Our TV picks: Bill Clinton, Gerry Adams, Leo Varadkar and more answer The Irish Question

The likelihood of a border poll is becoming more and more of a possibility. But do we really understand what it might mean for everyone living on the island of Ireland?

Bill Clinton features in The Irish Question, Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm (RTÉ)

Fri, 24 Jul, 2026 - 12:00

Bonnie Tyler at the BBC

Today, BBC Two, 8.30pm

There were hearty tributes to the Welsh performer Bonnie Tyler (born Gaynor Hopkins in 1951) when she sadly died earlier this month after suffering complications following emergency surgery. The husky-voiced singer had some absolutely massive hits throughout her career, performed at the Eurovision, and was the only Welsh performer to ever have a number one in the US. Now the BBC is to pay tribute to Bonnie with this hour-long show, which will feature performances of her big hits like Total Eclipse of the Heart, Lost in France, Holding Out for a Hero, and It’s a Heartache. A trip to the archives that fans will be eager to enjoy.

The Rapture

Tomorrow, BBC One, 9pm

This new psychological thriller is based on Liz Jensen’s 2010 book of the same name, and stars Ruth Madeley as Gabrielle ‘Gabs’ Fox, a clinical psychologist for adolescents. Fox starts a new job at a high-security psychiatric hospital, which is where she meets 17-year-old Bethany Krall (India Amarteifio, who you might have seen in Queen Charlotte). Bethany was sectioned two years earlier for the shocking murder of her mother, Carys. The case was made all the more intriguing as Bethany’s father, Leonard Krall (Sam Hazeldine) is the leader of a spiritual movement. Bethany says that she is innocent, but also maintains (gulp) that she can see into the future. Gabs begins to look into what happened around Carys’s death, but is she being manipulated by Bethany?

Notably, this is set in a heatwave, which adds an intensity to the story and echoes the current weather situation in Britain.

TUMTHA

Monday, RTÉ One, 10.35pm

Directed by Mary Keane, TUMTHA is a documentary about the Coláistí Ullmhúcháin. These were seven all-Irish second-level boarding schools that were established in the early years of the State in order to support the revival of the Irish language.

Keane interviews the last generation to experience the schools, capturing their memories of their time there and in doing so tells the story of this cultural experiment, as well as showing how language itself shapes identity and memory.

The Vampire Lestat: Interview with the Vampire

Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Three series in, this screen adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel series The Vampire Chronicles is undergoing a bit of a change.

First there’s the title, which has evolved from the more simple Interview with the Vampire, and then there’s the details of the narrative itself. As we begin the third season, it’s 2025 and the focus has shifted to Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid). He has decided to become a rock god — as you do — in order to tell his side of the story after the publication of the titular interview with him. But his band members don’t know the full truth about their leader.

Alongside Lestat is Louis de Pointe du Lac/Thomas Pitt, played by Jacob Anderson, aka Grey Worm from Game of Thrones, who was the main focus of the previous seasons.

The Irish Question

Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm

The likelihood of a border poll is becoming more and more of a possibility. But do we really understand what it might mean for everyone living on the island of Ireland? That’s the core question at the heart of this programme, which features a whole heap of political talking heads giving their take on the issue.

So expect to hear from Bill Clinton, Bertie Ahern, Mary-Lou McDonald, Mike Nesbitt, Leo Varadkar, Monica McWilliams, John Major, Susan McKay, Fintan O’Toole, Gerry Adams, and Linda Irvine among others.

We’re promised that instead of tired old conversations, The Irish Question “takes a fresh and sometimes surprising look at the dark trauma of the past and the unique possibilities of the future”.

It’s certainly an urgent conversation right now, and this exploration of it is headed up by acclaimed film-maker Alan Gilsenan and journalist John Walsh.

Don’t Date Brandon

Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm

This three-part documentary kicks off tonight. It features a woman named Amber Rasmussen, who met a guy named Brandon Johnson when she tried online dating.

Brandon was handsome, had a great job, and their whirlwind romance turned into marriage. But Amber started to suspect her new man wasn’t all he seemed.

Who did she draft in to help? His ex-wife, Athena Klingerman.

Soon the women were, as is people’s wont in the 2020s, making their own podcast about Brandon and his cheating ways. But when more of his exes came forward, their allegations were that Brandon did more than lie. Part two and three follow tonight, so you can binge-watch in one go.

Ramy

Friday, Channel 4, 12.10am

Don’t let the fact this comedy is on at such a late hour put you off. If you missed it the first time around, the third season of Ramy — about a first-generation American Muslim-Arab living in New Jersey — is getting an airing on Channel 4.

Series creator Ramy Youssef has won a Golden Globe for his depiction of Ramy, who in the third season is trying to move on two years after his divorce from ex-wife Zainab. Ramy is dating while also attempting to earn enough money to pay off the dowry.

In this first episode, Ramy’s dedication to Islam is tested; meanwhile his Uncle Naseem gets stopped by airport security.

Episode two follows at 12.45am.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Paramount+, now streaming

Trekkies everywhere are waiting with anticipation for Paramount to beam them back on to the USS Enterprise for a new series of outer-space adventures with an old-school sensibility.

Strange New Worlds makes more than a nod to the original 1960s series, and this fourth series promises to “boldly go one step closer to where it all began”, whatever that means. Anson Mount is back as Capt Christopher Pike, with Ethan Peck as Spock and Rebecca Romijn as Number One. Paramount isn’t giving away many plot details, but we’re assured there’ll be no shortage of new planets, new threats, weird characters and scary aliens.

Furious

Disney+, from Monday

Alice Black is an FBI agent on the trail of a mysterious serial killer called Catherine, who targets wealthy men. In a highly charged cat- and-mouse game, an intense relationship builds up between the law-enforcement agent and her quarry, until the lines between right and wrong become very blurred indeed. Sounds as if we’ve got our new Killing Eve for summer 2026.

Emmy Rossum is Alice, with the Irish actor Lola Petticrew as Catherine, and Scoot McNairy as the seasoned NYPD detective Danny.

The series is created and produced by Liz Meriwether, loosely based on the 1987 film Black Widow, which starred Debra Winger and Theresa Russell.

Our Pick

In the Opinion of the Censor

Monday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm

The role of the Film Censor has been – to say the least – a controversial one since the passing of the Censorship of Films Act in 1923. In this documentary, Ireland’s final Film Censor (and its first Director of Film Classification) John Kelleher looks at one hundred years of film censorship in Ireland and how it has reflected the political, social and cultural evolution of the State itself.

Kelleher presents the programme, looking at the power held by individual film censors to ban or cut films if – in their opinion – they were ‘indecent, obscene, blasphemous, or contrary to public morality’. This is certainly one for those interested in both Irish film history and social history. Plus, expect to see clips from classic films such as Casablanca, which was censored in 1942 due to Ireland’s neutrality and the implication of an extra-marital affair between the characters Rick and Ilsa.

Our top TV picks: The fight for justice by survivors of Mother and Baby homes

The Sound of Inclusivity: 'Relaxed' shows widen appeal of Cork Opera House blockbuster

The Odyssey: Matt Damon and Christopher Nolan on their epic film