TV picks: Dr Marie Cassidy explores the history of Ireland's last witch trials

Plus: The series finale of Celebrity Traitors is set to be explosive

'Nocturne' is led by Liev Schreiber and Zazie Beetz, and stars Stephen Graham

Fri, 23 Oct, 2026 - 12:00

Aoife Barry

Do Not Watch Alone

Saturday, RTÉ One, 5.30pm

Young viewers aged 9 -12 are sure to enjoy this anthology of 10 bite-sized scary stories about everything from sinister monsters to cyborg teachers to brain-sucking aliens.

The fantastical horror/comedy series has plenty of scary stories, but aims to bring youngsters something fun to watch too. There’s also a message within the episodes about the resilience of kids in the face of adversity, so you don’t have to worry too much about the terrifying bits. In the first story, ‘Pest Friends’, we meet pest controllers brothers Dan and Tom, who have to face off evil fairies in a creepy old mansion.

The Unreal

Sunday, RTÉ One, 4.40pm

More spookiness for youngsters. The Unreal is back for a third season, with two episodes under the title ‘Curse of the Morrigan’. This is a comedy-horror that’s centred on the Kelly family: parents Mary and Tom and their kids Katie and Kevin. In the first episode of the new season, Kevin receives a mysterious postcard that contains a threat to reveal his secret. The secret? That he’s a fictional character who has escaped into the real world. The entire family head to a spooky island to investigate what’s going on, but find that the locals living there have plenty of secrets of their own. One for young people who like supernatural mysteries.

Trauma: My Broken Brain

Monday, Channel 4, 10pm

Around 7,500 people in Ireland are admitted to hospital because of strokes every year.

But it’s not just people in their later decades who are impacted by strokes.

As this programme shows, in the UK alone between 10,000 and 20,000 people under the age of 50 suffer from strokes annually. The documentary, which was filmed over seven months, focuses on the stories of three young people. One is Saskia, who nine months after a stroke is living at home and trying to overcome her debilitating OCD in order to regain her independence. Then there’s the former dancer Dan, who is using a wheelchair and re-learning how to speak.

Dec is in a coma after suffering a stroke, and his girlfriend and family are at his bedside hoping he will survive.

The programme makers describe it as “an ambitious and important series that challenges perceptions and gives a voice to young people whose lives have been transformed by stroke”.

The Handel Scandal: The Making of The Messiah

Tuesday, Sky Arts, 8pm

Ireland is very proud of its link to George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. The iconic oratorio premiered on Fishamble Street in Dublin in 1742 to a sell-out crowd, after an invite to Handel from the lord lieutenant, Lord Devonshire.

The young English actress and singer Susannah Cibber performed on the night, and it was her first time singing in front of an audience since a sordid adultery scandal had attracted a lot of attention.

This documentary programme is directed by Lisa Fairbank and presented by soprano Danielle de Niese, and looks at the controversial genesis of Handel’s Messiah and its connection to the disgraced Cibber.

Cheap Irish Homes

Tuesday, RTÉ One, 7pm

It’s the final episode in the current — and seventh — series of Cheap Irish Homes, where Maggie Molloy and architect Tadhg Casey have been travelling across the country to find affordable homes for buyers. So far this season they’ve found everything from forgotten cottages to town-centre treasures.

In this final episode, Maggie and Tadhg help 56-year-old Yvonne Rooney find a new abode. She’s living in Gorey, Co Wexford but wants to move to a quiet, rural location. She has a budget of €200,000, and is seeking a home that offers both privacy and a good size garden — and she doesn’t mind if it needs some renovation. Let’s see what the experts find for her.

The Future with Hannah Fry

Wednesday, BBC Two, 7.30pm

It’s been a busy year for British mathematician, author and broadcaster Hannah Fry. She’s been on the Celebrity Traitors (whose finale is also this week - see below), and also presents Radio 4’s Curious Cases with Dara O Briain and co-hosts The Rest Is Science podcast.

She’s back this week for the second season of this show where she uses her knowledge to help explore the world’s technological future, and explain what that might mean for us all. It might be no surprise to hear that the subject of this first episode is AI.

