Virgin Media One will air a number of specially commissioned programmes throughout the day on Thursday, September 20th in a look back over the 20 year history of the Irish television broadcaster.
The first commercial television broadcaster in Ireland was launched on September 20th, 1998 by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Launched as TV3 in ’98, the TV3 group rebranded as Virgin Media Television in August 2018, with the three free-to-air channels TV3, 3e and be3 rebranding as Virgin Media One, Two and Three.
There will be surprise guest appearances on some of the stations’ longest running studio shows such as ‘Ireland AM’, ‘Elaine’ and ‘The Six O’ Clock Show’, to catch up and reminisce over the past 20 years of television. Additionally, a brand new 20 part series ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ makes its debut at 7:30pm. This major news archive series will chronicle the news and highlights of the last 20 years, a tumultuous period in recent history. Each episode looks back at major historical events, from the Northern Ireland peace process to 9/11.
At 9pm, our favourite households give their views on TV3 programming down through the years in a Gogglebox special, ‘Gogglebox does TV3’. The current cast of the hit series will review memorable TV3 moments from the past 20 years such as the first ever news broadcast, reality series ‘Tallafornia’, hit talk show ‘Ricki Lake’ and the broadcast of ‘Vincent Browne live from The George’ during the historic same-sex marriage referendum.
‘Channel Hop: The Story of TV3’ airs at 10pm and takes a look back at the history of TV3 over the last two decades, including interviews with many well-known television personalities including Alan Cantwell, Grainne Seoige, Pat Kenny and Eamon Dunphy.