Reviewed: Top Coppers (Wednesday, BBC3); The Gleneagle (Sunday, RTÉ One); Madam Secretary (Thursday, Sky Living); Soccer Republic (Monday, RTÉ2)
It may be on TV's equivalent of death row, but BBC 3 continues to be the test lab for new comedy on the Beeb. Most of them don't get any further than getting viewed by friends, family and the odd straggler before heading directly to TV Heaven without passing through BBC One or Two, but notable exceptions include Little Britain, Gavin & Stacey, Two Pints . . . , The Mighty Boosh, Him & Her and Russell Howard's Good News.
A couple of new shows started in recent days, beginning last Wednesday with Top Coppers, which stars John Kearns and Steen Raskopoulos as red-haired, buddy cops Mitch Rust and John Mahogany.
They work as crook-catchers for the fictitious Justice City Police Department, which is a curious mix of 1970s' America and Britain – or, if you prefer, a bit of Starsky and Hutch mixed with The Sweeney or The Professionals. Borrowing a lot from shows of that era, it's pretty much a tongue-in-cheek pastiche that thankfully avoids condescension, but also stays far away from being reverential. It's a visual reference point more than anything else.
The opening episode deals with a drug baron who runs his business through an ice cream factory, and the whole thing rattles along like a Butlins' version of Police Squad! Lots of daft sight gags, making particularly good use of an office pet, all this show really lacks are some genuinely funny lines. They've got everything else down pat.
It was the final episode of fly-on-the-wall show The Gleneagle (Sunday, RTÉ One), and the six-parter concluded on a Christmas theme, as the staff at the Killarney hotel decked the halls and laid on a Santa-stic spectacular.
While the front and back staff showed a quite frankly bizarre appetite for working hard at a time of year when most hotel employees are enjoying a welcome break, it certainly explained why this place is so popular at Yuletide. Best of all was the search for Santa's special chair – apparently, he won't sit on anything else – which was eventually found, just in time for his brief visit on his way back to the North Pole.
Money couldn't buy the kind of advertising The Gleneagle hotel has achieved through this series. Its staff seems to be incredibly dedicated. I can only hope they're also well-paid.
As New Year's Eve beckoned, memories of the late Joe Dolan, who graced the INEC back on the cusp of 2000, were recalled as staff got ready for the 2014/15 event. Nathan Carter, the hugely successful Country and Irish star, was filling Joe's boots this time around and managed to sell out the venue.
It's refreshing to see that not all of Ireland is desperate to, like, prove that we're a five-million strong Clueless tribute act, and The Gleneagle shows that our quirky ways are still there. Why be a bland American when you can be a mad Paddy?
Talking of bland Americans, one of my favourite guilty pleasures these days is Madam Secretary (Thursday, Sky Living). Starring Téa Leoni as a female US Secretary of State Elizabeth Faulkner McCord, it follows the line of recent shows about successful women that includes The Good Wife, How to Get Away with Murder, Homeland and Scandal. Even Veep and Parks & Recreation could be included there.
But Madam Secretary isn't a patch on any of those shows, really. Very much a series for the home market, it tends to follow a basic plot of a) foreigners cause bother, and b) America – in the guise of SoS McCord – comes in and makes everything good again.
Last Thursday's episode was both topical and typical: the Greek debt crisis gets to the stage where the planet's economy is at risk, the rest of Europe's as angry as hell, only for our hero to get on her metaphorical horse, head to Brussles, and sort out those crazy Europeans.
Every week I watch this show with the missus, we laugh at the rhetoric, but also admire the ensemble cast that includes the ever-reliable likes of Tim Daly (The Sopranos, Private Practice), Željko Ivanek (you'll know his face but not his name) and Bebe Neuwirth (Frasier Crane's wife). The following week we're back again. Madam Secretary is a silly, slight show that's strangely compulsive. We need to get out more.
Finally, Soccer Republic (Monday, RTÉ2). This week Darragh Maloney - deputising for regular host Peter Collins - with analysts Richie Sadlier and Trevor Croly and concentrated on the latest fun and games in the FAI Cup, Irish football's most fascinating competition.
You can watch Soccer Republic here: http://bit.ly/1JtEerD
While professional football in Ireland lacks the glamour, big bucks and hype of the English Premier League, it's rarely short of drama or contentious issues, as this week was no different. Bohemians were knocked out by a goal that clearly wasn't, non-league inner City Dubs Sheriff YC beat First Division Athlone Town on penalties, while Cork City hammered Saint Patrick's Athletic in the tie of the round.
Eoghan Rice's audio-visual tribute to the FAI Cup was hugely enjoyable, and showed that this remarkable competition is surprisingly adept at springing surprises. It was a terrific way to wrap up a Monday night's telly.
John Byrne
