October is shaping up to be a busy month for new releases across film, TV and music. Whether you want the shared buzz of a cinema trip, a night in with the latest streaming drop, or a brand-new album on your playlist, there's plenty to look forward to.
From home-grown Irish stories and spine-tingling horror to family adventures and major international releases, here’s what’s on the way.
Music
One very big name dominates October's new music releases, but if you’re not a Swiftie, there’s plenty of other fresh albums, including a number of must-hears from Irish acts, says Alan Corr.
Taylor Swift - The Life of a Show Girl, 3 October
Dominating October's new music releases and possibly the rest of the space-time continuum for ALL ETERNITY is the new album by the one they call Taylor Swift. That title has clearly been inspired by her recent epic world tour. A lot has happened since the last album from Pop’s supreme leader - there was the Eras Tour (including three nights at the Aviva in Dublin), her engagement to American Football star Travis Kelce and, who knows, maybe she got a new cat.
Unsurprisingly, preview steams of this new album are unavailable so what do we know about the 12-track The Life of a Show Girl?
After hitting a rich seam of confessionals on recent releases, including last year’s The Tortured Poets Department, Swift has said her latest (her twelfth) is a vibrant and lively project, departing from the bleak lyricism of recent work.
She worked with Swedish super producers Max Martin and Shellback for the first time since 2017’s Reputation. We also know that Sabrina Carpenter appears on the title track.
Swift has also said she wanted to focus "on quality and on the theme and everything fitting together like a perfect puzzle" and that creating "infectious" melodies was one of her goals with The Life of a Showgirl.
The track listing: The Fate of Ophelia, Elizabeth Taylor, Opalite, Father Figure, Eldest Daughter, Ruin the Friendship, Actually Romantic, Wish List, Wood, Cancelled!, Honey, The Life of a Showgirl.
Ash - Ad Astra, 3 October
And now for something completely different... The consistently great Northern Irish power pop trio are back with their ninth album. It features eleven new songs and we’ve already heard lead single Give Me Back My World. It also makes perfect sense that ace plank spanker Graham Coxon of Blur and sundry solo albums appears on two tracks - Fun People and title song Ad Astra. Best of all, you can catch this blisteringly great live band on their upcoming Irish club tour.
Oasis - (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), 3 October
Cashing in... sorry, celebrating their record-breaking reunion tour, here’s the 30th anniversary edition of Oasis’ zillion-selling second album. Originally released to extraordinary impact in 1995, this was also, sadly, their last good album. Featuring smash hits and even a couple of standards, most of it still sounds pretty vital thirty years later. This shiny new version comes with unplugged versions of five tracks from the original studio album, namely Morning Glory, Cast No Shadow, Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova and the previously released Acquiesce. Remember them this way.
Just Mustard - We Were Just Here, 24 October
Dundalk five-piece Just Mustard have been one of the most compelling underground acts in Ireland these past few years and have been steadily building a solid live reputation with their noise pop, trip hop, and electronica. Recorded at the Black Mountain studio just outside the band’s hometown, their third album, We Were Just Here, arrives just in time for spooky season
Speaking about the new release, singer Katie Ball says, "I was trying to write more optimistically, and feeling like a fraud sometimes. To find Pollyanna as a title, I was looking up different words for toxic happiness.
"I was trying to achieve happiness even if it wasn’t always helpful. Euphoria was a word that kept coming up - trying to feel euphoric, but at a cost."
Also listen out for: From The Pyre by The Last Dinner Party, Love Chant by The Lemonheads, Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition by Bruce Springsteen, Avenoir by Calum Scott, after the sun goes down by Khalid, Infinite by Mobb Deep, Everybody Scream by Florence + The Machine, We Are Love by The Charlatans.
Television
Sarah McIntyre takes a look at the best new and returning TV and streaming shows this month.
Build Your Own Home, 1 October, RTÉ One, 9:35pm
Series two of Build Your Own Home kicks off tonight. The show chronicles the mammoth challenges faced by participants across Ireland as they set out to build and renovate their own dilapidated homes under the watchful eye of master builder and building teacher, Harrison Gardner. In the first episode, newlyweds Aoife and Louis have plans for an ambitious modern extension onto their 200-year-old one-bed cottage in Tuam, Co Galway.
