RTÉ box-set well worth viewing

EACH spring, RTÉ’s Mooney Show sets up nest-boxes at locations around Dublin.

The boxes are fitted with video cameras so that nests can be watched on the internet. In show-business, they say, you should never work with children or animals, so reality TV shows featuring birds are brave undertakings. Pit-falls abound and programme makers can suddenly be left with nothing to transmit.

The Mooney nest-box project, however, has been extraordinarily successful; the show’s first web-cam venture, featuring a jackdaw’s nest, won the prestigious Prix Europa prize in Berlin. Last year’s offering developed into a dramatic cliff-hanger as two blue tit broods ran foul of adverse weather and baby birds died.