Series Overview
The Summer Show, now in its second series, presents the best of everything from the summer in Ireland. Derek Mooney and Nuala Carey will explore the hidden history, fantastic food, native nature and luscious locations on our doorstep.
Over the course of the four-part series, Derek and Nuala will travel the length and breadth of the country highlighting the best of the summer activities. They will be presenting packages from the Galway races, Oileán Chléire (Cape Clear), Kilkenny castle and the beautiful Botanic gardens in Dublin.
Items across the series include Derek exploring the many uses of lavender on Cape Clear and the work behind some of Irelands best loved and Oscar nominated animated features while Nuala will examine the layered history of Lady’s Day at the races and she also tries her hand at the art of campanology (bell ringing) from the team in St Canice’s cathedral, Kilkenny.
Each week the programme challenges a team of household name chefs (Paul Flynn, Catherine Fulvio, Kevin Dundon and Nico Reynolds) to forage for their supper in our ‘farm to fork’ challenge. They’ll not only have to cook their ingredients but learn a little about how they got into their kitchen in the first place.
Wildlife photographer Theo Jebb returns with more intrepid adventures involving the wild nature in the Irish landscape. A famous face takes a nostalgic journey back to the holiday spot of their youth and more household names take on the task of presenting their own 360 walk in scenic locales across the country.
All in all, over the course of the four-part series, The Summer Show has something for everyone and promises to firmly put the best of summers in Ireland on the map.
EPISODE BREAKDOWN.
Episode 1 – 30 July Sunday 6:30pm RTÉ One
Derek Mooney and Nuala Carey are in the bustling Galway city in time for the annual Galway race festival. Racing dates all the way back to 1869 and Derek goes behind the scenes at the famous racecourse and sees the meticulous attention to detail that goes into preparing the track for the week-long event. Despite all the money, time and resources spent in preparation, at the end of the day, it’s still down to one man and a hazel stick to decide the going.
Sticking with the horseracing theme, Nuala delves into the long-standing history behind Ladies Day and attends the Curragh race meeting as it’s the first lady’s day event of the season where she attempts to pick a winner of her own.
Chef Paul Flynn is in the dramatic surroundings of the Burren in County Clare to try his hand at becoming a goat farmer for the day. He meets Siobhán Ni Ghairbhith, a former teacher, who is the driving force behind St Tola’s Goat Cheese Farm. Paul is challenged with herding and milking the goats before attempting the strange task of giving the goats a pedicure. In the cheese house, Paul gets a hands-on experience with the cheese-making process before whipping up a delicious goat’s cheese inspired dish for his new friends on the farm
In our regular nostalgic holiday lookback, former jockey Nina Carberry re-visits Kinvara, Co Clare. Freedom is Nina Carberry’s biggest memory from her long-ago childhood holidays. She says: “Every summer, my family and I, we’d head to Kinvara in North Clare, all the way from County Meath, a long trip, with no motorways.” Nina makes the journey back to her childhood holiday destination, Kinvara, the gateway to the Burren. As she drives past open fields, stone walls and countless sheep grazing, she has a flashback to sitting in the back of the car as a child with her brothers, counting the stone walls to pass the time as the miles rolled by on the big drive to their summer holidays – “the more walls we’d see the closer we were getting to Kinvara”.
Theo Jebb’s first assignment is to capture drone footage of the basking sharks breeding behaviors and get in the water with some sharks. Theo enlists the help and expertise of Professor Simon Berrow IWDG and a team of students from GMIT. It is astonishing how much we still don’t know about this shark but Simon has come closer than anyone in the world to getting a peek into these secretive creatures. But at the end of the day, will Theo be basking in glory?
The Summer show Sundays 6:30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