Love Is Blind, 1 October, Netflix
The pods are now officially open for season nine of Love Is Blind, with the action taking place in Denver, Colorado. A new bunch of singletons will take part in the tried-and-tested approach of choosing their significant other "sight-unseen". But can their romance survive in the real world?
Dance Master, 2nd October, RTÉ One,10.15pm
Dance Master promises to offer an insightful portrait of Breandán de Gallaí, tracing his evolution from traditional dancer to choreographer unafraid to challenge convention. Filmed over the course of a year, the documentary follows de Gallaí's artistic process rehearsing, performing and reflecting both on early-life spent inside the boundaries of Irish dance and the evolution of dance norms in 2025.
Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, 2 October, BBC One at 9pm
This hour-long documentary follows rock star Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon in the final years of his life. The intimate film chronicles their return home to the UK after 25 years in Los Angeles, Ozzy's Parkinson’s diagnosis and his final concert. It was filmed over three years and has been told through "unique and intimate access" to the whole family, including Ozzy, Sharon, son Jack and daughter Kelly.
How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge), 3 October, BBC One at 9:30pm
Everyone’s favourite Norwich broadcaster Alan Partridge is making an eagerly anticipated return to our screens with How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge), a six-part mockumentary starting on BBC One on 3 October. Partridge is leaving behind "a lucrative career voicing radio commercials" to make a brave return to television "to make Britain's first ever documentary about mental health".
Listen: Alan Corr previews the return of Alan Partridge for Arena in RTÉ Radio 1
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Borderline, 3 October, UTV at 9pm
Borderline, an Ireland-based crime drama from Cold Feet writer John Forte, looks very promising. It stars Amy De Bhrún (Line of Duty) and Eoin Macken (Merlin) as polar-opposite detectives from both sides of the border who are called in to investigate the murder of a woman who is found on a beach. Northern Irish detective inspector Philip Boyd (Macken) is prim and by-the-books, and it's not long before he clashes with his counterpart from the Republic of Ireland, the foul-mouthed Aoife Regan (De Bhrún). The cast also includes Lochlann O'Mearain, Hugh O'Connor and Charlotte Bradley.
DIY SOS: The Big Build Ireland, 5 October, RTÉ One, 6:30pm
Baz Ashmawy, he of hard hat and soft heart, returns for a new season of the feelgood show where everyone lends a hand to get the job done. "We went to Mooncoin, we went to Tallaght, and we went to Clarecastle this year," he tells RTÉ Entertainment of the upcoming episodes. "I think the way things are in the world now, you could lose faith in humanity - and then you go somewhere and you spend 10 days or nine days on a building site with a thousand people and you're just blown away by it. They're just the best people."
The Celebrity Traitors, 8 October, BBC One, 9pm
The first ever UK Celebrity Traitors, which counts Irish actress Ruth Codd, actor Stephen Fry and Welsh singer Charlotte Church among its all-star cast, is coming to BBC One on 8 October. A group of 19 well-known faces will join presenter Claudia Winkleman for the ultimate game of deceit and betrayal, where they will compete for the chance to win a cash prize of up to £100,000 (€114,000) for a charity of their choice. Will this fill a Traitors Ireland-sized hole in our lives? Only time will tell.
Victoria Beckham, 9 October, Netflix
The three-part docuseries Victoria Beckham, directed by Nadia Hallgren (Becoming) and from the makers of the Emmy Award–winning Beckham, follows the Spice Girl-turned-fashion designer as she prepares for her biggest ever show at Paris Fashion Week. The intimate show traces her journey from an "awkward" child to world-dominating popstar and marriage to David Beckham. It remains to be seen if there will be any viral moments like the Rolls-Royce revelation from David Beckham’s documentary, although the trailer does close out with this amusing aside from Victoria: "Let’s be honest, I couldn’t actually make a cheese sandwich very well."
