The Best TV Shows on RTÉ One

Every RTÉ One Show Ranked From Best To Worst

RTÉ One’s extensive portfolio includes more than 20 shows, spanning the years from 1956 to 2024. For top-tier entertainment, RTÉ One delivered Eurovision Song Contest and The Late Late Show in 1956 and 1962. Discover the best of RTÉ One with our list of over 20 series, meticulously updated for September 2025.

  • Hands
    Hands (1978)9.0

    A unique, multi-award winning series of thirty-seven documentries on Irish crafts capturing the final years of traditional rural and urban life in Ireland during the seventies and eighties.

  • Killinaskully
    Killinaskully (2003)8.5

    details the bizarre goings-on in a fictitious Irish village called Killinaskully located in the hills of Ireland

  • Obituary
    Obituary (2023)7.8

    When Elvira’s editor informs her that she will be paid per article, she begins murdering people to avoid going broke. Her plans are shaken when she falls for the crime reporter.

  • The Fall
    The Fall (2013)7.7

    When the Police Service of Northern Ireland are unable to close a case after 28 days, Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson of the Metropolitan Police Service is called in to review the case. Under her new leadership, the local detectives must track down and stop a serial killer who is terrorising the city of Belfast.

  • Kin
    Kin (2021)7.6

    The lives of a Dublin family embroiled in a gangland war and the consequences of their choices.

  • The Gone
    The Gone (2023)7.6

    It follows Theo Richter, an Irish detective who teams with Kiwi cop Diana Huia to find a young Irish couple vanish from an infamous rural North Island New Zealand town. Amidst the search and a race against time, the pair have to contend with a community’s growing disquiet that the disappearances may be linked to a series of historical murders.

  • Love/Hate
    Love/Hate (2010)7.5

    Modern-day underworld characters Nidge and John Boy wrestle for control of Dublin's illicit drug trade in this forceful crime drama.

  • Mrs Brown's Boys
    Mrs Brown's Boys (2011)7.5

    Mrs. Brown's Boys is a British-Irish award winning sitcom created by and starring writer and performer Brendan O'Carroll. The show is based on O'Carroll's stage plays about the character Agnes Browne, which were developed from books and straight-to-DVD films. The sitcom continues the stories of Agnes, now with the shortened surname "Brown", and her family who are played by real life close friends and family of O'Carroll's. After being slated by critics, the show has become a ratings success in both Ireland, where it is set, and the United Kingdom, where it is recorded. On 29 December 2012 the show began its third series. Mrs Brown's Boys is a co-production among BBC Scotland, BocPix and RTÉ.

  • Eurovision Song Contest
    Eurovision Song Contest (1956)7.2

    The Eurovision Song Contest is an international song competition, organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and featuring participants representing primarily European countries. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio, transmitted to national broadcasters via the EBU's Eurovision and Euroradio networks, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries' songs to determine the winner.

  • Rebellion
    Rebellion (2016)7.0

    A group of young men and women in Dublin in 1916 are embroiled in a fight for independence during the Easter Rising. The story begins with the outbreak of World War I. As expectations of a short and glorious campaign are dashed, social stability is eroded and Irish nationalism comes to the fore. The tumultuous events that follow are seen through the eyes of a group of friends from Dublin, Belfast and London as they play vital and conflicting roles in the narrative of Ireland's independence.

  • Blackshore
    Blackshore (2024)6.7

    A police detective returns to her hometown and becomes involved in a missing person case, which is linked to her traumatic past and the town's dark history.

  • Smother
    Smother (2021)6.6

    On the rugged coast of County Clare, Val Ahern's husband is found dead at the foot of a cliff the morning after a family party. The matriarch starts to dig into the family's secrets to find out who might be responsible.

  • Hidden Assets
    Hidden Assets (2021)6.6

    A routine raid led by Emer Berry, a detective in the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau, reveals that a small-time drug dealer has been receiving substantial funding from a seemingly untraceable source – not in cash, but in rough diamonds. When these diamonds are linked to a series of bombings in Belgium, Emer is forced to work with Police Commissioner Christian De Jong.

  • SisterS
    SisterS (2023)6.5

    Two women, one born in Canada and the other in Ireland, discover they are half-sisters and embark on a road trip to find their alcoholic father.

  • Proof
    Proof (2004)6.0

    The discovery of a connection between a small-time thief's murder and the death of a crooked accountant, peeks the interest of investigative reporter Terry Corcoran. Further digging leads him into a sordid scandal involving human trafficking, high finance and high stakes politics in this explosive Irish television series.

  • Quirke
    Quirke (2014)5.9

    Quirke is the chief pathologist in the Dublin city morgue – a charismatic loner whose job takes him into fascinating places as he investigates sudden deaths in 1950s Dublin. His pleasures in life are raw and deep, a drink, a smoke, good food, a woman: With one woman in particular – his adoptive brother's wife Sarah and the forbidden love that has shaped and dominated Quirke's life.

  • The Clinic
    The Clinic (2003)5.3

    The Clinic is a multi award-winning Irish primetime television medical drama series produced by Parallel Film Productions for RTÉ. It debuted on RTÉ One in 2003 to positive reviews and proved to be one of the network's most popular shows. The drama ran for seven seasons between September 2003 to November 2007. The last ever episode aired on RTÉ One on Sunday 15 November 2009 and on YLE1 in Finland on Wednesday 25 November 2009. The complete series of The Clinic was released on DVD in November 2010 by RTÉ.

  • The Late Late Show
    The Late Late Show (1962)5.2

    Chat show that looks at current affairs in Ireland.

  • Fair City
    Fair City (1989)4.1

    The day-to-day dramas of the community who live and work in the fictional north Dublin suburb of Carrigstown.

  • Room to Improve
    Room to Improve (2007)2.0

    Irish architectural renovation TV series in which architect Dermot Bannon helps clients renovating their homes.