TV Highlights: Sandi Toksvig Explores Ireland's Literary Heritage

By the Editorial Team · Thursday, September 3, 2026

Sandi Toksvig explores Ireland’s rich literary legacy in a new documentary airing tonight on More4, visiting key locations linked to renowned authors like Marian Keyes and W.B. Yeats. The program highlights how Ireland’s small size belies its outsized influence on literature, offering viewers insight into the cultural forces behind its celebrated writers.

Sandi Toksvig embarks on a cultural exploration of Ireland’s literary heritage in a new documentary airing tonight on More4 at 9 p.m. The program, titled *Sandi’s Ireland: A Literary Journey*, sees Toksvig visiting Dublin and the Irish countryside to examine how the small nation has produced a disproportionate number of influential writers. Beginning in the capital with author Marian Keyes, the journey also retraces the landscapes that inspired poet William Butler Yeats.

In television drama, the second series of *The Gentlemen* continues to air, following up on the 2019 gangster film directed by Guy Ritchie. The television spin-off, praised for recapturing the director’s earlier style and energy, focuses on Theo James's character Eddie, an aristocrat who unexpectedly inherits a family estate and a clandestine cannabis operation. The new series finds Eddie firmly established in the illicit business, aided by his partnership with crime boss Susie Glass, played by Kaya Scodelario. The season opener features a high-stakes attempt to secure a peerage by taking the cash-strapped Lord Hawthorne, portrayed by Hugh Bonneville, on a hunting trip. However, the narrative quickly expands to show that Eddie’s ambitions draw the attention of the Mafia as his operations extend into Italy, reinforcing the theme that there are always larger forces at play in the criminal underworld.

On the radio front, a day of special programming on BBC Radio 4 marks the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry in Britain and the opening of a sold-out exhibition at the British Museum next week. The coverage begins with the *Today* program broadcasting live from the museum at 6 a.m. and includes a series of thematic features throughout the day. Notable segments consist of a debate titled *What Did the Normans Ever Do For Us?* at 9 a.m., a drama set during the tapestry’s creation in Canterbury called *Edith Swan-Neck and the Bayeux Tapestry* at 2:15 p.m., and a special edition of the history podcast *You’re Dead to Me* at 4 p.m. The day’s programming concludes with *The Power of the Bayeux Tapestry* at 4:30 p.m., wherein political journalist George Walker examines the artifact’s role as a historical propaganda tool.

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