Riot Women, BBC One, 12 October
From Happy Valley writer Sally Wainright comes Riot Women, a comedy drama about a group of menopausal women who start a punk band in West Yorkshire. Joanna Scanlan, Rosalie Craig, Tamsin Greig, Lorraine Ashbourne, and Amelia Bullmore lead the strong cast. If the trailer is anything to go by, this looks like a very fun time. "We sing songs about being middle-aged and menopausal and more or less invisible. And you thought The Clash were angry," one of the band members tells a skeptical looking teen in the trailer.
The Diplomat, season 3, 16 October, Netflix
Season three of the enjoyably pulpy political drama The Diplomat lands on Netflix on 16 October, picking up directly after the dramatic events of season two's finale, when US Ambassador Kate (Keri Russell), her husband Hal (Rufus Sewell), and Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) found out that US President Rayburn (Michael McKean) had died, leaving Grace as the new commander-in-chief. "A terribly flawed woman is now the president, and only we know just how flawed," a shaken Kate tells Hal in the explosive trailer for the new run. In exciting news for The West Wing fans, Janney’s former co-star Bradley Whitford has joined the cast as her on-screen husband Todd Penn, while Irish actor Aidan Turner will play Callum Ellis, who looks poised to have a romantic entanglement with Kate.
The Iris Affair, 16 October, Sky Atlantic and NOW
Irish actress Niamh Algar (The Virtues) and Tom Hollander (The Night Manager) lead this tension-filled, cat-and-mouse thriller from the creator of Luther, Neil Cross. Algar plays Iris, a genius hacker who cracks a string of complex online puzzles, leading her to Florence where she meets mysterious entrepreneur Cameron Beck (Hollander), who invites her to work for him on a piece of top-secret technology. When she discovers the project's dangerous potential, she steals a vital piece of information and goes on the run, leading to a deadly pursuit across Italy as Beck tries to track her down.
Lazarus, 22 October, Prime Video
Lazarus is the new original drama series from best-selling author Harlan Coben (Fool Me Once, Safe) and BAFTA-winner Danny Brocklehurst (Shameless). It follows a forensic psychologist (Sam Clafin) who returns home after his father (Bill Nighy) dies by suicide. He begins having disturbing, unexplained experiences as he starts investigating a series of cold-case murders, while grappling with the mystery of his father's death and his sister’s murder 25 years ago.
Nobody Wants This, season 2, 23 October, Netflix
The hit rom-com Nobody Wants This is back for a second season and we couldn’t be more excited. The very funny, swoonworthy first series saw the outspoken, agnostic podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) fall for kind, unconventional rabbi Noah (Adam Brody). The second run picks up after Joanne admitted she wasn’t ready to convert to Judaism, as the couple struggle to navigate their cross-cultural relationship. In a great piece of casting, Brody’s real-life wife Leighton Meester has joined the cast as Abby, Joanne’s school nemesis who is now a mummy blogger.
Movies
Whether you fancy a trip to the cinema or curling up on the couch as the nights get darker there are plenty of new movies out this month - Harry Guerin and Suzanne Keane round them up.
