The road trip of a lifetime for Patrick Duffy, a tribute to the late Mary O'Rourke, and two must-see films are among the recommendations for tonight.
Duffy's Pub
6:30pm, RTÉ One
Always fascinated by the communities which develop around their local pub, @therealpduffy has decided to return to Ireland to see for himself how Irish pubs have evolved and changed, as he journeys through his beloved country on his way home.#DuffysPub | Sunday 28th | 6.30pm |… pic.twitter.com/bn0sYYJtIe
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) December 25, 2025
More feelgood telly for the festive season as Dallas star Patrick Duffy brings it all back home. A third-generation Irishman, who was born on St Patrick's Day, grew up in his parents' bar in Montana, and is a bar owner himself in Tinseltown, the duty-bound Duffy makes the trip across the Atlantic to honour his family, visiting "as many pubs called Duffy's as he can" with his partner and fellow actor Linda Purl. "All the while," we're told, "he is journeying home to Kilmovee, Co Mayo, to visit the place where his grandfather was born and reconnect with his roots." Judging by the smiles and hugs in the clip above, Duffy found everything he wanted and more - and tourism bosses will now be queuing up to hug him.
Cloch le Carn - Mary O'Rourke: The Mammy
7:30pm, RTÉ One
Cloch le Carn celebrates "the life, career, and legacy" of the late Mary O'Rourke, the former Fianna Fáil TD and government minister, who died in October 2024 at the age of 87. Admired for her work ethic, political nous, straight-talking, and, indeed, wit, Mary O'Rourke was first elected to the Dáil in the Longford-Westmeath constituency in November 1982 and would go on to serve as Minister for Education, Health, and Public Enterprise over the course of a political career spanning four decades. She was also deputy leader of Fianna Fáil from 1994 to 2002. We're promised "a rich, warm, and definitive portrait of a woman who shaped Irish politics for generations, who championed her community with passion, and who remained grounded in family, friendship, and the people she served".
Scene by Scene: Terence Stamp
11:40pm, BBC Four
As a tribute to the English acting great, who died in August at the age of 87, here's a chance to see his 1998 sit-down with Mark Cousins. The epitome of 1960s London cool, Terence Stamp's career spanned everything from the Thomas Hardy adaptation Far from the Madding Crowd to Ken Loach's kitchen-sink drama Poor Cow to Superman ("Kneel before Zod!") to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. In his own words, he also turned down "wonderful things", including Alfie, which went on to star his former flatmate Michael Caine, and Once Upon a Time in the West. "I was actually fearful, but I was telling myself that I was being choosy," the maverick admits to Cousins. It's a fascinating interview, but it doesn't cover two of Stamp's best films: Stephen Frears's The Hit (1984) and Steven Soderbergh's The Limey (1999). If crime dramas are your thing, you need to watch both of them after watching this.
The Night Of
Channel 4 Player
A must-see that stops you in your tracks and then rattles around in your mind for days afterwards, The Night of the 12th brings us to the southeastern French city of Grenoble to follow the investigation into the murder of 21-year-old Clara Royer (Lula Cotton-Frapier). As Captain Vivès (Bastien Bouillon), his partner Marceau (Bouli Lanners), and their fellow detectives conduct the interviews, we witness the psychological toll of the case and also confront the questions it asks of them - and us. An iron-grip film from minute one, writer-director Dominik Moll's unbearably tense procedural is punctuated by outbursts of anger and moments of achingly sad candour, belonging in the same exalted company as The Wire, The Night Of, Wind River, and any crime/mystery classic you care to mention. Rarely has the forensic principle "every contact leaves a trace" been so brilliantly realised on the screen - or delivered with such urgency.
Sinners
8:00pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
A genre rager, Sinners takes us back to 1932 Mississippi as hard-chaw twins Elijah 'Smoke' and Elias 'Stack' Moore (both played by Michael B Jordan) return to their old stomping ground to open a juke joint. Their ambitions for the place are bigger than the wad of dollar bills they're waving about in town, but, as the joke goes, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. Or maybe in this case, The Devil... Writer-director Ryan Coogler (Creed, Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) arguably delivers his best film to date with this piledriver of a polemic, mixing myths, music, and mayhem from dusk 'til dawn. With Coogler's long-time leading man Jordan in fearsome front-and-centre form as the twins, Sinners is impeccably cast, serving up screen chemistry every bit as heady as anything Smoke and Stack can offer from behind the bar. We could have done with more of Jack O'Connell as in-the-shadows Irish villain Remmick (there's a spin-off movie just waiting to be made, ditto Nathaniel Arcand as the hunter we see near the start), and, indeed, Sinners could have added another 30 minutes onto its two-hour-plus running time and still had you on the hook. If you've yet to bear witness to this wild night, cancel your plans. And be sure to stick around for the post-credits sequence; it's one of the best of the lot.
