I love the archive channel. It's just ould lads sitting on a bench, double-denimed couples messing, Ford Cortinas overtaking Fiat 121s dangerously at high speeds

It’s not what you would call gripping TV. But it’s soothing. If it were made now, it would be called ‘Slow TV’, something which is apparently All The Rage In Norway. They have long programmes where nothing happens. 24 hours of some monotonous task or event; a log fire burning or a cruise ship going up the North Sea coast or a report being prepared to explain why people costing the Children’s hospital specified a rate for electrical cable but no mention of how long the cable was going to be.

The TV show I am watching is called Pieces of Land: The Phoenix Park from 1976. It’s on the RTE Player on a special RTE Archive Channel. Now I know that the mere mention of the RTE Player can cause people to twitch. It has had its moments over the years. In fact the only thing that definitely will always play is the ads. But in fairness, the powers that be must have uninstalled Windows, taken off the viruses and the games and RTE Player seems to be behaving itself. There’s mad stuff like schedules and also now there is an archive channel. I love the archive channel.