RTE unveils new season schedule

RTÉ Television this week launched the new season of programming across RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, and RTÉjr.
RTÉ One Factual will be offering viewers a wide range of powerful one-off documentaries which promise to stimulate debate around important topics such as class, education, and surrogacy.
These include the Sundance Award-winner The Summit, about the deadliest day in modern mountain climbing history; My Lockout which gives a unique insight into the most famous labour dispute in Irish history and, as the legal debate around surrogacy plays out in our courts, Surrogacy goes beyond the constitutional debate to tell the human stories behind the headlines.
Landmark drama continues to be at the heart of the RTÉ One schedule, featuring the best in Irish talent both on-screen and behind the camera.

IFTA award-winning Love/Hate is back for its fourth season under King Nidge’s reign and Ireland’s favourite home-grown soap Fair City enters its 25th season with a catastrophic event that has devastating consequences for Carrigstown.
New series Amber, starring Eva Birthistle (Waking The Dead) and David Murray (Raw), tells the story of a family’s desperate search to find their teenage daughter. Also new to our screens is atmospheric thriller Quirke starring Gabriel Byrne as chief pathologist-turned-detective in 1950s Dublin.

This season will also bring network premieres of the award-winning, indigenous movies What Richard Did and The Guard, both of which have been co-produced by RTÉ.
In new Entertainment series for RTÉ One, Hector Ó hEochagáin crosses the border into Northern Ireland for the very first time and Des Bishop ventures to China in an attempt to deliver a successful comedy show through a language he doesn’t yet speak.
On RTÉ One Lifestyle, Mairead Farrell is looking to find Ireland’s Fittest Family and the all-new Design Doctors are here with practical tips and inspiring ideas to help us make the most of our homes.
A new medical series, Doctor on Call, sees Dr Johnny Walker use the latest cutting edge technology to diagnose and treat communities around Ireland and Áine Lawlor re-traces the steps of her journey to overcome breast cancer.

The focus in Arts this season is on creating major events which bring the public and artists together to generate debate and discussion around Irish culture. The Play Next Door is a major three-part series which challenges three well-known writers to deliver a television play under unusual circumstances.
Following their success on the Republic of Telly, Damo and Ivor are back on RTÉ Two with a brand new comedy/drama alongside a stellar cast including Rik Mayall (The Young Ones), Ruth McCabe (Single-Handed), and Norma Sheehan (Moone Boy).
Katherine Lynch returns to our screens with a new sitcom, The Centre, which follows six weeks in the life of St Bartholomew’s Community Centre. And comedian Kevin McGahern is the new presenter of the Republic of Telly which returns along with other favourites Don’t Tell The Bride and The Mario Rosenstock Show.

Maia Dunphy takes a look at the issues affecting women in 21st century Ireland in a new series Maia Dunphy’s What Women Want. The Reality Bites series returns with eight new one-off documentaries that reflect modern Irish life including Nightshift which documents a night in the life of those who are only starting their day’s work as we lie tucked up in bed, Angela Scanlon explores one of Ireland’s most distinctive and best-known features, our red hair in Oi Ginger! and Vogue MacFadden presents Vogue Does Home and Away.

There’s brand new acquired dramas including the Irish-based series Vikings, Stephen King’s Under The Dome, plus the return of big-hitting series including Revenge, Homeland and Mad Men.
Launched earlier this year RTÉjr is a new dedicated children’s channel on TV, radio, online and mobile.
New to RTÉjr from September: Meet the Orchestra is a new series which introduces one orchestral instrument with the help of a music computer called Maestro; a search to find the biggest and scarriest bugs in Bugs Hunters and new animation in Travels of Marco Polo.

Full information on all programmes is available at www.rte.ie/tv/newseason2013