen years. Other presenters during the show's run included Liam Nolan, Fred Cogley, Michael Lyster, Peter Collins and finally Tracy Piggott. The format of the show was very similar to the BBC's Grandstand or ITV's World of Sport, and indeed Grandstand's racing coverage was often simulcast on the show. The earlier part of each show would feature a mixture of racing and recorded highlights of other sports. The centrepiece of the afternoon for many years was a live 3:00pm Football League Division One game, which would be followed by the classified football results. Coverage of the All-Ireland League was also featured on the show. For much of its life, the show's theme music was the distinctive keyboard riff from the Europe song "The Final Countdown". The original recording was used in the 1980s, but a re-arranged version was used during the 1990s.

1970

Glenroe

Glenroe 1970

7.00

A weekly drama serial telling the lives of the people who live in the Wicklow village of Glenroe. A spin-off from Bracken – a short-lived RTÉ drama itself spun off from The Riordans. The series, which started in 1983, quickly shot to the top of the Irish TV charts. The show ended in 2001.

1970

Callan Kicks The Years

Callan Kicks The Years 2021

1

Callan Kicks the Years is a six-part TV series unlike any comedy ever made in Ireland, romping through the 100 years since the 1921 Treaty using sketches and satirical documentary. The series will kick Dev’s grim legacy, the 60s showbands versus feminism era, the twin 80s crazes of Haughey and moving statues, Jackie’s Army, the Bertie Boom through to the Hangover of recession, in a way only comedy can. The most controversial periods of Irish history stripped down for a kicking? There may be calls to Liveline. Talk to Joe.

2021

The Liffey

The Liffey 2022

1

An intimate portrait of a river and the people it meets on its way to the sea. The six-part documentary series captures the lives and stories of a diverse group of people who are unified by one thing, the river Liffey.

2022

Firefighters

Firefighters 2012

1

Dublin Fire Brigade and ambulance services receive around 133,000 calls a year. Whatever the emergency, whenever it happens, the firefighters are first to respond, putting themselves in danger to save lives. And it’s not just fighting fires. Every member of Dublin Fire and Rescue is a trained paramedic, and whether it’s ambulance services, rapid river rescues, marine emergency response or high line rescues that are called for, they're equipped and trained to give people in need of rescue the best chance of survival. Using state of the art technology including vehicle and helmet mounted cameras this series will bring viewers deep into the heart of the fire scene with the firefighters themselves to witness and experience a level of danger, drama and emotion never before seen on Irish television.

2012

The Late Late Toy Show

The Late Late Toy Show 1970

1

The Late Late Toy Show—also known as The Toy Show— is an annual iconic and influential Irish national institution, an edition of the world's longest-running chat show, The Late Late Show broadcast on RTÉ One in Ireland each Friday evening. The Toy Show, as it is referred to, is broadcast in late November or early December each year. It has been an annual event since at least the 1970s. The show is regularly the most watched programme of the year on Irish television, with viewership figures rising steadily in recent years. The show, which consists of an adult-only studio audience dressed in traditional Christmas attire, does not accept advertisements which promote toys for its commercial breaks but, whilst new gadget-type toys regularly break down during the live show, being featured on the programme itself has been said to have a major boost to sales of a product over the following number of weeks in the build-up to the Christmas period.

1970