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What to watch on RTÉ Player this week!

The RTÉ Player team share their top picks to watch on RTÉ Player this week.

 

What’s Trending?

Alison Spittles’ Culchie Club

The Twitter machine fell in love with Ballina’s Bradley Brock in Alison Spittle’s Culchie Club as the make-up artist and drag queen, who lives with his close-knit family up a botharín miles outside town, prepared for the first ever Mayo Pride festival.  In case you missed it, check out Alison Spittle’s Culchie Club on RTÉ Player as comedian Alison Spittle meets a variety of very different young culchies and explores what it means to them to be a country person and why they feel such a connection to their home.  Grappling with her identity as part English blow-in, lapsed culchie, and wistful twenty-something, Alison considers the legendary divide between the Pale and the rest of Ireland that is becoming increasingly immaterial, as broadband, motorways and a more mobile population erode the differences.  Will this put an end to the stereotype of the backward culchie?  Among others, Alison meets Kerry Comedian Shane Clifford, Kerry personality and glamorous influencer, Erika Fox of Retro Flame and the proudest culchie of them all, Cavan man Kevin McGahern, whose connection to home, Alison has always envied.  Watch it now on RTÉ Player.

 

What’s New?

National Treasures

 

National Treasures presenter John Creedon

National Treasures is a brand new series exploring fascinating objects in the hands of ordinary people that reveal the social history of Ireland over the last 100 years.  Presented by John Creedon and filmed at a series of unique road show events held across the four provinces, each episode uncovers an eclectic mix of objects that have been preserved in the attics, mantelpieces and shoe boxes of Ireland’s inhabitants.  During each programme a carefully selected team of curators are tasked with examining these artefacts with the ultimate goal of selecting a special few to be included in a unique exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland.  From politics to sport, work life to civil rights and music to fashion every single aspect of Irish social history will be explored through the fascinating objects brought to the road shows.  Alongside the exciting road show events, travelling curator Michael Fortune will explore the boreens and laneways of rural Ireland finding more objects and owners and searching out people who couldn’t make it along to the road shows.  The first episode kicked off in Cork and is available to watch now on RTÉ Player.

 

What Not to Miss?

The Zoo

Now entering its eighth season The Zoo has established itself as a firm favourite among Irish households and it’s shaping up to be an incredible year at Dublin Zoo, as the cameras will once again go behind the scenes to follow the passion and expertise of its animal care team.  One of the main stories featured this series includes the birth of an unprecedented three new elephant calves, which brings with it great drama and challenges for the elephant care team while at the orang-utan house; an introduction of a completely different kind is taking place.  With a new female orang-utan, Sari, being introduced to the group from Barcelona Zoo, the keepers use a pioneering technique to introduce her to the dominant male, Sibu, via video link.  Further afield, zookeepers Ciarán and Aisling will travel to Indonesia making a stop at Borneo to visit the work being done by the Orang-utan foundation, a conservation project rescuing critically endangered orang-utans and returning them to the wild.  Sandra will then travel to the forests of Sulawesi to visit another project supported by Dublin Zoo protecting the Sulawesi crested macaque, and see first-hand some of the threats they face in the wild, including an eye-opening visit to a bush-meat market.  Catch up with the brand new series of The Zoo now on RTÉ Player.

 

Pick of the Week

Big Week on the Farm

Big Week on the Farm Áine Lawlor and Ella McSweeney

Early April, is one of the busiest times of the year for farmers, as the land welcomes new life once again.  Every evening from April 9th, Ella McSweeney, Áine Lawlor, and celebrity guest presenters, Deirdre O’Kane, Alison Spittle, Sean O’Brien and Lee Chin descended on the O’Sullivan family’s dairy farm, amidst the chaos of spring calving and milking.  In unique and beautifully filmed footage, Big Week on the Farm looked at the secret lives of farm animals, peering inside the world of the misunderstood crow and witnessing one of the cleverest of the species; followed the life of the calf from birth to separation from the mother and saw what happens when a roosters coop is invaded by a potential competitor.  Featured in this years’ series for the first time was a look into the secret life of the Vet as he attempted to deliver a calf by Caesarian section.  Also featured were live broadcasts from ten different farms across the country; an attempt to break more Guinness World Records, while celebrity guests aimed to beat actor, musician and comedian Pat Shortt’s current hand milking record in ‘Pull the Udder One’ after his huge success in the milking challenge last year.  From calving, to lambing and laying, Big Week on the Farm provides the nation with real-time access to the incredible lives of Ireland’s farm animals and farmers. Watch the drama unfold now on RTÉ Player.