The Smashing Machine, 3 October, 15A
"The Smashing Machine changed my life." So said Dwayne Johnson when he recently appeared on The Graham Norton Show to discuss his portrayal of real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr in director Benny Safdie's bruiser of a biopic. Along with changing Johnson's life, The Smashing Machine will shatter people's perceptions of him as an actor. Simply put, he's stunning in this study of hypermasculinity and the bouts inside someone's own head. Going the distance here could well see Johnson having his Oscars speech ready come March... (HG)
Steve, Netflix from 3 October
Cillian Murphy reunites with Small Things Like These director Tim Mielants for this adaptation of author Max Porter's novella Shy. It follows the head teacher at a last-chance school for young offenders. As Steve tries to do the best by everyone over the course of 24 hours, the troubles in his own mind intensify. The second film from Murphy's production company Big Things Films, Steve showcases another must-see turn from the Cork actor. (HG)
A House of Dynamite, cinemas from 3 October, Netflix from 24 October, 15A
It's Armageddon time here with The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow charting the desperate seconds as the US moves to respond to the firing of a nuclear missile by an unidentified enemy. Idris Elba plays the US President and Rebecca Ferguson is among the military in the control room. The trailer from Oscar winner Bigelow promises a masterclass in tension in cinemas or at home - and maybe a sleepless night afterwards. (HG)
HIM, 3 October, 15A
Produced by Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions, HIM takes the high-stakes world of college football and twists it into a nightmare. Rising star Tyriq Withers plays a young athlete whose dream season begins to unravel as strange, sinister forces close in. Blending locker-room drama with supernatural horror, it’s pitched as one of autumn’s most intriguing genre releases. (SK)
Dora: Magic Mermaid Adventure, 3 October, G
Everyone's favourite explorer is returning to the big screen in a brand-new animated story. This time Dora and Boots are plunged beneath the waves on a magical mermaid quest. Packed with songs, puzzles and audience interaction, it’s a bright and musical adventure designed to delight younger cinemagoers and their families. (SK)
I Swear, 10 October
If it's tears, laughter, and laughter through tears that you're after, look no further than I Swear, the true story of Tourette's syndrome campaigner John Davidson. Written and directed by Waking Ned's Kirk Jones, I Swear features a gem of a central performance from Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings star Robert Aramayo and great support from Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson, and Peter Mullan. This is some workout for the heart - and one of the best British films of the decade. (HG)
A Want in Her, 10 October
Artist-filmmaker Myrid Carten turns the camera on her own family in what looks like an intimate and unconventional documentary. When her mother goes missing, Carten is drawn into a story of love, memory and addiction, weaving together old home videos, performance and new footage. The result promises to be a raw portrait of resilience and complicated bonds. (SK)
Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie, 17 October, G
The preschool hit makes the leap to cinemas with its first feature-length story. Combining live action with colourful animation, Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie takes Gabby and her cat-tastic pals on a fresh adventure full of songs, gentle humour and lessons about friendship, perfect for a family cinema day out. (SK)
The Black Phone 2, 17 October, 16
The terrifying "Grabber" tale continues in the sequel to the 2021 hit. Several years after the first film, new disappearances reopen old wounds for the survivors, who must confront the horrors of the past all over again. Ethan Hawke returns in what is promised to be a darker chapter that promises fresh scares and deeper mythology.
Ballad of a Small Player, 17 October (limited cinemas), 29 October, Netflix, 15A
Colin Farrell stars in Edward Berger’s psychological thriller based on Lawrence Osborne’s novel. Set in Macau’s world of high-stakes casinos and neon-lit hotels, it follows a disgraced lawyer drifting through a haze of risk and reinvention. When luck turns against him, obsession and betrayal take centre stage. (SK)
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, 24 October, 12A
Jeremy Allen White steps into the shoes of Bruce Springsteen in this intimate look at the making of his stark 1982 album Nebraska. At a time when fame was beckoning, Springsteen chose to strip everything back, and the film explores the tension between ambition, art and personal demons. (SK)
The Mastermind, 24 October
Josh O’Connor and Alana Haim lead this character-driven heist drama from Kelly Reichardt. It follows a group of ordinary people drawn into an extraordinary plan, exploring ambition, betrayal and the dangerous thrill of believing you’re the smartest one in the room. (SK)
Pets on a Train, 24 October, G
This animated comedy caper puts a ragtag group of runaway pets on a high-speed train, turning the journey into a race against time. With slapstick action, colourful animation and a heartwarming message about friendship, it’s aimed squarely at children and families looking for a fun cinema outing. (SK)
Kenny Dalglish, 29 October (one-night cinema event)
From Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia comes a documentary about one of football’s most respected figures. Combining unseen archive with candid interviews, the film charts Dalglish’s career at Celtic and Liverpool as well as the private man behind the headlines, from triumphs on the pitch to personal tragedy. (SK)
Bugonia, 31 October, 15A
Yorgos Lanthimos reteams with Emma Stone in a surreal sci-fi satire also starring Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe. Mixing dark humour with unsettling ideas, it takes aim at corporate greed and human folly in a story that promises equal parts comedy, horror and biting commentary. (SK)
