RTÉ field top team for World Cup

SO the wanderer returns… not that anyone probably missed me but even TV critics need a break from television. Although it would be a lie to say that I didn’t watch telly for the past month.
The World Cup… what a great event. I love it! Every four years it jumps on to our television screens, takes over our lives mesmerising us with facts, figures and, this year, vuvuzelas.
So you can understand why I might be a little sad at the fact that very soon, Sunday in fact, my reason for finding any house, bar or window in Cuba with a television is about to end. What will I watch, what will I write about?
Well all is not lost because the good folks on this fair island and the one across that narrow stretch of sea have been preparing and there are actually some programmes worth taking a look at. They are pretty well spread out across the summer schedule but they do include some new series of some old favourites as well as just some new stuff. So let the rain pour, we shall not be bored.
However, first things first. Before the World Cup began all those weeks ago there was one topic, aside from “who will win?” and who did you get in whatever sweeps you are involved in? That was: who gives the best coverage?
We are blessed in this country because we have three providers to choose from. Billo and the gang on RTÉ, BBC and their seemingly never-ending list of premiership stars and legends and, of course, ITV.
So who won out? Well I must admit that I got most of my coverage from Mexico and, as my Spanish doesn’t stretch far beyond “gracias”, it was more of a visual feast.
However, since returning home I have done my best to hop between all three providers. I would always have said RTÉ before the coverage began and now, as it draws to a close, I am sticking with that.
RTÉ do the World Cup in style. Billo, Giles, Dunphy, Brady and Whelan are all characters and they all have an actual knowledge of football. The discussions were hilarious, odd, insightful, fraught and relevant.
They can talk football and what’s even better, they talk about all aspects of football. From referees to rule changes to events on the pitch, the whole tournament is discussed, teased out and analysed so if you are an anorak like me, it is brilliant.
The boys get so passionate about their point that you feel at any moment (and remember it has happened in the past) one of them might just rip off their microphone and storm out. The BBC’s coverage, on the other hand, although fine, is more like their coverage of Wimbledon than the World Cup. It’s polite and it gets the job done but it lacks passion. The panel are fine but all the shiny shirts, broadcasting pods on Table Mountain and tens of journalists on the ground cannot take from the fact that after a few sentences, their opinion is exhausted and they never seem to want to fight for their point of view.
It’s not bad, it just seems limp in comparison to the punch of the RTÉ boys.
ITV’s coverage still has a long way to go but improvements have been made. Despite these minor criticisms it has been a most enjoyable World Cup and not just because my team is still… no, nothing at all to do with that.
From the creators of Arrested Development comes a new show currently being shown on 3e at 10.35pm on Monday nights. Community stars a host of familiar faces, and is very much along the same lines as Arrested Development but slightly more mainstream. I am going to say that it’s a grower, mainly because I really like Arrested Development and I cannot give up on this just yet.
The story centres around Jeff Winger a lawyer who has been struck off and so returns to community college. Community college is usually the step between high school and university in America and is often looked down upon by people for various reasons.
Jeff quickly falls in with a group of misfits which includes among many familiar faces a grey-haired, radar-wearing Chevy Chase. The comedy moves around these people and the bizarre situations that they find themselves in as well as love interests and assignments.
The characters are all the usual clichés – over-achiever who had a pill problem, brainy but shy jock, nice, chatty divorcée and the hot chick.
But what has worked for this creative team in the past has been their ability to write around characters and to draw the bizarre out of the mundane. The first episode was amusing but not laugh-out-loud so a tentative grower status will have to suffice until I can establish whether or not I am just clinging to a creative team’s past glory.
Some programmes to watch out for this weekend include a new game show on BBC One. The show, hosted by Steve Jones, is called 101 Ways to Leave a Game show.
In it, the contestants have to avoid being ejected from the game show in a series of unusual and wacky ways. Steve Jones is probably best known for presenting T4, Channel 4’s weekend show but he has also done a number of other things. In the past ten years he has been on an Amazon adventure with his brother for Sky One, crashed weddings in Mexico for BBC 3 and dropped in to Austria and Vietnam for the series Drop Zone.
This rather unusual game show should see him become even more of a household name as it is the BBC’s teatime showcase. Well worth a look.

One to Watch
The programme to watch on Monday is The Silence. Starring Dervla Kirwan, Douglas Henshall and Genevieve Barr this drama centres on a deaf girl who witnesses a murder. Following this she finds herself plunged in to a police investigation and the hearing world.
It promises to be a moving piece of drama that is strongly character and actor driven. It could prove to be one of the highlights of the summer so check it out on BBC One at 9pm.