RTÉ schedule stuffed with Christmas cheer

RTE CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE:A LIVE Christmas cook-along, 13 new entertainment shows and a documentary about Stephen Gately are among the highlights of RTÉ Television's Christmas schedule announced yesterday.

The schedule is top heavy with comedy acts, with two shows from Pat Shortt. Mattie, about a country detective, will be broadcast on Christmas night and he is also starring in the drama Inside the Crystal Ball.

Tommy Tiernan, who got into trouble this year for making anti-Semitic remarks in jest at the Electric Picnic, will host an hour-long comedy talk show filmed in front of a live audience in Galway along with his friend and best man at his wedding, Hector Ó hEochagáin.

Comedy acts PJ Gallagher, Maeve Higgins and Podge Rodge will be appearing on RTÉ Two’s schedule on St Stephen’s Day, while on December 23rd, Richard Corrigan will host a live cook-along from Farmleigh House.

The movie highlights of the holiday season is likely to be the television premiere of Oncewhich won an Oscar for Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

They will also feature in a filmed concert under their stage name The Swell Season.

The feature film on RTÉ One on Christmas night will be the fashion parody The Devil Wears Prada.

Other films scheduled for the Christmas period including Brokeback Mountain and Irish-American gangster film The Departed.

On New Year's Eve, Marty Whelan and Kathryn Thomas are joined by Sharon Corr, Jon Kenny, Daniel O'Donnell, Clelia Murphy and Henry Shefflin as they try their luck for their chosen charities in Celebrity Winning Streak.

Later that night the All Ireland Talent Showwill ring in the New Year and the new decade live on RTÉ One.

The end of the decade will be marked by the Quiz of the Noughties presented by RTÉ 2FM's Will Leahy while Marty Whelan will look back on a rollercoaster economic decade in Things that Went Boom in the Bust.

Among the documentaries that will be screened over the Christmas period will be Stephen Gately: A Picture of You; Band of Brothers – Scéal na Mulkerrinsabout the brothers who won the 2009 All-Ireland Talent Show while John Huston: An American in Galwayis another documentary with a west-of-Ireland theme.

There will also be nine sporting documentaries broadcast over the Christmas including ones featuring Kilkenny’s four-in-a-row All-Ireland hurling championships, a backstage look at Croke Park on the day of the All-Ireland football final, a documentary about the legendary horse-racing trainer Vincent O’Brien and Olive Loughnane’s World Championship success in Walk, Don’t Run.