Murder in Belfast – Sisters Seeking Justice

Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

In 2005, Robert McCartney — a 33-year-old father-of-two — was killed by members of the IRA outside Magennis’ Bar in Belfast city centre.

After his death, his sisters Catherine, Paula, Gemma, Donna and Claire, as well as his fiancée, Bridgeen Hagans, fought for justice in the face of innumerable barriers and intimidation of potential eyewitnesses. They travelled the world and met political leaders, and this programme details their fight as well as the impact of McCartney’s tragic death on the family.

The Celebrity Traitors Finale

Friday, BBC One, 8pm

This season of the Celebrity Traitors has certainly been an entertaining and juicy watch. It started off with a bang when in the very first episode actor Richard E Grant told the Faithfuls that he was a Traitor, one of the most iconic moments in the show’s history.

The aftermath of this meant the rest of the contestants had plenty to chew on over the next few days. But Grant didn’t last long, and soon both comedian James Acaster and broadcaster Hannah Fry were recruited as Traitors — despite being quite reluctant to be on that side of the competition. Now everything will come to a head in the final episode, presented as always by Claudia Winkleman. Let’s hope it’s as explosive and bonkers as the rest of the series has been. It’s followed by an episode of The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked, which looks behind the scenes.

Minimum Wage

From Monday, Netflix

If you’re going to be working for minimum wage, then you may as well have maximum fun while you’re slaving away at your McJob. Meet the teenage staff of The Slice Club, a local pizzeria in Liverpool, New York, who are trying to keep several plates in the air, including a headwrecking boss, school, and keeping the customers at the pizzeria from walking out in disgust, in this new workplace comedy series.

The series has evolved from the viral American High Shorts series of videos that have drawn a big following on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram since 2024. If Clerks, The Bear and Jackass crashed into each other in the skate park, they’d probably look a bit like this series. The cast members all go by their own first names, and the style is a mix of scripted cringe and improvised chaos. With added pepperoni.

Nocturne

From Friday, Apple TV

Liev Schreiber and Stephen Graham are the heavyweight names on opposite sides of the law in this dark, dark crime series based on the bestselling Scandi-noir novels by Lars Kepler, the pseudonym of Swedish husband-and-wife authors Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril.

The action has been moved to the US for this series, but the intent is the same: to give viewers that creepy feeling of being afraid to watch what happens next, but unable to tear their eyes away from the unfolding horror. Schreiber is former soldier Jonah Lynn, who works as a homicide detective in Philadelphia; he’s decided to get away from the pressure cooker of big city policing and move with his family to a small town in western Pennsylvania.

But if he thinks he’s in for a relaxing time, he’s in for a shock when the town is terrorised by serial killer Jurek Walter (Graham), who likes to bury his victims alive so he can taunt their loved ones.

No prizes for guessing that Lynn’s own family is targeted by Walter, and he is forced to make some agonising choices to save those he loves the most. Zazie Beetz co-stars as FBI agent Saga Bauer.

Our Pick

Dr Marie Cassidy Investigates Ireland’s Last Witch Trial

Thursday, RTÉ One, 10.15pm

Former State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy travels across Ireland and Scotland to investigate Ireland's last witch trial, Thursday, RTÉ One, 10.15pm

Amongst a heap of spooky TV shows this week is this one with former state pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy at the helm.

She looks back at Ireland’s last witch trial, which took place in 1711 on the peninsula of Islandmagee, 20 miles north of Belfast.

Rumours emerged that an 18-year-old woman named Mary Dunbar was demonically possessed but Mary accused eight local women of practising witchcraft and being behind her torment.

The women were put on trial and found guilty before being brutally punished. Dr Cassidy travels to Dublin, Edinburgh, Belfast, and Islandmagee to meet experts including Gillian Kenny, who will talk about the beliefs around witchcraft in Gaelic Ireland compared to the beliefs in Dunbar’s Scots Presbyterian community.

She also meets an expert in the case, Andrew Sneddon, heads to the Ulster Folk Museum to find out about life for Ulster-Scots Presbyterian women at that time, and goes to Edinburgh to meet Witches of Scotland podcasters and campaigners Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi to learn how women were targeted with witchcraft accusations.

The programme concludes on Islandmagee itself, where Dr Cassidy visits a memorial to the accused women.

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